I am looking to get this camera as a present for someone but it would have to be before November 10th. Amazon has it up for preorder now but does anyone know when it would ship in US? I saw a few sites mentioning a January 2010 release date in UK, I really hope US can pull through sooner somehow. Thanks.

Panasonicm with the GF1 and Olympusm with the E-P1 have been making use of this new sensor size, yet keeps the same quality of a consumer level dSLR, yet still keeping its ability to swap out for better lenses. Leica decided to go a different route and give the X1 a fixed APS-C lens with a larger sensor, but keeping the same small body of a point and shoot. Is that red dot and $2000 price tag worth the sacrifice of interchangeable lenses?

Anyone curious to know a bit more on this ahead of schedule should check out DPreview's initial take on it. Read it here, and try not to drool: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0909/09090908leicax1....

... It looks like the release for the flash, doesn't it. Why can't people who do pop-up flashes follow Sony's lead with the V1? It is annoying on all the Lumixes I've had, and it is annoying on the D-Lux 4. I'm not sure about this - it seems to improve in one area of the things I find lacking on the DL4 - image quality in varying light conditions, but doesn't address any of the other practical-use complaints I have (no integrated lenscap, stoopid manual pop-up flash,... Read more →