My friend Peter from LeicaRumors published this very interesting blog. Before jumping to conclusions, there’s a couple of things that can be read in this statement:

  1. Apparently, Leica has either run out of original M9 CCD sensors, or they no longer want to replace the broken sensors with other -possibly- faulty sensors.
  2. Leica is working on a ‘new generation sensor’ for the M9, which must be a CCD. I can’t imagine they’d be able to squeeze a CMOS in an M9 body. If this is true, there may yet be another M with a CCD sensor to come.

So whatever Leica does, this is good news for M9, M9-P, M-E and Monochrom owners. They’ll be able to use their camera for a long time and, if they decide to sell the camera, they’ll get some good money for it. If Leica is indeed working on a new CCD sensor, they might come up with a new CCD M body and that is great news for the people that don’t like the CMOS rendering of the M240. On the other hand, Leica has already shown that a CMOS can produce M9 like results with the brand new Leica Q. Man, theses are exciting times!