Let's play a little mind-game. Let's imagine ourselves as execs in the boardroom of Ricoh in Japan, pondering what to do about the GR. We have had a critically well-regarded success on our hands since 2013. We have a major upgrade coming, which we'll probably announce at Photokina in 2016. That will bring a bigger sensor, weatherproofing, maybe even a viewfinder (a man can dream…). In the meantime we have a whole stillage full of unused bodies, sensors and lenses and sales are dropping off. We've reduced the MRP, but we need to get rid of all those bits that won't fit the new camera and tide ourselves over in revenue terms for another year or so.

Regular reader Treve Kneebone has sent me a picture of his newly acquired Leica X1, the camera I have declared a Leica classic. Not the X2, not the latest X-E version, but the old slowcoach itself, hailing from the early teens. Macfilos seems to be gathering a rare old society of X1 fans, headed by Mister X1 himself, John Shingleton down there in Australia. Treve (he was born in Cornwall and his local first name is pronounced Treeve, not Trev) is the latest to succumb. He found a mint X1 and has set about personalising it.

A keen Chinese Leica photographer, Saigon Matches on Weibo, has had a little accident with his M9. He had it perched on a high balcony in order to get an atmospheric shot with his D-Lux. Instead he got more than he bargained for when a gust of wind sent the Leica plummeting to the ground.