About three weeks ago, Leica Rumors spotted an official document by Taiwan’s National Communications Commission, mentioning a new Leica camera going by the name “T (Typ 701)”. Back then, we didn’t immediately pick up on it because we wanted to check back with Leica first, to hear whether there’s anything to it. Unfortunately, the company won’t comment on speculations. But considering that the NCC is a government institution that officially licenses new electronic devices, it seems pretty certain that this is an actual new Leica camera model.
Now, it is absolutely unclear as to what kind of a camera this is going to be. There are a couple clues, however, as Leica Rumors points out, and we have a fuzzy idea of what we’re going to see in this model. Leica’s CEO Alfred Schopf mentioned in a recent interview with Australian Camera magazine that his company would definitely come up with a compact system camera of some sort, possibly sporting an APS-C sensor. Parts of the camera and/or lenses might come from Panasonic, according to LR, and it will probably not be a rangefinder camera.
As long as there is no official statement from Leica, however, this is all just speculation and to be taken with a grain of salt. We’re pretty sure, though, that a Leica T is coming. We just don’t know when, and what it’ll look like. Yet.