Leica Circles the Drain

[cgw]

The end must be near:

Details LEICA M-P CORRESPONDENT Leica M Photography - Leica Camera AG

 

[Ysarex]

Oh dear. Does it come with a pair of jeans that have holes in them?

Joe

 

[sashbar]

I think collaborating with Steve Wonder would give them much more publicity.

 

[gsgary]

Lovely I would have one, but a rubbed and brassy MP would go nicely with my 70 year anniversary M4P and M4-2

 

[tirediron]

Sorry, but if I'm paying new Leica prices, I better get BRAND NEW Leica look! That's the same as people who pay extra for pre-damaged furniture. WHAT is the point?????

 

[Derrel]

OMG--FAKED brassing on a brand-new Leica AND its lens... my immediate thoughts involve a string of profanities...my gawd...this is...soooo pathetic!

 

[photoguy99]

I'm not sure why this thing is a harbinger of doom. I'm also not sure what Lenny Kravitz designed.

 

[gsgary]

If any other camera manufacturer tried this it would never sell, every one of these will sell

 

[tirediron]

If any other camera manufacturer tried this it would never sell, every one of these will sell

Granted, but for the same reason that Apple products sell out; because people buy them to be cool. NOT because there's anything new, or wonderful, or better about it.

 

[Derrel]

Sorry, but if I'm paying new Leica prices, I better get BRAND NEW Leica look! That's the same as people who pay extra for pre-damaged furniture. WHAT is the point?????

The "point" is to create an off-the-shelf, expensive, limited edition collectible that can be worn as an expensive necklace, with one of two lenses, each with factory-created faked wear and tear on the lens barrels. It is an effort to create the patina of age..to create a camera that makes it LOOK LIKE the user has a decade or more of actual use with the camera and lens he wears around his neck, or slung cross-shoulder style on a long neckstrap, the way Hollywood actors and actresses have recently taken to when they stroll about Los Angeles, most often wearing their Leica like...well, like a woman wears her purse when she's worried it might be stolen from her in a crowded public space...

Seriously...there's a new Hollywood crowd that's been seen quite often toting Leica rangefinders worn cross-shoulder...

Interestingly, this Leica model, designed for the poseur extraordinaire, carries NO Leica red dot....perhaps as a tacit sign that there are at least one or two people in power who still understand the company's heritage, and who disapprove of this camera so greatly that it's not allowed to wear a red-dot Leica brand badge. Of course, it could also be a deliberate ploy to appeal to the faux street-shooter newbies who adore the old practice of "taping up" Leicas so they can be used and abused, then sold many years later as "almost new", you know, after the gaffer's tape has been removed and the gum removed with Goof-Off and a rag. Those who espouse taping over the brand name of an expensive, instantly-recognizable camera as a way to make it "look less appealing to thieves" have always cracked me up. Again, yet more of the silly excuse-making that has so long been associated with the Leicaphile cult(ure).

 

[gsgary]

If any other camera manufacturer tried this it would never sell, every one of these will sell

Granted, but for the same reason that Apple products sell out; because people buy them to be cool. NOT because there's anything new, or wonderful, or better about it.

Using a Leica M is a joy, using a Canon or Nikon is not thats why I have sold all my Canon gear, I bought mine to use and not to be cool

 

[Ysarex]

It's missing something......

 

[Derrel]

OMG...cleaning the coffee off of the monitor now! HILARIOUS!!!

 

[kdthomas]

This seems like an extraordinarily silly idea ... What I've thought could actually be useful (maybe it's out there, haven't looked) is a simple compact Nikon or Canon FX camera body much like the old Rolleiflexes like Vivian Meier used to carry, but in a quality DSLR, allowing a shielded, look-down, waist-carry option.

 

[Rick58]

Better idea. Buy a new Leica and carry it enough miles for REAL brassing. THEN you'll have a warhorse to be proud of. Like John said, take a chain and hammer to a new dresser and call it an antique...just ridiculous.