According to Leica Rumors, there is word of a possible M10-P upgrade programme to be announced in the New Year. Leica could be contemplating an offer to turn your M10 into an M10-P at a cost of €2,000.
If it is to be a true upgrade it will include the newly dampened shutter mechanism, touchscreen, spirit level and — perhaps most important of all — a new dotless top plate with Leia engraving. That’s really what customers want, but it’s likely to be an expensive way to get it.
Leica isn’t new to upgrades like this. Way back in the 1930s you could send in your Model I for the addition of Model II features, including the rangefinder top plate. Paradoxically, some of these upgraded cameras are now worth less than they would have been if left as originals.
If this programme does come to pass, you must bear in mind that currently the M10-P carries a premium of £650 over the standard M10, so you need to deduct that from the upgrade price to reach a level playing field.
What do you think? Would you pay upwards of £2,000 to turn your M10 into an M10? Or would you sell the M10 and buy an M10-P. Or, perhaps, just keep the M10 because it does everything you need it to do.
Read Jonathan Slack’s review of the M10-P
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Oh, but has no one noticed? The real reason for producing new models, upgrades, etc. is to give us another slew of beautiful photos from Jonathan Slack !
If it’s upgraded it will still have a regular M10 serial number … so it’s never gonna be a real M10-P … INNIT
dunk
Good man, Dunk. I cannot see the I Model A v II Model D situation arising 80 or 90 years from now in the context of M10s, though. We won’t be around to debate this and our heirs and successors will have long since sold off our collections.
William
I am with Don, but I will leave out the ‘resounding’ bit. I have quite a large number of vintage Leica cameras with engravings. My favourites are from the 1920s and 1930s with black lacquer and nickel fittings, much nicer than anything produced by Leica today. So, the engraving bit would mean nothing to me. To me, modern Leica digital cameras are but tools, so tarting them up seems pointless. The screw instead of a red dot is a piece of nonsense for the type of people who would put a piece of tape over red dots. I have said before that such people need to see a psychiatrist more than they need a new camera. I think we got around before to discussing removing the 4 rings on my Audi so that a prospective Audi thief would not know it was an Audi. The screw is alright on aesthetic grounds, of course, but any talk about stealth is nonsense.
What is there left? The touch screen would have no interest for me as I know from using smartphones that I am not very good with them. The spirit level might be useful, but I have rarely used it on a camera that has the feature. It takes a couple of seconds to fix horizons in Lightroom. Does the P version have a better buffer? If so that might be useful, but certainly not worth a couple of grand. I am very pleased with my M10 and feel it is the best digital M to date, not least because of its more compact size. It still does not have perfect handling, but it is currently the best way to use M lenses for digital images. Speaking as a collector, I imagine that at some point in the far distant future, if M10s become collectors’ items, Ps might fetch a bit more than ordinary Ms, but not as much as the present price differential. For anyone buying a new M10 now it is nice to have a choice and the technical details are easy enough to follow and the aesthetic differences are clearly visible.
William
The short answer from me at least is a resounding NO.