Recently I went into a Leica store in Beijing. Sure, the brand has revived. But it looks like it is more about special editions than about special cameras. I am waiting for the Hello Kitty Leica. Please don't ask for it! They will make one! Don't get me wrong: the M9 is a wonderful camera. So are others. But first of all, I don't think many professional photographers can afford them. And secondly there are quite a few compacts in the range which are surprisingly close to some Panasonic models. The staff in the shop was by the way incompetent and unfriendly. But this might not be Leica. It's China.

Now I just discovered that Hasselblad seems under the same urge of entering the "mass market" of the new rich. The Hasselblad Stellar is nothing but an overpriced Sony RX 100 , both with the same Zeiss lens. No difference except three times the price and a bit of design makeover. The Hasselblad Lunar is the excellent Sony NEX-7 (have one) with a nicer design and a leather case making it five times the price. If I would be a Private Equity company, I would probably do the same thing. As a professional manager also. Shareholder value, I know. But as I always looked up to the great cameras of Leica and Hasselblad for their technical abilities, I feel I will rather stay with my Fuji X-100 and Sony NEX-7 and read the specs more carefully before being impressed by legends.