Okay, Leica, sit down, we need to talk for a minute. I know you are one of the iconic camera brands. I love my Leica M3 so much that I had a vasectomy so I wouldn’t have to give up my firstborn just to have one. And, yes, some of the best street photos in the world, photographs that changed the world in so many ways, were taken with Leica cameras. But at some point you have to take a breather and realize you’ve done what you can.
One of those times is when you launched the Leica MA Titan, the 250-unit limited edition camera that Leica announced this month. It is a magnificent titanium cut camera, with a magnificent APO-Summicron-M 50 mm f / 2 ASPH lens. Titanium makes the camera strong and light, but the price tag (all 20,000 clams) makes it so heavy it goes from “yes, maybe” to “lol wut, okay, we have to put in scene. an intervention ”.
Check out this photo at the top of this article. Phwoahr. Tell me it’s not one of the most beautiful cameras you’ve ever seen (though, it doesn’t look that different from the Fujifilm X100V, which at least has the common courtesy of adding a screen and, you know, a d image). The MA Titan is an analog camera. Yes, analog. Yes, because you have to put film in it, of those that give you 24 or 36 frames to shoot before you have to change the film again. Of those that make me think of the hours I spent sweating in a poorly ventilated dark room, smelling of repairing liquid and other chemicals (possibly carcinogenic).
Of course, this isn’t the first time Leica has introduced a titanium block into a mill and made special edition cameras – this is the sixth limited edition the company has released there. I guess it must be nice to post a product that is so outrageously silly for a tech reporter to take off his panties with the camera pattern (Yes, I carry some MeUndies underclangers who have cameras right now), but I can’t help it wondering if, by putting products like this in the world, Leica is even more inclined to alienate its fan rangefinders. They — us — are moving further and further away from a brand of cameras that was so relevant, and now it seems less and less so.
I get it, this camera is not for photography lovers. Or at least not photography enthusiasts like me. I suspect most of these cameras will end up as collectibles for people who once told their head of the hedge fund manager that they really like photography because they installed a Hipstamatic app on their iPhone , strategically scheduled just before bonus time. Or maybe as a wedding gift. Or retirement gifts. Or … I don’t know, I can’t say I received a $ 20,000 gift for a hot minute, so I can’t even really imagine the circumstances under which this is happening.
Give me some grace here; while I am scanning my soul to find out why I am so downcast, I realize that I am only afflicted as the powerful fall. At least the venerable Hasselblad wouldn’t go down as much as to lend his prestigious brand to something as frivolous as a phone camera, right? Alas, damn, I spoke too soon.
Okay, well, I admit it. I am bitter and sad because I will never be able to play with this camera. Still, I already have my M3. It’s a peach. I love it. And if I had to pick up another Leica after winning three consecutive lotteries, it would be the 40-megapixel Monochrom, which avoids the color matrix of the image sensor to create one of the best black and white looks. white capture cameras I’ve ever drooled with.
Look, I get it. Camera brands are struggling. Leica only sells about 100,000 cameras a year and was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2005 or so, and today they have a market share of about 1% of the “real” cameras sold. They have to do everything they can to get out of it, as more and more people are leaving behind “real” cameras in favor of ever-improving smartphone cameras.
If this is the graph of how your industry is doing, they would forgive you for doing something desperate. Image credits: CC by Statista. (Original source)
It’s not that smartphones are much better than standalone cameras. They are not. But with a good enough camera that improves with every generation of smartphones, always available in your pocket, why carry another piece of steel and glass with you when you travel to the other side of the world? Note that I’m writing this 12,000km away from where I usually live, with only my Google Pixel 6 Pro to make me photo company, so I’m clearly in a deeply biased mood here.
I wish there wasn’t a new press release every six months that serves as a reminder of how quickly the camera industry is turning the drain.
OldManYellsAtCloud.gif introduced you to this post.