Leica Launch M10 Down-Under
Camera giants Leica teamed up with their local distribution partners DigiDirect this week, with launch events for the new Leica M10 taking place in both Sydney and Brisbane.
During the Sydney event, Managing Director for Leica Australia Ryan Williams gave a detailed demonstration of the new luxury-grade camera.
He says a new M-model camera comes out every four year and the company have a lot of pride in the range.
“It’s like our Olympics,” he says, before calling the new M10 “a sexy camera.”
Ryan says that Leica took a lot of feedback from its customers into consideration when it came to the M10.
“If you don’t buy our products, we don’t exist,” he said.
The M10 is promising to deliver impressive dynamic range, excellent contrast rendition, exceptional sharpness and packs a new sensor capable of ISO ranges between 100 and 50,000.
Ryan says the company considered dropped the numbering from the M-series on advice from a majority shareholder of the company but ultimately went “back to calling it an M10, because it is.”
He jokingly added that he’s already seen “leaks” online about an M11 camera, indicated that such rumors had little basis in reality. From the sounds of it, naming of the next M-series camera hasn’t even been discussed yet.
When it comes to the M10’s design, Ryan says “we’d like to get back to the old days.”
He highlights the simplification that Leica have made to the camera’s menu system. It’s now only got three buttons, with additional features able to be accesed through a favorites menu.
Likewise, ISO can be easily configured by a dial on the top of the camera.
“You’ve got a bigger field of view, you’ve got bigger magnification and you’ve got better eye-relief,” Ryan says.
Leica also brought out the M10’s brand ambassador Ben King, to talk about his experience using the camera as a professional film set photographer.
According to King, “The only thing that’s really standing in the way of me using this camera full time is the very slight sound it make s- which I’m sure I’ll be able to conquer soon enough.”
“I feel like I could virtually disregard my current DSLR setup ion favor of this camera,” he said.
King went on to show off some of the professional quality work he’s produced using the camera, some of which had been shot earlier that day.
The Leica M10 is in Australia now through DigiDirect for an RRP of $9700.
Digidirect advised ChannelNews that the camera is in very short supply so those interested should act fast.