The Wall Street Journal (via Engadget) reports: “Myoung Sup Han, Senior Vice President and Head of the Digital Imaging Business at Samsung Electronics, and uncovered an interesting fact: the company is in the process of converting production lines at its main camera plant in China. Lines that once produced fixed-lens cameras will instead turn out compact system cameras, as the company aims to expand its presence in the more profitable mirrorless market.“

I guess this is a good move from Samsung because the smartphone market is eating up the compact camera sales. I hope Samsung can release some great stuff at Photokina. Unlike Canon/Sony/Nikon they have nothing to loose by releasing super featured cameras for a decent price!

Preorders
Leica M Monochrome is available for preorder at Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
Leica X2 and accessories are available for preorder at Adorama (Click here) and listed at BHphoto (Click here).
Leica 50mm Summicron is available for preorder at Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).

Previews
M monochrome at Dpreview
X2 at Dpreview
Image samples of the Monochrome on Leicas website.

Interesting notes
Dpreview writes: “There are drawbacks, of course – the ‘headroom’ found in Raw files comes mainly from the fact that bright regions have usually only over-exposed one of the three color channels, with usable data still available for the other two channels. With a true mono sensor, any overexposure is absolute – once the channel has clipped to white, there’s no chance of recovery.“

Press releases
Leica M Monochrome at Dpreview, Photoscala (german), Focus Numerique (french).
Leica X2 at Dpreview, Photoscala (german), Focus Numerique (french).

The Leica event in Berlin just started (now at 18:45 Berlin time). L-camera-forum.com (Click here) has a nice list of tweets to follow live the product announcement. The presentation will be very long (almost two hours) and you will have to wait a bit to see the new B&W camera :)
Here are my live updates with the most recent news on top:

UPDATE_29: Leica is finally introducing the new cameras. And the new sis now officially spreaidng over the web. I am no ending my live updates and going to eat mei Weisswurst :)
UPDATE_28: A new pic of the camera by Photoscala.
UPDATE_27: The Leica forum Tweets keeps you updated about the M Monochrome presentation.
UPDATE_26: Finally they announce the M Monochrome Leica! We alreayd know the price and specs because fo the Rangefinderforum leak :)
UPDATE_25: It’s 20:48 Belrin time and the event restarted!
UPDATE_24: Now the dinner is ongoing since almost an hour!!!
UPDATE_23: 10 minutes after my last update…still no news. The dinner time is so damn long!
UPDATE_22: The guys in Berlin are still at DInner. Eating Wurst and drinking Weizen I guess. All that in the middle of the Leica event. Germans really can’t make an event without a break for a beer :)
UPDATE_21: It’s not me being slow with updates…there is a dinner break at the event in Berlin!!! At least we already got the specs and image of the camera via leak :)
UPDATE_20: New M camera has been Leaked !!!! Here it is at Rangefinderforum!
UPDATE_19: What? There is a break for some food :(
UPDATE_18: Picture of the people inside the hall.
UPDATE_17: 17 updates here and still no real camera news. Leica is doing all soooo slow and all sooo Black and White :)
UPDATE_16: Famous photographer Barbara Klemm is on stage.
UPDATE_15: Meantime the biggest Leica Forum website crashed. Shows a blank page only. A sign that there are many guys interested to see the new M mount camera :)
UPDATE_14: Again lot of general talk from the Leica bosses. It will take some time until they unveil the new stuff!
UPDATE_13: And here is the pic of the big bosses: Photo by Photoscala
UPDATE_12: Now the big bosses from Leica are on stage (Kaufmann, Schopf and Erfurt)
UPDATE_11: That’s going to be long. Also Mr. Liefers (one stage) talks about the B&W philosophy…boring :)
UPDATE_10: Rich Sultans from Asia is also at the event…. Look at the Photo at Photoscala :)
UPDATE_9: There is a lot of general talk about B&W photography. Still no news about the new camera…
UPDATE_8: Music is gone. Presentation starts!
UPDATE_7: In case you don’t know who Till is look here: http://ow.ly/i/CmQH
UPDATE_6: Still no talk, there is music over music (now Till Brönner)
UPDATE_5: Music of Morricone and on backgound Black and White images :)
UPDATE_4: Photoscala is also tweeting live with pictures.
UPDATE_3: More pics here: Leicaforum
UPDATE_2: You can see some pics from the event here: Skydrive
UPDATE_1: All the big ones are present (like Steve Huff and so on). You can see pics here: Lforum.