Sucker

I'm an absolute sucker for this kind of thing. In the digital era, the Leica name no longer has the cache it once had. Whereas their ability to grind good lenses used to set them apart, modern production techniques mean that factories in the far east are churning out stunning optics for much lower prices.

A digital Leica, on the other hand, still has that little red dot logo, and probably costs about the same as the equivalent from Nikon or Olympus. I think it would give you pleasure every time you took it out of the bag, if you like that kind of thing.

The fundamental problem for companies like Leica in the digital age is that there's no percentage in developing your own digital sensor technology (whether CCD or CMOS), as Sigma have done. Once Sony or Canon have cracked it, that's all you need to know. It's much like Kodak and Fuji cornering the colour film market, and all the manufacturers making cameras that use 35 mm film.

Unfortunately, though, the choice of a digital camera doesn't come down to the quality of the optics, though of course it helps. I'd always recommend looking at who makes the lens as a primary factor. But the real trickery with digital cameras comes down to the handling of the raw image file created by the capturing sensor.

Those manufacturers who offer a RAW format have an advantage here.

But the real issue involves usability, which you can only get a hold of once you've experienced your first digital camera. How long does it take to start up, which is to say, between switching on and being ready for the first photo? And how long between pictures? How many can you shoot in a row before it has to move them from the buffer into permanent memory? How quickly, and how well, does it focus on the subject?

I've been recommending Minolta cameras for a long time, just because Minolta seem to pay more attention to these usability issues. They currently offer one of the fastest start-ups on one model, the fastest autofocus, and the best use of burst modes.

I'd like to see Leica come along with a camera with such stunning optics, and top-line usability, just to make people pay attention. This new model, for example, has an aperture ring adjustment, as on a traditional camera. For anyone who has faced the frustration of bleeping through menus and scrolling through options in order to gain manual control of a digital camera, this is a big selling point.

Let's wait to see some sample photos though.