Today's column is a news compilation: Leica's Digital M plans, the arrival of the Canon 5D, new cameras from Olympus and Sony.

First, Leica. I've written that the Leica DMR back is providing the big players, Nikon and Canon, with a much needed kick in the rear end.

It delivers excellent image quality; so much so that some pros are forsaking Canon to move to Leica.

The fact is that the camera offers better dynamic range and doesn't sport an anti-alias filter allows the Imacon-designed DMR to produce better quality in spite of fewer pixels, thereby breaking the "more pixels is better" marketing mantra.

But wait, there's more! Now that the DMR is finalized, debugged and in full production, Leica is free to concentrate its development focus entirely on its second big project, the Digital M camera.

This is expected to be a handy, compact and robust rangefinder model, and it will be compatible with M series lenses.

In the meantime, the German camera pioneer appears to have been put back on a firm financial footing.

As a result, my sources tell me, production on the scarce Digital Module R back for Leica SLR cameras is now speeding up.

Outstanding orders will be fulfilled more quickly.

The Digital M should be a crop-factor camera, like the DMR.

However, the user will have access to the sharp and luminous Leitz M non-retrofocus wide-angles, as there is no mirror to get in the way of moving the rear element close to the sensor plane.

It would seem that the Digital M will be a one piece design—not an add-on back—and the electronics design is from an unnamed source which is similar in experience, but not identical, to Imacon.

I hope for image quality equivalent to that from the DMR.

I have been told the Digital M will be shown in prototype form at the Orlando PMA in February, and finalized in time for Photokina in the fall of next year.

That timetable is amazingly short. I just hope it's realistic; my source says that Leica learned a lesson after its failure to quickly release a digital camera nearly bankrupted the firm.

It would seem that Leica has learnt the dangers of tardiness and is now bent on speeding up the development and supply cycle.

Leica fans might get on the waiting list for this camera now.

Oh, and by the way, the price indications I've been given are fairly reasonable too, around $5000. Yes, that's reasonable—for a Leica.

Columnist Edmund Ronald writes that Tokyo and New York have wonderful camera and electronics shops. Click here to read more.

I really like this news, because the rangefinder Leica was the camera I used in my younger years, when I still bulk-loaded my own film and developed it myself.

Whereas all SLRs are a bit cumbersome, and noisy due to the mirror slap, the rangefinder is compact and silent.

Street photographers and photojournalists, as well as social photographers love it—a Leica is still the best design for shooting when you're in the middle of it.

And, frankly, I'm getting too old to lug the huge and heavy Canon 1DsII around town.

A Leica is the best camera to fit in a man's pocket. You've guessed—I'm planning to get one.

Next Page: The Canon 5D ships.