Digital camera body for Leica M lenses

Any bodies in the following camera lines: Fuji X-Pro, Sony NEX, Olympus or Panasonic Micro 4/3, Ricoh GXR M module, even Nikon 1.

There is also the Epson RD-1x but avoid it as repairs are hard to get. The above will work with Leica M lenses and take good pictures. None of the above are full frame. This is going to frustrate you in the end if "going digital" means selling off your M film bodies.

You'll save money in the long run by getting an M9. it is full frame and it is a very good camera. It costs a bundle. But you'll spend a bundle jumping from one digital camera to another to get the most Leica out of your Leica lenses.

I strongly suggest keeping your film bodies and investing in a dedicated film scanner, unless you are happy doing darkroom and don't want the added expense.

The various micro camera are fun. I am having a blast with my m 4/3, but it is no substitute for my M8 and M9.

The M8 has its foibles. The M9 is simply put a brilliant camera.

Take a look at the NEX-5N with the optional VF or the NEX-7. Both are excellent cameras and very versatile (and they won't cost you an arm and a leg)

As Walt, Alex and Juergen say, there are alternatives to the M8 and M9. They won't give you the same shooting experience, but some may, albeit with 1.5X crop factors, give you what you are looking for. The NEX-7 has apparently a RAW image quality that rivals that of the M9 and can be used with Leica lenses and an adapter. At about half the price of a used yet mint Leica M8, it or one of the others may be a good way to use your Leica lenses on a digital body. If some of your Leica lenses are wide angle (e.g., 21, 28, 35mm), you may not be happy seeing them transformed to effectively longer focal length and thereby lose their wide angle of view. It depends upon what trade-offs you are willing to make. Personally, although I don't have one, the NEX-7 and its alterable angle of view LCD monitor, might make that an important argument. It will be interesting to see how Leica eventually responds to the mirrorless system camera competition.

Unless I am mistaken, all the alternatives named other than the Ricoh can accept zoom lenses. Lenses of variable focal lengths are now quite good, and they give much flexibility. I decided against getting a 50/1.4 manual focus lens (whose angle of view would become that of a 100mm) for my Olympus digital SLRs because, for those times when I want little depth of field, I have two film Leicas. An argument against lens changes on digital cameras is the possible ingress of dust.

Unless I am mistaken, all the alternatives named other than the Ricoh can accept zoom lenses.

I'm confused as to what you mean here. There are no Leica M zoom lenses, so you couldn't have been referring to that. And there are three zoom lens modules for the GXR, including a APS-C sized sensor zoom that was just announced earlier this month.

Now, if you mean that the other cameras have adapters that would allow you to use non-Leica zooms on the cameras, then yes. The GXR only has the Leica M adapter and there are multiple adapters out there for other lenses to go on m4/3 etc.

The GXR with the M module cannot take zoom lenses. Zoom lenses are made for all the others by their manufacturers.

The Fuji X-Pro looks like it just came on the market. Would it require a lens adapter for Leica M lenses? Would this result in the inevitable "cropping" of the image?

I assume that an adapter will be needed. As its sensor is APS-C, its "crop factor" will be 1.5.