[Silverfrog @ Aug 30th 2007 4:17PM]

Re: Jeff

Nice try. Sure, Leica has quite an assortment of good lenses, but the Leica flagship DSLR (M8) only supports 2 fps, up to 6 shots. Please--this camera would not work well at all for sports/PJ type applications whatsoever. If this is what luxury is, I'll happily avoid "luxury" in favor of the industry leader(s) Canon and Nikon. I want a fast camera that also takes great images, and nothing Leica makes has this.

[Ryan @ Aug 30th 2007 7:53PM]

Yeah agreed. If Leica hopes to fetch their prices they need to step up their efforts. Although historically it will take them a while to change. They cant compete in terms of value. No one will argue against their quality of glass or build. I think they are hoping to tie some of their loyal followers in with these less pricey Panasonic bodies, sacrifice some metal for plastic and not quite the same "elite" target market. It is nice to see Leica glass out there pushing the competition to better themselves.

[William @ Aug 30th 2007 4:40PM]

The M8 is NOT a DSLR. It's rangefinder camera not meant for sports and has all manual controls. Leica's only DSLR is the Digilux 3 which is the sister camera of the Panasonic L1.

[Eugene Chan @ Aug 31st 2007 4:47AM]

As somebody already mentioned, the M8 is an eclectic rangefinder camera designed for the Leica screw-mount lenses. On the other hand, the new Lumix does come with Leica glass to some extent, and it *is* 14mm wide. The flexible LCD + contrast AF + working dust cleaning system should also entice buyers, if the selection nice compact 4/3rds system lenses isn't enough.

While the 4/3rds system is not capable of expanding upward into the 40D and D300's space, cameras like the L-10 and E-510 really aren't meant to compete with those models. What the backers of the 4/3rds system really need to do is displace the Nikon D40[x] as the dominant low-cost SLR. They really need to attack that market, and maybe even create a new class of camera beneath it.

[Silverfrog @ Aug 31st 2007 8:38AM]

Right, thank you for correcting that point. The M8 is not DSLR. I still don't think it's worth $5000 when for $5000 you could have a Canon 1D mark III, which is superior in many ways to this camera.