It's interesting, using the internet to look back on a story. Just over a year ago, I (vaguely) recall a story that was bubbling away in which Apple's Chief Designer; Jony Ive, was commissioned along with Marc Newson to design a new, one off, Leica.
Over the past year Jony and Marc have reportedly created hundreds of prototypes for this design, culminating in the finished article - the "Leica M for RED". Closely echoing the classic Leica M shape, yet updating the traditional leather wrapper case with rounded anodized aluminium outer shell and machined aluminium body, a limited number of these will be auctioned on the 23rd of November at Southeby’s to raise money for The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
I've[[1-Projects/DragonDrop-Adventures/posts/2013/2013-01-17-like-an-impulse-ebay-leica| waxed lyrical about Leica]] before so I'll spare you the rhetoric but suffice to say, I'm a big fan of the brand and it was that part of the story specifically that piqued my interest. Having an iconic designer, design a iconic Leica is an interesting idea, but it isn't a new idea. This article on ViewBug talks about 10 such projects - where the end result was a classic Leica, re designed. In case you're wondering, prices for these started out at anywhere from $3000 and went upwards of $50,000. Given their limited edition kudos, their price tag will undoubtedly have gone in a fairly sharp, upwardly direction.
Ive of course, is best known for his Apple designs - including a lot of the hardware and software interfaces we've seen over the past few years, from iMacs to icons and perhaps you wouldn't be too hard pushed to draw a comparison between a combination of the new IOS7 design, the Mac Book Pro and some of the accenting of this camera design. Perhaps, that's partially, his style - this homogenisation and cross over of hardware and software designs has now leapt into another design use-case : a 24MP Rangefinder camera with CMOS sensor, high performance processor and a new Leica APO-Summicron M 50mm f/2 ASPH lens.
A starting price has not been released just yet, but given the popularity of the guys work, I don't imagine for a minute, they'll be cheap.
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