Leica has just announced the V-Lux 3 superzoom camera, 12.1-megapixel CMOS camera with 4.5-108mm F2.8-5.2 lens with 1080p60 video capture. Not surprisingly, this thing is actually a rebadged Panasonic DMC-FZ150 which lends truth to the old adage “A fool and his money are easily duped by camera companies.”

While I love Leica’s traditional M-line, this move is such an egregious cash-grab that I would prefer not to comment on it further.

Comparing Leica and Kodak is an interesting exercise. While they’re not the same by any stretch of the imagination, both rode the wave of photography throughout the 20th century and, come the age of digital imaging, both stumbled. Kodak is starting to leverage its IP and Leica has found a new prosperity in its high-end digitals.

But Kodak is still in its crisis period and Leica appears to be well past. So much so that they’re selling nearly half of the company in order to make a big push in emerging markets. What use “emerging markets” have for $5000 cameras, clearly Leica knows better than I.

44% of the company was sold to Blackstone Group LP, which considers it a “medium- to long-term investment. The price was not disclosed, but the Wall Street Journal cites a source close to the matter who put the purchase at $179 million. If true, that would put their valuation at just north of $400m. That’s a far cry from the $82m Andreas Kaufmann paid for the nearly the entire company back in 2004, but with $250m and yearly sales and $36m in net income, it easily passes the smell test.

They’ve shown steady growth over the last few years, but that’s been primarily in Europe and the US, markets already familiar with the brand and, generally speaking, quite rich. The investment by Blackstone gives Leica some capital to work with in expanding their business to Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Their plans were not detailed beyond that.

That kind of money is sufficient to fuel research and development of an entirely new camera system. Is this Leica signaling that the M system is going to have a new sibling soon? It’ll be a while before the deal goes through and the money is put to use, but I’d say that’s a fairly good bet.

[via Leica Rumors and PetaPixel]

Leica’s CEO, Alfred Schopf, has abruptly and rather casually announced a new line of compact cameras being planned for a Photokina debut. The new system will have “at least” an APS-C sensor and will “do things differently” from the rest of the EVIL (Electronic Viewfinder, Interchangeable Lens) cameras — serious competition like the NEX, PEN, and G series.

The unnamed camera would presumably be a non-rangefinder camera and would likely be placed above the X1 but below the M series in price and capabilities. Whether it would use existing Leica lenses or a new mount was not mentioned, but as Photokina is coming right up in September, we don’t have long to wait. Just kidding, we do, because it’s coming up in September of 2012.

[via DP Review]

In what could amount to a very hefty haul, Moscow thieves took a sledge to metal security shutters and then a glass case to grab twenty items including a Leica Pro Set with three lenses. Interestingly, they left a $32,000 Leica S2 on the shelf and, not surprisingly, focused mainly on lenses and the familiar standard M9s.

Serial numbers are after the jump if you ever spot these in the wild.

A translation from Leica Russia:

“Today, July 9 at 3:00 am, two masked men in scrap metal shutters kicked the glass door with a sledgehammer and broke into the shop Leica on Leninsky Prospekt. After breaking all the windows, they stole part of the technique, which was in the store. Thieves stayed for fifteen minutes.”

1. Objects Leica Elmar 18/3.8 ASPH., S / N 4084590 

2. Leica Pro Set c 3 lens (35 / 1.4, 70-180/2.8, 35-70/2.8) 
_Leica, S / N 2927341 
_Obektiv APO-Elmarit 70-180mm / f 2.8, S / N 03905538 
_Obektiv Vario-Elmarit 35-70mm / f 2.8, S / N 3419566 
_Obektiv Summilux 35mm / f 1.4 

3. Digital Camera Leica (color – black), S / N 3104330 

4. Digital Camera Leica (color – white), S / N 3111065 

5. Lens Leica Summicron R jm, 90mm / f 2.0, S / N 2463461 

6. Lens Leica Macro-Elmar M 90mm / f 4.0, S / N 3975976 

7. Lens APO-TELYT-M 135mm / f 3.4, S / N 3722933 

8. Leica, S / N 1748472 

9. Objects Leica Elmarit 21mm / f 2.8 for film cameras 

10. Objects Summilux 50mm / f 1.4 Titanium Edition (Pre-ASPH), S / N 3675659 

11. Objects Summicron 50mm / f 2.0, S / N 3706945 

12. Leica SF 20 flash 

13. Leica, S / N 3469118 

14. Lens Summicron 50mm / f 2.0, S / N 3997354 

15. Leica (color – white), S / N 3821473 

16. Leica (color – black), S / N 3983517 

17. Leica, 2 pcs., S / N 4149352, S / N 4141590 

18. Leica (color – black), 2 pcs., S / N 3922466, S / N 3913056 

19. Leica (color – black), S / N 3748336 

20. Leica (color – black), S / N 4201224

via DigitalJournalOfPhotography

Watch as a ratty 1938 Leica is transformed into a modern digital camera with the guts of a Lumiz FX70. The video above isn’t a step-by-step video that holds your hand with detailed instructions. Nope, instead it’s a toe-tapping slideshow of the creations development. It is in fact more enjoyable this way. Get a fresh cup of coffee, sit back and watch an old Leica get a new set of innards. [via LeicaRumors]

Yes, that’s all! The rest is the same as the M9. It still costs eight grand.

The Leica costs $750, the Panasonic costs $400. How much are you willing to pay for that Leica logo?

LEICA ‘BIRDIE” from Philip Escobar Jung on Vimeo.

As you’ll see this isn’t an official Leica commercial. It should be, though. Why? Because you’ll remember it and that’s the most important aspect of any advert. [via Leica Rumors]

Our own review of the M9 pales in comparison to thislabor of love by Thorsten Overgaard who has been shooting with the storied digital since 2009 and continuously updates his post with commentary, pictures, and advice. Not only is he a great, quirky photographer he writes passionately about the places he visits and, most important, the camera itself.

He notes that many people approach him about the camera:

But also from airline captains stopping me in the airport, people approaching you in a restaurant. Some are on the waiting list, some are just interested, others again want to hear if they are missing out because they don’t believe they will ever be able to afford one. It always strike me as odd that people with a Canon or Nikon and ten or more lenses for that think of the Leica M9 as the dream camera they will never get. At least till I realized that quite many Leica shooters mostly use one lens, whereas it’s implied that you as a dSLR user buy all the lenses.

Which is pretty impressive, especially in a world full of point and shoots and throwaway DSLRs. Just goes to show you that someone is still in it for the joy.

via DaringFireball

Lots more comparison pics and other X100 porn at Nokton’s Flickr page.

[via 43rumors and PetaPixel]

Well, that’s not entirely true. This kit does comes with a slightly different skin and there is a little BMW logo stamped on the casing. But the camera itself, you know, the F2.8 24mm optics and 12MP CMOS sensor, are all the same as the standard X1. But this one costs $3500 instead of $2600. So yeah, what’s special about it? Nothing.

It’s not every day you see how the sausage is made. This is how Leica puts together their famous M9 camera – by hand, all done by men in white lab coats. It’s an impressive bit of engineering to be sure and pricing aside, this is an incredible camera.

Click through for one more walk-through video.

via ACL

The camera itself, part of a camera lot that netted nearly a million euros total, is one of only six ever made (in this finish, at least), and more importantly, is the first of its kind ever offered for sale. It had an experimental electric motor drive and should work as well as the day it was assembled.

The auction house, WestLicht, congratulates the new owner: “The buyer now posses the most expensive Leica camera ever sold!” But the real winner is, of course, the auction house.

[via Leica Rumors]

We didn’t get a chance to go out to Photokina this year so Photokina – or at least Leica’s portion of it – came to us. I got a closer look at four of Leica’s new cameras, the all-black X1, the DLUX 5, and the V-LUX 2 along with the new Titanium M9, one of the most outlandish cameras I’ve seen in a while.

The V-LUX 2 is Leica’s ultrazoom priced at $849 and available this month. It has a 4.4-108mm lens and takes full 1080i-AVCHD video. It is quite light and feels on par with similar point and shoots except for the fast lens and focus features.

http://player.ooyala.com/player.swf?embedCode=hjMGdyMTrhoy_LXF-Kc_PetZX–DUUHg&version=2

The X1 is the same except for the color but it has a handsome, compact design with a 2.7-inch display and a huge 12.9 megapixel sensor. It costs $1,999.

Finally there’s the D-LUX 5, a version of the Panasonic LX5 with some improved features. It costs $799 and has a 10.1MP sensor.

The real belle of the ball, however, was the Titanium M9. Walter de’Silva of the Volkswagen Group designed this monster with the clean lines of Audi in mind. It’s made of a solid block of titanium and is limited to 500 pieces this year. De’Silva didn’t quite know what to do with the hot-shoe port on the top so Leica had to hide it under another piece of metal to satisfy his design aesthetic.

It comes with a 35mm lens and light shield along with a huge instruction book and design document. It is, in short, one of the most striking pieces of photographic equipment I’ve seen in a while. It has no strap loops but instead has a little removable nubbin that reveals a port for connecting a strap or a thumb loop. It also has a “holster” for those times when you want it out of the way.

People are usually on the fence about Leica especially considering the price and perceived value. These things are works of art and works of technological prowess, however, and I came away impressed if not very enthused by the price tags. We’ll have reviews of the new point and shoots this month.

You can find the rest of our posts here.

[image: David Farkas; via Leica Rumors]

With a rumored price of €3200 for this thing, Leica isn’t aiming for the masses, and of course it would be suicide to do so. But I’ll wait for the actual photographic tests before considering this thing worth ten times the price of its competitors.

[via Leica Rumors]

This review is by photographer Rich Svinkin.

“Nice Equipment.”

It took a second to process that the wedding photographer was talking about my camera. It was the shock of phrasing, not the awe displayed, that startled me. When I’m carrying this beauty around I get stopped by strangers all the time. Camera junkies are boundary blind like dog lovers. And like a champion breed, the M9 takes some effort to tame and train if you aren’t a professional. But if you go into it eyes open and put the effort in, get ready for blue ribbon results.

Features:

• high-resolution CCD sensor
• full 35 mm format
• compatible with any M-System Lens
• self-timer, single and continuous (up to 8 pictures in succession) exposure controls
• 2.5 inch LCD screen
• MSRP: $8000
• Product Page

Pros:

• image quality, up to 18mp
• no UV/IR filters required
• original classic design
• amazing for portraits and scenes
• lightest full-frame digital camera on the market
• Battery & SD card capacity monitoring

Cons:

• no digital preview
• manual focus using the rangefinder patch
• image quality of the auto-review
• UI controls take some getting used to
• hold and spin ISO sensitivity control
• price
• no video.

At a glance the Leica M9 resembles a camera from the 50’s and 60’s. Like most mechanical machines made back then, this newest addition to the M-System feels like it was built to last. The auditory experience makes you feel like you’ve accomplished something; it starts with a snap and ends with something akin to the raising of turrets on a battleship. But that’s just the soundtrack to an experience that may start an outright addiction to doing nothing else but taking shots with this thing. The first in-focus picture I saw on my computer made me wonder – did I really take that? Nice equipment indeed.

The M9, for all its technical achievements, like the high resolution CCD sensor which is a first for this camera size, affords a powerful but also warm, nostalgic experience, especially for those of us who took up photography before the Bush administration. But you don’t need decades of experience and schooling to use the M9 to shoot great pictures, so long as your subjects are objects at rest, not bodies in motion – the continuous shooting feature is not photojournalist strength. You do need about 7 grand, a little patience and strange as it may sound a little faith in the equipment, and yourself.

Let’s start with faith.

There’s no preview. You have to use a view finder, which relies upon a high contrast range finder patch which Leica and its retailers tout but really it’s small, for me it makes manual focusing even harder than in old film cameras where at least you had a reference line to work with. It’s like having double vision after a few drinks and trying to force yourself to sober up. So far I shoot a lot of things at a distance of infinity.

The LCD does provide auto-review after you shoot, for which you can set the duration, but it doesn’t add any confidence now matter how long you look at it because the resolution leaves a lot to be desired. Only if the picture is an outright blurry disaster will you know to delete it right away. For those that make your initial on-camera cut you simply have to wait till you get them on a computer to really see what happened. But once you do the results are impressive. If you’ve ever looked with admiration at one of your own snaps, get ready for a self-love fest. One week with this puppy and you’ll think you’re Robert Frank or Walker Evans.

Patience

If you’ve been pointing and shooting for a few years you need a week to learn or remember the classic manual controls. You not only focus manually but you adjust the f-stop the way you were meant to, by turning a ring. If you look into the lens while doing so you can see the shutter actually opening and closing, just like the old days! You can easily experiment with the shutter speed dial which ranges from 8s to 1/4000 of a second. But you’ll need to experiment because the automatic shutter speed setting often leaves you wanting more, especially when you just want the end result to look like what your eye can see.

To us amateurs the M9 affords a re-education in photography. I say embrace it rather than look for the easy ways out we’ve gotten used to with advances in point-and-shoots like the Leica D-LUX 4 which for my money is the best wide angle on the market for under a grand. Unlike the D-LUX 4 which offers a fairly intuitive user interface for a camera with sophisticated functionality the M9 UI seems like it was designed by a great music star of a genre passed by just now trying to adapt. But make no mistake the underlying design logic is cut from a timeless stone. They know what they’re doing and are willing to make difficult tradeoffs. After getting used to the interface you’ll find it easier and easier to adjust to your liking. As soon as I found the vintage black and white setting I had a vision of meeting St. Peter.

You can also read our review of the V-LUX 20 here.

The Leica M9 is deserving of its accolades and undoubtedly will earn its place in history. But be careful, if you’ve got seven or so thousand dollars to spend understand that you are getting a great camera for shooting portraits and scenes, a unique aesthetic quality in the visual imagery that only comes with a Leica lens, and a great conversation starter. If you are more interested in clearly capturing fast moving objects, having video (buy a SONY for goodness sake), or paparazzi snappiness then move along.

Described as a “homage” to keep the lawyers away, this $20 wonder (with free shipping btw), is a pinhole camera. That means pretty much it’s as basic as you can get, even doing away with those little extras like a light meter, or mechanical shutter. The point is, if you want something that looks like an incredibly expensive high end camera, but has none of the actually functionality, here you go. Grab a Likea MPH. I mean, it’s only $20. I’d suggest you hurry though, because I suspect the site won’t be around for long.

[via Leica Rumors]

Also Matt said to say the V-LUX 20 is available on Amazon. He also got a new bike seat.