This to me does not really strike me as some Mr. Ives would have had a large amount of time in, and quite frankly am shocked that he put his name on this. The

This to me does not really strike me as some Mr. Ives would have had a large amount of time in, and quite frankly am shocked that he put his name on this. The Leica M has had pretty much the same dimensions and design for since the 50s (save to major departures the Leica CL and the Leica M5). Note that I am referring to the analog film version and not the modern digital M8 and later incarnations design, along with the Fender Stratocaster are the closest thing to perfection anyone has come up with. The Stratocaster is a discussion for another time. In the case of the Leica, it is the best design because it distills the essence of the photographic expression and builds the product around that. The controls are simple. You have a shutter speed dial, a film crank, a shots taken indicator. Aperture control is on the lens barrel. Any photographer can pick up a Leica M and know how it works intuitively. The controls fall right where they should. Its been 50 years, and no one really has come up with a better interface to take a picture. This design throughs all of that out the window. From the looks of the picture, it doesn't look very comfortable to hold. It seems to rounded, and the "cheese greater" design is just asking for dust/environmental problems. A well used Leica looks even more desirable with age, this would just look hideous. This design just lost all of the elegance that 50 years of incremental design bestowed on the Leica M and turned it into something that looks like a Braun product. Then lets move to the usability -- whats with the recessed dials??? the whole point of the dial placement ABOVE the top plate is so that the photographer can operate all the controls via his thumb without taking his mind away from the act of taking a picture. This completely violates that principle. Not to mention all the ergonomic evolution the engineers at Leica spent so much time agonizing over. Don't get me wrong, yes I do love the Leica M. I am not a zealot by any chance. I don't claim they do everything but what they do -- they have perfected the design. And here they just through all of that out the window. If the goal was to make an advancement on the design, I would say take a close look at the Fuji X100s. It has taken the Leica ethic and bridged it beautifully with the modern digital age. In fact I will say the Fuji X100s is the first classic of the digital age.