Now I have had a change to play with Leica’s latest experiment, the world’s first control-less and screen-less digital camera, I feel lust coming on.
First off, it is a beautiful camera in its steel and black finish. And that new 35mm steel Summilux is just as want-worthy. It has the same internals as the standard Summilux but the appearance is quite different. This camera would also look good with one of the new aluminium Summarits.
But would you buy one? This is nothing less than a digital film camera. There are just four options to tweak your pictures: Aperture, speed, ISO and focus. The shots are saved in uncompressed DNG format and that’s it. Pure simplicity. From discussions I’ve had with a number of people today, there would be a demand for this oddball.
Stefan Daniel told me Leica is testing the water and no decision has been made on whether or not this could go into serious production. Certainly the 600 special editon sets of camera and lens will sell out, even at £12,500. I think it will be an investment.
For the future, I could imagine this camera going into production. I cannot hazard a price. It would be nice to see it undercutting the M (it must be cheaper to make) but I wouldn’t bet on it. The successful Monochrome is a good example of less costing more.
Despite all the pre-launch howls of disbelief, Leica has produced something that could really fly.
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yet another leica fanboy extravaganza. Count me out, it’s a joke
I would buy one, if only I could afford to!
I love this idea of back-to-basics digital photography.
I’m effectively doing this with my Fuji X100S – I have turned off the image review and the rear LCD is covered by the flap on my Luigi Leicatime case.
I fear this is as close as I’ll ever manage to get to the Leica M60 experience!