Leica wraps up R-system

Although we're still waiting for the official announcement, it appears from various sources that Leica has stopped production of their R-system of 35mm lenses and the R9 SLR, in favor of the new 'medium format' Leica S2.

This makes sense to me, as the company has ramped up development of M-series lenses of late and will require manufacturing capacity for the auto-focus S2. Of course, it may also make way for a range of DSLRs based on the FourThirds system, but I doubt that.

Now that they're garnering praise with the Micro FourThirds Lumix G1 and recently announced GH1, I can’t see electronics partner Panasonic investing, at this time, in new FourThirds DSLRs.

I may have it wrong, but Leica aren't likely to re-badge the little Lumix G1 or GH1 and start designing lenses for them, surely a range like that would compete with the M-system?

Kevin