Along with Palm and its little Pixi phone, Leica decided that yesterday would be a great day to bury news under the twin stacks of Apple iPod announcements and Beatles releases. Leica in fact announced some of its most significant products for years. First, the M9.
The M9, sequel to the M8, is the company’s first full frame digital rangefinder. The 18 megapixel CCD sensor, developed by Kodak, is the same size as a 35mm frame, which means the M9 can use all of Leica’s M-lenses at their originally intended focal lengths. It also consigns the M8 and it’s crop-sensor lenses to the curiosity shoppe of history.
The body itself has seen a few tweaks in button positions, but the real changes are internal. The Kodak sensor adds new micro-lenses which help corral the light onto the pixels — all sensors have these tiny lenses over the photo-sites, but rangefinders are a special case: the rear of the lens is so close to the sensor that the angle of incidence is particularly sharp. These new micro-lenses bend the light to fit. The glass sensor cover has also been redesigned and now cuts out infrared light. Previously Leica’s workaround was to add a filter.
The shutter, too, is new, and is “microprocessor-controlled”. Leica says that it is “particularly silent”, which, given the legendary whisper-quiet M-series shutters of old, is probably true. It runs up to 1/4000th of a second and offers a maximum flash sync speed of 1/180th/sec. Stick it on your Christmas list now.
And that’s it. What? You want to know the price? $8,000, but Amazon will let you have it for a mere $7,000 when it ships.
Press release [DP Review]
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