i was going to write my own article, but the comment I left on this Mirrorlessons post sums up my initial feelings so I'll leave it at that until I get to see some full-size samples.
'I'm putting together my own reactions to this, but I thought I'd add a comment or two here first. It looks a great camera and I'd love one, but I would need to see some proper image samples before committing. But I'm a Leica fanboy anyway.
In terms of the market that Leica are targeting however there are some issues. They say this is a camera for professionals, but most professionals won't go near a system with only five AF lenses that will fit it, four of which are APS-C lenses. Plus 24MP's is a bit conservative. And professionals, who will have certainly committed to another system already, will take a lot of persuading to swap to a new mirrorless system that is unbelievably expensive, but totally unproven.
With the M cameras and lenses Leica have the field to themselves and a long term fan base, but there is a LOT of competition for the SL. Both DSLR and mirrorless. Will Nikon, Canon and Sony FE users suddenly decide to leave their current systems and embrace Leica? I seriously doubt it. Will M users decide to add one of these to their already expensive camera kit? I have my doubts about that too.
So my question is who is this for? Who is going to buy it? It seems that it's kind of like a 'mini S system' and they are hardly mainstream cameras. I hope it succeeds because it looks a 'class act' but whether it ever gets further than a 'luxury enthusiasts camera' is open to question. I could buy into this if and only if I sold most of what I own already. And I'm in no mood to get rid of my 50MP Canon 5Ds, which is blowing me away with the pictures it creates. I'm also in no mood to get rid of my Panasonic GX8 with it's wonderful 4K output. And that is likely to be Leicas problem. They have priced it and pitched it at those photographers who already own lots of top end gear and while I'm sure that the image quality will be superb, there are a lot of other factors that influence those of us who don't have the odd £10,000 sitting around burning a hole in our pockets.
Unfortunately I suspect that this camera system will earn a lot more plaudits than it will sales. For me it just doesn't make economic sense for me to buy into into this system, much as I would like to and I suspect I'm not alone in that.'