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The (RED) Leica prototype designed by Jony Ive heads to auction – expected to fetch $300,000+

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Back in 2009, a charity event dubbed the (RED) Auction, containing one-of-a-kind items by Apple’s former Chief Design Officer Jony Ive and industrial designer Marc Newson, was held to raise money to benefit The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. More than 40 items went up for bid, including a Leica M full-frame camera designed by the pair.

The (RED) Leica M, the standard version of which retailed for around $7,000 at the time, fetched a hair over $1.8 million. Now a prototype camera has been revealed and is also going up for auction, where it’s expected to reach at least $300,00.

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Leica has announced its $8,200 APO-Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH lens

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Leica has just announced its new APO-Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH lens, coming in at the princely sum of $8,195. I’m never going to complain about the cost of a 70-200/2.8 again. The new manual focus lens is a Leica M mount lens with a 35mm focal length and a maximum aperture of f/2.

This “fast” wide-angle prime features an apochromatic design with ten elements in five groups. Six of those elements are high refractive index elements which Leica says “virtually eliminate chromatic aberrations”. Three aspherical elements also help to reduce spherical aberration and provide edge-to-edge sharpness.

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Cosina has announced three new 35mm f/2 Voigtlander lenses for Leica M and Sony E

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Cosina has announced three new Voigtlander 35mm f/2 lenses. One of them is the Voigtlander Ultron Vintage Line 35mm F2 Aspherical Type II VM for Leica M, available in Black or Silver and the other two are Leica M and Sony E mount versions of the Voigtlander Apo-Lanthar 35mm F2 Aspherical VM.

The horrendously named Voigtlander Ultron Vintage Line 35mm F2 Aspherical Type II VM (we’ll just call it Ultron 2 from here on out) is an update to the existing Ultron 35mm F2 Aspherical lens. It’s designed to be small and compact, which is the opposite of the Apo-Lanthar 35mm F2, which seems to strive for image quality above all else.

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New Megadap adapter lets you autofocus on Nikon Z cameras with manual focus Leica M lenses

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Megadap has announced a new MTZ-11 Leica M to Nikon Z adapter that adds autofocus capabilities to the manual focus Leica lenses when used on Nikon Z mirrorless bodies. They’re billing it as the “World’s first” such type of adapter, although that might only be half-right. Techart showed off their TZM-01 last week, although the Megadap adapter appears to be the first one to actually come to market and is already available to purchase.

Launched today, Megadap says the new adapter bypasses the focusing mechanism of the lens by incorporating it directly into the adapter. It communicates electronically with the Nikon Z cameras, allowing it to take full advantage of its phase-detection autofocus system.

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PIXII Leica M Mount digital rangefinder review

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French company PIXII SAS first announced their new PIXII camera almost two years ago (literally just a couple of weeks shy), and then it was radio silence until July of this year when it finally went on sale. It’s a Leica M mount digital rangefinder, but with a twist. It looks a lot like the Leica M10-D, but without a memory card slot.

The PIXII features an 11.1-megapixel sensor, comes with either 4GB or 8GB internal memory, has an APS-C global shutter (!) CMOS sensor and no LCD. Oh, and it costs over $3,000. Photographer Sam Hurd bought one and posted up a review with some sample photos. The opener doesn’t sound promising, but keep watching.

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Fotodiox’s new PRONTO adapter lets you autofocus Leica M lenses on your Fuji X cameras

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Fotodiox has announced their new Fotodiox Pro PRONTO AF lens adapter that lets you autofocus Leica M lenses on your Fujifilm X mount mirrorless cameras. The adapter was initially announced a little while ago, but it’s just now being made available.

Yes, Leica M lenses are manual focus lenses, but this adapter adds autofocus capability for other camera systems. This isn’t Fotodiox’s first Leica M autofocus adapter, having previously released one for Sony, but this one now lets you use them with Fuji, too.

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Pixii, the $3,000 Leica-like with no LCD and no memory card, is finally here

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It’s been a minute since we heard about Pixii, huh? It’s been right around 18 months, actually, but now the Leica M mount rangefinder that sounds suspiciously like the Leica M10-D (but without a memory card) has finally given us an update. It’s now for sale with either 4GB or 8GB internal memory, and it starts at around $3,000.

It features an 11.1-megapixel APS-C electronic global shutter CMOS sensor and yes, 4GB and even 8GB don’t sound like a lot of storage, but the whole point of this thing is not to store pictures on your camera but to send them straight to your phone where you can edit and share them instantly. And at 11.1-megapixels, how quickly are you even going to fill 4GB, really?

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New UK-based lens manufacturer Skyllaney kicks off with a 50mm f/2 for Leica M

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It’s not often you hear about new UK-based photographic manufacturers these days. At least, certainly not when it comes to lenses. But, it appears that’s exactly what we have, with new lens company, Skyllaney Opto-Mechanics. Their first lens will be a limited edition run of a 50mm f/2 classic Sonnar formula lens with a Leica M mount.

Based off a 1937 pre-war design by Dr Ludwig Bertele, the new Skyllaney 50mm f/2 Bertele contains the same optical formula but with modern lens coatings to increase contrast and reduce flare.  Initially, it will be offered in black anodised aluminium or chrome brass finish and a limited run of only 150 lenses with a further 100 to follow.

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