Luminous Landscape News Feed- 14 September, 2009 - A Video Tour of Leica M9 Assembly

[News Feeds]

14 September, 2009 - A Video Tour of Leica M9 Assembly and Testing

In mid-August, 2009, together with a small group of web journalists, I visited Leica's Solms, Germany headquarters for a preview of the new Leica S2 and M9.

We were given unprecedented access to shoot stills and video in Leica's manufacturing and testing facility, and during our three days there I produced three videos – including interviews with Leica's M9 Product Manager Stephan Daniel and Peter Karbe, the company's head of lens design.

Today's video, running 18 minutes in length, is a tour of the M9's final assembly and testing clean room – astonishing for the amount of manual work involved.

The two interviews will appear here over the next couple of days.

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Over this past weekend there have been rumours circulating on various web forums that the first shipment of Leica M9s have been recalled.

I spoke with a senior Leica executive in the U.S. on Sunday morning and he subsequently spoke with representatives of the company in Germany. I have been told that these recall reports are completely false and groundless.

The facts are that the first M9s have been on sale in Europe since the middle of last week, and U.S. and Canadian dealers will start to receive initial shipments toward the end of this week.

It's also clear that demand for the M9 is turning out to be very high, and so it may be some time until the initial feeding frenzy can be satisfied. When you've watched my video of what's involved in final assembly and testing you'll understand why. No robots, no mass production – just careful and therefore slow hand work and meticulous testing. No wonder Leicas cost what they do.

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