Leica Kravitz Special Edition with Brassing?

[Huss]

Well, this just proves that I am a Leica user, not a Leica fan-boi.

 

[CameraQuest]

This new pre-brassed camera and lens says a lot about Leica's marketing program and today's Leica customers.

Today's Leica company all about the Bling and the Benjamins.
Damn, I never would have believed it, but times and companies change.

Oddly enough, it seems to be working out for Leica sales.

I wonder if this special edition will include pre used cards full of Kravitz images?

Stephen

 

[kbg32]

Pardon to those who like his music, I wanted to, but felt it was lacking "substance"... Lenny always came across to me as sort of a poseur.

Maybe Nikon will produce a Don McCullin Nikon F, or even DF edition update, complete with bullet strike.

 

[jaapv]

I must admit that I like how the camera looks. Maybe they upload an 8 hour video on vimeo where you can watch a Leica employee polishing the camera in realtime until it's brassed 🙂

I don't agree that Leica is all about the Bling Today. Look at all the awful special editions they made 20 years ago. That was bad taste (look at the gold sultan of brunai edition).

Not to mention the horrible Luxus Leica series from the late twenties - goldplated with lizard or snake skin. Brrr.. That is where the Ukrainian Leizorkis get their inspiration.

 

[N.delaRua]

Guitar companies have been doing this with great success for years.

Relic stratocaster etc. People love it.

I kinda understand it. Old beat up guitars and cameras look cool and sell for boatloads of money.

So why not give the people what they want!

 

[Godfrey]

This new pre-brassed camera and lens says a lot about Leica's marketing program and today's Leica customers.

Today's Leica company all about the Bling and the Benjamins.
Damn, I never would have believed it, but times and companies change. ...

Leica makes, what, 90 M typ 240s a week, and sells every one of them. They might make 100 of these LK specials, and I bet a bunch of them will sit in inventory for years.

So yes, it's a great strategy... Get tons of marketing visibility with all the special editions that cost little to produce above the standard models but stir up the customers while selling all you can make of the standard models that everyone uses.

It's genius. That's why Leica is the only camera manufacturer that continues to see increased profits year over year right now while everyone else's sales are sliding down the toilet.

G

 

[Huss]

Each to their own, I guess.

But what really bugs me is here I am with my M-E, still waiting for the fixed sensor, while I see Leica spending time on bull$h1t like this.

 

[noimmunity]

The reason why this is a special edition isn't (just) because of Lenny Kravitz, but because of the craven attitude of camera manufacturers across the board. It's like an inside joke, especially funny for the people who don't need to care about digital rot and planned obsolescence.
It's not difficult to make coatings that would be much more durable than what are the norm for bodies and lenses in the camera world today. Not just Leica, but Fuji, Sigma, Olympus, etc...
Everybody knows that the resale value takes a hit based on superficial wear marks. And paint wear happens really fast.
This style just commodifies the sort of ironic distance that people with means or dreams love.

 

[Michael Markey]

Looks very nice ....

 

[Roger Hicks]

Call that brassed? Hardly used...

But why is it a new low? Why shouldn't they sell people the cameras they want to buy? As long as I can buy the (very occasional) new Leica to use, I really don't care who else buys them. It seems to me that the only reason to complain about these expensive limited editions is if you are so insecure, so unsure of yourself, that you think that someone else buying a Leica will in some way diminish you.

Cheers,

R.

 

[michaelwj]

Looks very nice ....

I think it looks neat.
I'd have like his signature on it though, otherwise its more like "a special edition that LK likes", as opposed to LK's special edition.

 

[michaelwj]

At LK has produced a photography book, lets look back at previous editions that had nothing to do with photographers (thanks to cameraquest);

M6 Colombo
M6 Royal-Foto (commemorating a shop?)
M6 Dragon (another shop)
M6 Historia
M6 Danish Wedding
M6 Gold
M6 Anton Bruckner (another musician - never used a Leica though)
M6 Ein Stock (listed companies can make dumb editions too!)
M6 Jaguar XK (yep, a car)
M6 Oresundsbron (a bridge)
M6 Schmidt Centenary (a dealership)
M9 Hermes

I'm sure there are a bundle of others, including all the X series paint jobs, that deserve far more ridicule than the LK one.

I've left off the anniversary ones to keep the list shorter, but it appears that Leica will pull out an anniversary edition for anything remotely related to photography or themselves, every 25 years since the start of Photogaphy, Leica/Leitz, M system, ELCAN, etc ... I can only wait for the 50th anniversary of Leitz Park.

On the scale of Leica Editions, this one must be near the best of the "non photographer" ones.

Rant over for now.

 

[Tom A]

Don't forget the "Year of the Rooster" for the Hong Kong market some years ago. Leica was slightly miffed when I called it the "Kentucky Fried Chicken" camera.
As for pre stressed M240's - Leica should give them to heavy users who would put them through it's paces - and the return them to the factory for packaging and shipping. Probably plenty of volunteers. Somewhat like the Lord of the Manor who picked his butler with the correct shoe-size - so that he could "walk in the shoes" as not to pinch the Lordships feet!.

 

[VertovSvilova]

A brassed camera ... are they for real?

This is right up there with those jeans with the frayed, cut and torn finish that people (fools) pay hundreds of dollars for!

And yet those jean companies are making big profits selling tons of those jeans. 🙂

Just like a jean manufacturer, Leica is also a for profit company. For decades they've been doing all sorts of special editions. But instead of courting dead sultans and kings with royal editions or Leica clubs and societies with their fading members now living on fixed incomes, they're going after a new market of wealthy consumers and which also includes young pop culture techies. New demographics and new types of special editions.

 

[aizan]

why lenny kravitz?

 

[Jaymz007]

Can some one teach me the fastest way to get my M to brass with natural look.

 

[aizan]

nevermind. that's why.

 

[Daniel Teoli Jr.]

A new low...

http://leicarumors.com/2015/02/12/t...40-lenny-kravitz-limited-edition-camera.aspx/

I concur.

I wrote a review of the M240 for DP Review. They refused to publish it. I had 5, now 4 Leicas. I'd much prefer using a Japanese knockoff of the Leica for $2500.

It is sad you have to pay so much for manual controls. Fuji is pointed in the direction of Leica. But shooting the Fuji is hell to shoot with the rest of the screwy Fuji controls one has to fight.

 

[Daniel Teoli Jr.]

Call that brassed? Hardly used...

But why is it a new low? Why shouldn't they sell people the cameras they want to buy? As long as I can buy the (very occasional) new Leica to use, I really don't care who else buys them. It seems to me that the only reason to complain about these expensive limited editions is if you are so insecure, so unsure of yourself, that you think that someone else buying a Leica will in some way diminish you.

Cheers,

R.

It is a new low cause Leica is more concerned with making cameras for the camera fondler instead of making cameras for the serious photog / pros.

In the old days Life photogs would have 9 Leicas in their stable. They would carry 3 on them while on assignment, keep 3 at the hotel for back-up and have 3 at home in reserve or getting CLA'd. Who can afford doing that Leica nowadays?

I do that with my Fuji's. (Have 6 or 7 of them at any given time.) I routinely get my cameras, lenses and flashes destroyed where I shoot. No big deal, I buy used X-E1's, used cheap lenses and the Fuji's are disposable.

http://rangefindercamera2.tumblr.com/image/110895536882

http://rangefindercamera2.tumblr.com/image/110895608237

http://rangefindercamera2.tumblr.com/image/110895894887

http://rangefindercamera2.tumblr.com/image/110895658657

http://rangefindercamera2.tumblr.com/image/110895767812

http://rangefindercamera2.tumblr.com/image/110895858077


While I had 5 Leica's, then pared down to 4, (2 M240's and 2 MM's.) I have to be very careful where I shoot them. I love the controls on the Leicas but can't afford risking losing them. Consequently I may only use them 20% to 30% of the time. On some projects it is 0%.

To me Leica has lost its way. They produce a beautiful camera when it comes to fit and finish. The manual controls are impeccable. Where Leica falls short is their sensors they use are always second rate. (OK, the MM ha a sharp sensor, but it tends to blow highlights.)

For the price Leica charges they should be the standard in sensors that the other guys are always trying to catch up to. But as it is, Leica is always on the bottom end of sensors in the industry. I much prefer the sensor in my little Fuji over my M240's. But the Fuji has screwy controls and I prefer the controls of the Leica.

To fix this problem the Japanese need to make a true Leica FF knockoff with one of Fuji's stupendous sensors in it and sell it for $2500. Then I could dump my Leica bodies and move over to a real pros camera.

 

[NY_Dan]

As a photographer Lenny Kravitz is a good guitar player.