Tomorrow is May 10th and with it Leica are holding a two day “by invitation only” exhibition in Berlin. The great news is that there will be a “whole range of product launches”.

If you follow Leica, you will no doubt be aware of the almost fever pitch like speculation of what they are going to announce. Some of the current favourites are:

• Launch of the new M10 (its is May 10th after all)
• A B&W only M9
• Launch of the X2
• Launch of the new S3
• A bunch of new lenses including an upgraded 50mm Summicron, and a new 35mm Noctilux
• Digibacks for M film cameras
• The resurrection of the R range
• A mirrorless EVF solution

What is known is that there have been no leaks from either Leica or any affiliates (dealers, reps, Magnum etc) at this point. A shroud of secrecy has covered Solms thus far. The above is purely conjecture, with some ideas more credible than others.

Everyone has their wish list, and of course, everyone will be right…tomorrow

What are the facts?

• It is clear that Leica are starting work on a new production facility, but whether that is for increasing current camera and lens capacity or adding new toys to the line up is not know.
• Leica wants to increase their share of the overall market to 1% (currently less than 0.5%). I very much doubt that Leica will get there by selling rangefinders and medium format cameras.
• Leica is production constrained. They can’t make their current line up fast enough.
• The market has moved on. Nikon and Canon have released new flagship models in the past few months.
• The Leica brand is extremely valuable, synonymous with quality and design.

Draw your conclusions from there.

The only certainty is that the community will be happy to see a re-confirmation that Leica continues with the tradition of being the innovation-led company it has always been….

Roll on tomorrow

Robert