Leica Camera has announced a limited edition M10-P “Reporter” as a homage to press photographers.
The M10-P Reporter features a dark green design and Kevlar covering, a high-strength synthetic fiber used in ballistic-protective clothing. This Kevlar covering will gradually turn the same color as its top and base plates through exposure to sunlight, “developing its own patina, which means that each camera will become a unique signature of its owner.” Leica M10-P Reporter sells for $8,795.00 and is limited to 450 units. No word on whether there will be a subsequent Lenny Kravitz version.
My Question: is there a guy who sits at a desk in Wetzlar tasked with thinking up shit like this that will drive us crazy?
The Leica M10-P Reporter in pre-patina state
Hits: 12
Will it stop an AK round if I wear it over my heart?
In a way I hope there is that guy and in a way I hope he’s successful in what he does.
Leica rangefinder cameras are a niche product serving a niche market. The cameras are expensive, but just imagine how expensive they’d be if it were not for punters buying these ‘collector’ pieces and thereby helping to keep Leica Camera AG buoyant.
But we’ve been here before and no doubt will be here again.
No harm in it, I guess. they’ve been doing this since the twenties. Apparently there’s someone always willing to buy one. Why stop now?
You’ll love trying to find the buttons on the M.C. Escher…..
No, I don’t think Leica’s nuts, but I do have my reservations about those who require the “special” issues, which even if they were within my budget, I would eschew in favour of the normal versions. Thing is, the common varieties just look better to me. I don’t think I like making visual connections, as here with this khaki model, between cameras I’d like to wear and use in public, with tools that might be found in the garden shed.
I notice, on my daily travels in Internet space, that the rangefinder accuracy with such bodies can easily be upset by small bumps, requiring visits to the Leica camera hospital in Germany, for which the time costs at least, can be severe. However, you might be able to get the patient made well again. My attempt to have my poor D700’s mirror unfrozen from the ceiling by the Nikon representatives in Barcelona was met with incredulity that I might expect such a venerable old friend to receive attention in any of their wards. Please don’t ask our doctors to waste their time: Nikon doesn’t send us medicines for old guys.
Did you know that old camera bodies used as ornaments attract suspiciously large amounts of dust?
These cameras are medivac’d to a Leica MASH unit, then transferred to Solm’s General near the Ginza strip.
Leica cameras don’t break down, they fail to proceed to expose film/images!
My M2 began to give me odd spaced negatives: some frames were about 1/8th of an inch apart, others were just barely gapped between frames. It went out to the clinic run by the world famous midwestern Leica specialist, DR DAG. It took a bit of time, but he repaired my camera and sent a funny note. He wanted to know if I attempted to repair the camera myself or did someone with no Leica experience work on it. “Why?” I asked? (for the record, I have never cracked open anything this complex; brakes on my car, yes.) Well, he told me someone superglued parts together and the glue had begun to flake off and gum up the innards. He had a hellva job cleaning up the lower insides of the camera. Well, it must have had just a field dressing when I last sent it out for a CLA in 1984. I won’t mention the other DR, but they don’t have a Tardis, but they do/did have a faithful, rabid following . They are east coast based.
Needless to say, the M2 is fully recovered and acting like nothing went wrong. Will the same be said for the digital innards of these high end cameras 36 years from now? One thing is for sure, I won’t be around to see it. My innards would be over 100 years old.
This drove me nuts when Leica otherwise seemed to be flailing aimlessly about. Now, though, I don’t mind as much since it feels more like a fun bonus on top of an otherwise pretty stellar lineup.
I wonder whether Leica will end up being the only surviving camera maker?
This thought is prompted by the apparent decline in camera sales worldwide due to lack of interest in cameras as separate, dedicated picture-making devices. It might be the case that, with high prices, they may be able to maintain a wealthy clientele of current owners as well as attract a younger set with lots of disposable income, a set desirous of taking up the mantle of the older owners, just as seems to be the case with expensive watch brands.
The chinese camera industry will strive
building cheap knock-offs of hasselblad cameras and leica lenses.
Oh!
No!
They do already!
Didn’t took them waiting for the demise of the japanese and german photo industry.
and
those chinese even build special editions, a mao edition, a hongkong return to china day, a taiwan chinese forever, a hasselblad memory edition, …, a red one, a black one, a tai-chi one, …