Leica M9 First Look

Leica M9 Celebrates Its Birth
Leica M9 with 50mm Noctilux f/1.0 1/2000 sec ISO 160

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Introduction
In mid-August, 2009, I was invited to join a small group of journalist on a visit with Leica at their headquarters in Solms, Germany. The purpose was to preview three new cameras, the M9, S2 and X1. We were able to spend time shooting with the S2 and M9 and also had unprecedented access to Leica's executives, product development team, and engineers over a three day period.
We were each given an M9 and a selection of just-about any lens we wished for the duration of our visit. There were no restrictions on what we could shoot, later show, or report on with regard to the M9.
Over the three days Leica was extremely forthcoming about all of their new products. We met with a wide range of executives, including the CEO, department heads, product managers, design engineers, and project leaders.
One of the other p...