Sort of.
Two individuals have alerted me (thanks Dave and Aaron) to the fact that the Leica Rumors website is reporting a refresh of the Leica M-E may be coming which involves taking the current M240 body and wrapping it around the KAF-18500 18 MP CCD Sensor many of us know and love.
It’s not quite what I requested in my Open Letter to Leica (it’s not an updated CCD sensor), but I would be very pleased if this were true.
In the meantime, if you haven’t already done so, please consider signing my Open Letter to Leica.
(over 240 signatures so far… )
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Prosophos 
I find this an interesting development. Apparently, if true, Leica has recognized and continuing interest in the CCD M9. Seems it pretty easy to find the new M most everywhere. Maybe sales have slowed and they’re looking at ensuring a steady profit stream. Or they’re CCD and new LCD sources are sufficient to ensure less expensive costs in continuing the M9 line meaning more profit.
Also happy owners.
The CCD sensor from the M9 is legendary. If Leica manage to improve low iso this is going to be a killer camera.
i was really positively surprised when i read the news. this is really cool, specially because i will be in the market for a backup body.
i just had a discussion two days ago involving jono slack and kristian dowling trying to convince me that it is just a matter of lightroom post processing of making an m240 picture look like a ccd (m9) image.
i refused to agree and the thread got deleted by kristian a bit later. i wonder what it is that makes people believe that they can just tweak
a few lightroom sliders and make it look like an m9 image. i could not do it. no matter how much i tried.
That’s because it can’t be done. I’ve repeatedly documented my attempts here to prove it, and took a financial hit (twice) in order to own an M240 (twice).
And yes, re: the “new” M-E, it is great news — if true.
I agree…..I’ve never seen it done well if it can be done. I noticed on FB the other day Ashwin who’s recently purchased the M how he’s learning to work with those files. One of the comments I noticed is that he had do some adjustment on the orange channel specifically!! This doesn’t surprise me….
Orange, red, magenta, blue, yellow needed adjustments… and even after all of the adjusting, the overall colour would still be… wrong.
Maybe they’ll improve the ISO like they did with the Leica S. Personally, that is probably my main problem against the M9.
gage
If they could also improve iso performance by about a stop over the current M9, I would sell my M240 for one. At the moment high iso performance is the thing I trade base iso performance for. Worse base iso for much better high iso is the trade off between the M240 and the M9, for me.
An CCD sensor rangefinder with let’s say ok performance at 2500 iso would sway me back to CCD. Meanwhile I get my CCD fix with the Monochrom
Well Peter looks like Leica might becoming comfortable with Truesense! One of the reasons for this is cost reduction obviously and it may NOT mean the ongoing commitment to CCD for the M9. Using the M240 body will mean Leica need to just use one machining tool. However it could be they are committed to it…….I’ve always said no to an M9 as I wasn’t convinced Leica will really support it moving forward. This might change things!
Better iso performance would be wasted on me..I only shoot in beautiful light with the 50 Lux wide open and rarely need more than 400 iso.
i don’t mind the iso either. i hardly shoot over 800. i think Leica could really differentiate themselves from the competition if they would continue going the CCD route. they would be more or less the only company using this technology. everyone and their mother is using CMOS nowadays. i would embrace it if they do, but who knows
This same point is emphasized in my Open Letter to Leica ( http://photographsbypeter.com/2013/11/16/an-open-letter-to-leica/ ).
Although I agree high ISO is not always needed especially with a Lux, it does add an extra dimention to low light shooting and opens the door for less fast glass. I saw a couple of folks at Leica rumor asking for a developed CCD sensor with more pixels, I’m wondering if less is not the way to go. Fewer pixels over the same area would be larger and capture more light. Sony’s new low light machine A7s only has 12M the Nikon DF16. Interested in the thoughts of others 24M gives tighter grain and finer detail, 18M is where we are, 16M (or less) would enable more light and a better ISO.
That would be great! Silent shutter + faster processor + best ergonomics — all achievable things.
I guess Leica didn’t give up on CCD sensors — the ME still there anyway.
I’ll take one in chrome please Leica