German technology website heise.de have posted a hands-on field report of the Leica M9 (in German of course). If you do not speak (or read) German, here’s a link to the (clumsy) English Google-translation.

Coming from a Canon 5D Mk II, the author was looking for an alternative with equal image quality, yet a less obtrusive shell. He once tried the M8.2, but couldn’t get friends with it.
With he M9 now, things are different. He realizes that photography can be more than just “pointing and shooting”, that there is some kind of craftsmanship involved when using a Leica (which he felt was awkward before, but now comes to appreciate), and that “eye-focus” can yield better results than autofocus in some situations.
It ends with the author mourning for having to send the M9 back to Leica, but setting his mind on acquring one for himself in any case.

An article very much worth reading.
One thing disturbed me, though: How can a 5D user call the M9 “bulky and massive”???

P.S.: The Leica craving doesn’t get better by reading articles like this one …

P.P.S.: Two of the author’s very true conclusions I have to share with you before I end: “Concentrating on the essential (…) gives new possibilities, and in return one readily does without other conveniences.” Indeed! And: “The M9 is pure understatement.”