"Leica to re-invent smartphone photography" with Huawei!

[lynnb]

Is this the end of the world as we know it, or the start of a new one? Personally I think any move which keeps the red dot alive is a Good Thing, but maybe this has the potential to be much more than that. Multi-lens computational photography is just around the corner, and perhaps Leica is thinking along these lines.

Leica wants a piece of the smartphone photography boom. The iconic German camera company and Chinese telecom giant Huawei announced today that they’re teaming up in a long-term technology partnership to reinvent smartphone photography. The goal is a “visual world renaissance,” the companies say.

- from the PetaPixel article linked above.

 

[Keith]

Smartphone photography leaves me cold but I can see why Leica may travel this path. Suffice to say i won't be traveling it with them though! 😀

 

[lynnb]

I'm sure any Leica-wei smartphones would carry a red dot premium.. well out of my price range! I'll stick to my IIIc.

 

[rscheffler]

Kinda wish it was a different phone company... But maybe it makes sense in respect to maintaining and growing Leica brand awareness in China and Asia in general?

 

[kuuan]

Kinda wish it was a different phone company...

why? Behind Samsung and apple Huawei is the world 3rd biggest handphone producer, the fastest growing one, seems like the most likely and promising producer to team up with.
Huawei so far has been offering premium products at cheaper price tags than it's competitors, I guess that the red dot will allow them to change that

 

[borge]

🙁
🙁
:bang:

 

[Ronald_H]

This will probably just mean Huawei smartphones with Leica branded lenses.

Hopefully they will come up with a replacement for my Nokia Lumia 1020. Which, incidently, has an (excellent) Zeiss branded lens.

 

[Tijmendal]

I'm sure any Leica-wei smartphones would carry a red dot premium.. well out of my price range! I'll stick to my IIIc.

Considering Huawei makes about the cheapest phones on the market, I'm not so sure.

 

[calebarchie]

Perhaps it is to get the general consumer to be more aware of Leica... increased leica sales and followers etc..

Huawei already has a huge market, what a cunning plan! And to add to that, we all already know Leica has a particular fancy for the Asian market.... 😀

 

[Ko.Fe.]

It is easy, Hu something wants to make more profitable phone, Leica wants more sales. And Apple will still outsell all of them.

 

[Baby of Macon]

I'm with Keith and Lynn on smartphone photography. I don't care what colour dot it has. In the words of the Dragon's Den TV programme, "I won't be investing".

 

[jojoman2]

Smartphone street photography is a thing. It's very different from what I do, but there is a thriving community of folks taking really pretty great pictures on their phones (which I consider to be fully automatic point and shoot cameras). Does it require the same amount of technical skill as full manual photography? No. But the pictures are still pretty great. I just hope the general public realizes how different iphonography is from manual photography (read: b&w film photography, that's all I have experience with). I highly doubt people who take pictures on their smartphones develop the same kind of relationship with light as someone who is shooting film simply because smartphones don't have the same limitations as film. When you learn to work with the limitations of film it makes you a smarter photographer. I digress, but if this were to happen I truly believe it would have a noticeable impact on digital camera sales. Why buy a dedicated camera when you can have one that takes pictures that are almost as good on your phone.

If there was a smartphone with a leica lens on it and I had the spare cash I would buy it. It's great to have a hq portable camera for color, and there's nothing more portable than your phone.

 

[MarkoKovacevic]

Considering Huawei makes about the cheapest phones on the market, I'm not so sure.

They make both nexus phones, which are arguably the best android phones around today

 

[willie_901]

I knew someone who used a Huawei phone until last fall. The microphone was horrible, I could hardly understand them most of the time. They were always cutting out too. When they picked up an iPhone 6S, I they sounded as every other mobile phone caller sounded.

For Leica's sake I hope Huawei's camera technology is better than the rest of their phone's design and performance.

 

[raid]

I find this very useful to my needs. I have been using my iPhone 6 camera as an additional camera (to my M9) and it is a good photography tool. I couldn't resist emailing Oliver Kaltner about this issue.

 

[Cameron]

They make both nexus phones, which are arguably the best android phones around today

But it's doubtful that the Leica lenses will be on Nexus phones.

 

[Cameron]

why? Behind Samsung and apple Huawei is the world 3rd biggest handphone producer, the fastest growing one, seems like the most likely and promising producer to team up with.
Huawei so far has been offering premium products at cheaper price tags than it's competitors, I guess that the red dot will allow them to change that

Because it would be nice if Leica were on flagship smartphones.

 

[Lauffray]

When manufacturers go out of business we lament and cry, when they're doing business we wonder if this is the end. Come on guys

 

[raid]

CEO Kaltner emailed me back within 2 minutes that he cannot comment on this new venture at this time since it is new.

 

[FrozenInTime]

If they want to make a street photography phone:
They should mount the camera on a swivel so that the screen can be held at 45 degrees; i.e. normal texting/reading angle rather than the obvious 'taking a photo' perpendicular.
Such a swivel/edge mount would also lend it's self to supplementary lenses and action camera mounts ( where the camera can be mounted flat and the lens pointing forwards )