In a previous post I talked about Leica's delay in delivering revised firmware for the M9. Subsequent to that post, there have been some conversations both on the Leica User Forum and off of it. Here's a summary of the new information:

Firstly, a "usually very well informed source" tell me that the reason, or at least a part of the reason, for the delay to the firmware is an entirely unrelated bug in some new functionality. Apparently this bug has been intermittent, and hard to track down, but has now been fixed.

Separately, Daniel Kennedy ("thrice" on the LUF) is quoting Stephan Daniel as giving a delivery date in late march. The post is here.

Finally, I think there's now a growing consensus the the root cause of the red edges is probably the sensor itself, rather than over-correction in the firmware, or lens issues, although it seems clear that lens de-centering makes the red edges worse. My guess, but it is only a guess, is that there is some kind of a problem with the registration between the microlenses, the Bayer array and the photosites themselves - remember that each of those layers is in effect a separate process step.

But whatever the root cause is, just knowing (or assuming) that it is a sensor problem tells us that the problem won't be able to be completely solved in firmware. Some people are probably assuming that because CornerFix can effectively 100% correct the problem (given a good reference image), Leica will also be able to 100% correct the problem in firmware. Not the case, unfortunately. CornerFix solves the problem for the combination of a specific lens and camera, while Leica's firmware will have to solve the problem for any combination of lens and camera. Realistically, if this is a sensor issue, Leica is going to be able to improve situation, but not solve it entirely.  So probably for a lot of users, hopefully the majority, the new firmware will reduce the problem to the point that it effectively is solved. But probably there will still be some users that have to resort the CornerFix.

Two questions come up. The first is whether Leica will replace the sensors in the cameras that are particularly badly affected. Predicting the future is a notoriously chancy business, but my guess is that they will try to avoid sensor replacements at all costs - "recalling" even a small number of M9s, financial impact aside, would be a blow to their ambitions in the pro market with the S2.

The second question is whether there will be a M9.2 with a revised sensor. I would guess probably yes. I think that Leica would like the M9 platform to have as long life as possible. When will that happen? Well, redoing a sensor will take a minimum of three months, then it has to be tested, etc, etc. So I'd think late this year, early 2010.

And then course there's the "out of left field" possibility - remember that the X1's sensor isn't from Kodak.  "Mysteriously" the X1 sensor happens to have essentially exactly the same characteristics as Nikon's D300 sensor. So an M10 with a D3x sensor? Don't count it out.......but that would require a very substantial rewrite of the M9 firmware, probably not something  Leica would like to do now. So unless Kodak can't or won't fix their current sensor, I'd expect an M9.2 with a revised Kodak sensor in the not to distant future.