September 9 Launch for New Leica Cameras: S2 DSLR Finally There?

Leica S2 Digital SLR Camera

Leica is drumming up interest on the unveiling next week of a new generation of Leica cameras. September 9, 2009 is the launch date with a live webcast at 9:00 am (EST) in New York; 2pm London, 3pm Berlin, 5pm Moscow, 9pm Beijing and 10pm in Tokyo.

You have to register to watch the live webcast. Leica promises “ground-breaking new products” during the launch. The company started as Ernst Leitz GmbH in the 1900s Germany and later evolved as Leitz Camera in 1986.

Today, Leica occupies a niche market for high-end, high-priced cameras. Its $5000 M8 rangefinder-style digital camera suffered a “magenta-color offset” issue shortly after launch in September 2006 but was eventually addressed with a firmware fix. The much hyped-about Leica S2 autofocus medium format DSLR, which first appeared as a concept camera at Photokina 2007, is expected to figure prominently in the September 9 launch. The S2 is priced at about $23,000.

[Site: Leica USA]

Published by Chris Malinao

Chris teaches Lightroom as workflow software to photography students at the FPPF, Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation. He also teaches smartphone photography.