Apple's Jony Ive to design a single Leica

There's already been a white Leica M9-P. He may have to use colors.

(Credit: Leica/viewbug.com)

Leica's known for putting out Limited Editions of its cameras drafted by high-profile designers or for luxury retailers -- Hermès, Audi and Neiman Marcus versions come to mind -- but the company's entering new fanboy territory by enlisting the creator of Apple's current signature looks, Sir Jony Ive, to create a single Limited Edition of the new Leica M. The camera will go up for charity auction in collaboration with U2's Bono.

The Leica M is the company's just-announced 24-megapixel CMOS-based rangefinder, its first to incorporate Live View and video; some might say it's the most digital of Leica's homegrown digital cameras (not counting the ones joint-developed with Panasonic), making it an appropriate choice for what I belive is Leica's first consumer-electronics-designer collaboration. It seems like a good match: for photography, Leica fans rival Apple's in their enthusiasm for shiny devices, and have long shown a distinct willingness to part with large sums of money as individuals, as opposed to en masse, and the choice will engender a huge amount of buzz on the CE blogs, expanding Leica's audience. Design work hasn't begun, but I'm... [Read more]