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Leica’s new 100-400mm f/5-6.3 looks like a rehoused Sigma at twice the price

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Leica has announced a new addition to its SL system (L mount) lens lineup. It’s the Vario-Elmar-SL 100-400mm F5-6.3 and it costs a whopping $2,195. Now, as Leica lenses go, this is par for the course, but when you consider that Sigma also has a 100-400mm f/5-6.3 L mount lens for less than half of that, it’s a bit of a stretch. The Leica lens is quite a bit heavier than the Sigma, too, but we’ll save that comparison for a little later on.

The new lens features a removable Arca Swiss mounting plate for easy attaching to compatible tripod heads with clamp locks every 90 degrees for easy switching between landscape and portrait orientations. Leica has also announced a new 1.4x L mount teleconverter. In conjunction with the new lens, this brings it into a focal length range of 140-560mm, albeit with a stop slower aperture.

Leica goes Bond with the new Leica D-Lux 7 007 Edition

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Leica’s famous for their limited edition runs of cameras. This time, it’s to celebrate the exhibition of photographs from James Bond films spanning more than 60 years since the character’s on-screen debut in 1962. The exhibition, titled “Photographs from the James Bond Archive”, is thanks to film producer Michael G Wilson, who has opened up EON’s archive of photographs shot during filming of the movies.

To go along with the exhibition, Leica has released a limited special Leica D-Lux 7 007 Edition camera. It features the familiar bond “gun barrel” design on the lens cap and is emblazoned with the 007 logo on top. The run is limited to only 1,962 units worldwide – matching the year of the first movie release – in a specially designed presentation box.

Leica announces two new lightweight 35mm and 50mm f/2 Summicron lenses for L mount

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Leica has announced two new lightweight Summicron-SL lenses for Leica L mount at 35mm f/2 and 50mm f/2. You might be wondering why Leica’s announcing two new 35mm and 50mm f/2 lenses when they already have the Leica APO-Summicron-SL 35mm f/2 and 50mm f/2. But when you compare those to the two new lenses, the size and weight saving, not to mention the massive cost saving, make it quite obvious.

The new Leica Summicron-SL 35mm f/2 and Summicron-SL 50mm f/2 lenses are significantly smaller and lighter than their APO counterparts. In fact, both of the new lenses share identical dimensions, making it easier for video shooters to swap between them without having to rebalance gimbals, etc. They also cost less than half of the APO versions, making them a financially viable option for a lot more L mount photographers.

Techart’s TZM-02 adapter brings faster autofocus for manual focus lenses to Nikon Z bodies

Techart has announced their new TZM-02 Leica M lens to Nikon Z mirrorless camera autofocus adapter. The TZM-02, naturally, replaces the TZM-01 announced in 2020 in the Techart lineup and brings it in line with the company’s LMEA9 Leica M to Sony E lens adapter released a few months ago. This means it sees a motor upgrade, switching from a single motor to an arrangement of four smaller motors.

Combined, these four motors provide more power, speed and accuracy than its predecessor. This means it performs better with smaller lenses but also handles larger lenses. Why Leica M, though? Well, Leica M cameras are manual focus. You can also easily adapt pretty much every manual focus lens type out there – M42, Pentax K, Canon FD, etc. – to Leica M, so you’ll be able to autofocus with just about anything.

Leica officially launches its new Leica Cine 1 4K triple-laser smart TV projector

If not for the fact that Leica initially teased it four months ago, this one might seem a bit out of left field. But Leica has today officially announced the release of the Leica Cine 1 4K triple laser projector. It’s Leica’s first-ever “Laser TV”, and in principle, it’s similar to the Wemax Nova 4K we reviewed on DIYP a few months ago, but with a couple of notable exceptions.

Like the Wemax, it’s an ALDP ultra-short throw laser projector, except the Leica Cine 1 features a triple laser array instead of a single laser. In theory, this provides increased energy efficiency and brightness as well as a wider colour gamut. It also utilises Leica’s own Leica Image Optimization (LIO) technology which the company says offers natural colour reproduction with detailed colour gradations and enhanced contrast.

Holiday Gift Guide – The best new cameras of 2022

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It’s December again, which means lots of us are sitting there wondering what to buy for ourselves or the photographer in our lives this holiday season. We’ve been saving up all year to get that something special, but we don’t want to deal with in-store queues – or maybe we’ve just slacked on our Christmas shopping this year. We want to stay at home where it’s nice and warm and see what we can find online that gets delivered straight to our door!

So, this means it’s time for the 2022 DIYP Holiday Gift Guides, and we’re kicking things off with cameras. These are some of our favourite cameras that have been released over the last year. Keep visiting back this week as we release our other guides, including lenses, lighting, tripods, sliders & gimbals, and accessories and gadgets.

Leica store in San Francisco robbed with $178,000 worth of gear stolen

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An armed robbery recently occurred in San Francisco, the city that keeps earning a bad rep for camera thefts. Four masked thieves burst into a Leica store near Union Square. While holding the employees at gunpoint, they stole $178,000 worth of gear and fled the scene only a few minutes later.

Leica teams up with Hodinkee, launches limited-edition Q2 “Ghost” inspired by dive watches

 

Leica is known for its prestigious and pricey cameras. But they also love launching limited-edition, redesigned cameras and lenses. The latest to get this transformation is Leica Q2, and the company teamed up with watch experts from Hodinkee for this one.

The Leica Leica “Ghost” is the Q2 you already know but in a new, sleek suit. And unlike some other limited-edition Leicas, this one keeps almost the same price as the regular version.

The “Pieca” is a Raspberry Pi powered camera with a Leica M lens mount

It feels like we’re having a big rush of Raspberry Pi based cameras recently. Lately, we’ve had the Paparazzo interchangeable C/CS mount camera, the accessible-anywhere Pi Cam, the Pi HQ Camera module-based Pikon, the instant animation printing Kinecam, and even seen a 65-year-old 8mm movie camera converted to digital completely non-destructively. Well now, it’s the turn of the Pieca.

This one’s pretty special. While most others have made use of the Raspberry Pi HQ Camera Module to provide it with a native C/CS mount, this one created by Tom Schucker at Tea and Tech Time comes with a Leica M mount. It still uses the Pi HQ camera module with the Raspberry Pi 4, but being Leica M mount, you can adapt pretty much any DSLR lens ever made to work with it.

Xiaomi’s brings interchangeable lenses to phones with its new 12S Ultra Concept smartphone

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The idea of using a lens from a “real camera” on a smartphone is not new. There have been a number of adapters announced over the years with some as far back as 2014 and older. Most of them haven’t really had an amazing reception, which is why they’re not really all that mainstream today. But mobile photography has come a long way since those early devices. Now, there are a number of 3D printable adapters and other options out there to do this.

Xiaomi, though, is doing away with adapters completely and building an interchangeable lens mount right into the phone itself. Their newest 12S Ultra concept phone sports a Leica M mount with a 1-inch 50.3-megapixel sensor.

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