Leica seems to be on a roll, at least when it comes to making up crazier and crazier prices for its cameras. And nothing screams “overpriced” more than a special edition. Well, nothing except a special edition with “Hermes” in its name.
OK. There is one thing more expensive, a special edition Leica, with “Hermes” in its name, and with the whole thing written in French. Behold: the “Leica M9-P ‘Edition Hermès Jean-Louis Dumas’,” a camera that costs just $50,000.
The Leica M9-P “Edition Hermès” is in fact a kit, and comes in a box with three lenses and a bag — a 28mm ƒ2, a 50mm ƒ0.95 and a 90mm ƒ2. And it isn’t just the usual Leica special edition, either. Instead of just making the same old camera from titanium, or wrapping it in a different color of leather than usual, this camera has been completely redesigned, on the outside at least.
The top and bottom plates have been tweaked (in “collaboration” with car designer Jean-Louis Dumas no less), as have the controls, and the lenses come in a special silver-anodized finish.
Too rich for you? Of course it is. But if you have $25,000 burning a hole in your pocket you can grab one with just one lens, the Summilux-M 50 mm ƒ1.4 ASPH, which is the lens I’d probably choose anyway.
Weirdly, nowhere is there a 35mm lens, which is the real classic rangefinder focal length. This is probably because these kits will never actually be used to take a photograph. They will instead be locked up in the collection rooms of some very rich fools who likely also own Vertu phones.
Oh, and the name? According to the press release, Jean-Louis Dumas was “the former president of Hermès,” and dies in 2010.
Source: DP Review
