Eagle-eyed Leicaphilia reader Bob Dyl sent me the following link from Leica Rumors:
Apparently, Bashert Jewelry has designed “a new set of sterling silver soft release buttons” for Leicas. They are offering 6 different designs available for pre-order for $199. These are “hand-made, unique pieces that will be available in limited quantities.” After the pre-order period is over, the price will go up to $249.
Get em while you can.
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Let me guess…they also “designed” a yin-yang symbol?! I am not brave enough to check out their website…
That pre order deal is an outstanding value… I just wish there was a discount on the set : my six collector edition M’s look kinda naked without these.
Someone just bought a cheap CNC machine I see.
I’m waiting for the in-depth Youtube review.
Will you be doing an unboxing video, then a first look slideshow, then an in depth review and finally a head to head with a wide range of bejeweled soft releases? Also looking forward to a buying guide and webinar or hangout
Unboxing videos.
Come to think of it, that must illustrate the fantasy thing in the male mind about undoing everything it can get its hands on… snap! Oops – getting carried away.
😉
Rob
You mean like Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly undoing the garments of all the new female reporters at Fox News – and then claiming they were victims?? Sorry folk, this really IS the new USA.
I’m holding out for the ones that play the German national anthem on every soft shutter release.
I think I like that concept: loud music to drown silent shutter. On the principle of white sound, unexpectedly it may yet work.
I sometimes wear a set of those tiny earphones that you push right inside the ear, the better to listen to my current favourite Louisiana music station (I like swamp pop rock) as I sit in a restaurant having lunch. This may seem a simple thing to do, but from the safety aspect, it demands the wearing of one of those waistcoats with many pockets: the iPad sits within a large pocket inside the garment, and the little cable gets led out through the armpit hole and into my ear. That way, instead of the cable lying across my chest and falling fowl of arm movements during eating, the chances of having the ‘phones ripped out of my ear and falling into the soup are minimised – at least it hasn’t happened yet and, more importantly, iPad and floor have yet to meet.
But that isn’t the point I was making: the point is that even wearing the little ‘phones pushed right in as far as my nerve allows, the echoes and bangs from the other diners become deafeningly amplified too. Like the iPad, I was gifted a pair of Bose ears by my daughter, and those permit Bluetooth and have a white sound function that offers perfect silence (probably won’t work in tandem with music?). As with shooting strangers in the street (at close quarters) I lack the nerve to wear such an item in a restaurant, though I do believe they would make both meal and music a better experience.
Nonetheless, come the day the tooth fairy gives me an M (pick a code) I shall be happy to test both shutter and anthem at lunch. At the very least, I may get better service.
Rob
Perhaps they are just additional proof that new Leicas are being sold as fashion statements rather than a means of taking photographs. I do use soft releases, but they’re the $10 to $20 variety, not the same amount that I spent on a functioning Canon IVSB or a Leica IIIa body.
As if we needed anything more to confirm the belief that Leicas are nothing more than man-jewelry for doctors and lawyers and others if the gold-plated ilk…
Oh, I can’t accept that current Leicas are just male jewellery; I know people who use them to great effect, one chap in particular who had been a Hasselbad 500 Series user much of his pro life and then moved to the digital ‘blads before ditching the lot in favour of two digital Leicas.
I was as surprised by this as, I think, was he, but it came down to form-factor, ease of transportation, superlative glass and simple feel-good emotion. If you can afford it, what else do you need?
As with everything photographic, it comes down to horses for courses: were one to be following closely in the footsteps of Hans Feurer, then a non-reflex body would probably not be first choice. But if one is in the business of shooting scenes rather than tight shots of people from afar, then a Leica is a great machine, and a machine is all these devices happen to be. Seems a bit spooky to fall in love with a machine, at least, one without four wheels…
Rob
Wish I had thought that people would pay stupid money for tiny bits of wood/metal with some threads on it – another favorite are the wood hot shoe covers