When we think of the word “bespoke” as it apply to an object, we generally think of a super luxury or exotic car like Rolls Royce Phantom or the Pagani Zonda, a high-end watch from Audemars Piguet or Ulysse Nardin, or custom-tailored suit from Valentino Uomo or Tom Ford. When it comes to cameras, however, only one brand really fits in the category of “bespoke,” and that brand is Leica.

With hand-assembled prime lenses ranging from $4,000 to $8,000 and camera bodies like the M9 digital rangefinder that starts at $8000, it’s easy to see why just like the aforementioned objects, the Leica high end cameras are objects of desire targeted to a pretty specific and rather affluent market.

Ok, maybe the run-of-the-mill M9 is more akin to a Porsche 911 rather than a Bugatti Veyron. No, the Bugatti Veyron of Leica camera is the Leica M9-P “Edition Hermès” that starts at a cool $29,000 for the one-lens set which includes a silver anodized Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH. lens and tops off at a staggering $60,000 for the super-limited edition “Série Limitée Jean-Louis Dumas” three-lens set with a Leica Summicron-M 28 mm f/2 ASPH., a Leica Noctilux-M 50 mm f/0.95 ASPH. and a Leica APO-Summicron-M 90 mm f/2 ASPH lenses.

Limited to only 100 units, the second set is truly a camera set reserved to the super high-end camera aficionados and people whose last names happens to be Trump.





Despite costing more than a typical down payment on a house, one thing can’t be denied. The master craftsmanship that goes into the making of this limited Leica is just utterly amazing. Just take a look at Leica’s high-definition video on the making of the Leica M9-P ‘Edition Hermès' – Série Limitée Jean-Louis Dumas. Prepare to be awed and yes, turn up your volume =)

Here are more photos from Leica’s website. Thanks to PetaPixel for the heads up on this video.

Couple of tidbits:



The moss on the rock closeup seems to show a slight IQ advantage for the Pentax 645D.



But the 100% crop on the silo on the moire test seems to swing the other way around, showing better sharpness for the d800e. Of course, in this, it’s hard to tell if this is due to the silo not being in focus for the 645D or not. There doesn’t seem to be any moire present for either cameras, though.

That being said, if you recall from our post of the Nikon D800e vs the Leica S2, the D800e can exhibit moire and color shifts in very straight line.

Other than that, what do you guys think? Did the D800e beat the 645D as the premiere landscape camera?

Oh, and did anyone else get really nervous with the way the Pentax 645D on the tripod is just leaning so far forward by the river? Man, I really thought that he was going to bump it with his leg and it was going to fall into the river. Yikes!

Just check out SoundImagePlus’s dynamic range examples here. This particular photo is straight out of the camera jpeg, not even the raw:

And here is a 100% crop, showing that recovering the shadows didn’t add that much noise at all:





And from his other post here, you can see another example from an OM-D jpeg that shows how much you can pull from the shadows and the highlight, enough to make a very convincing HDR look:








What do you guys think?

Photo by Joe Gunawan | fotosiamo.com

Yet, I still look for the Nikon D800, Pentax 645D, or Phase One as my next level step up.

In reality, though, the camera most likely nearest in my horizon is not one of those three. Rather, it is the Olympus OM-D. Not only do I have an existing set of great lenses for it (Olympus 45mm f1.8, Panaleica 25mm f1.4, Olympus 4/3 Zuiko 14-54mm f2.8-3.5, and Panasonic 20mm f1.7), but also because it has gotten to the point that the image quality, performance, autofocusing speed, and features such as battery grip and weathersealing has matched those of its APS-C competitors.

In other words, just as what Kirk Tuck mentions in his article on why the OM-D is making waves, the Olympus OM-D has reached parity.

The market wanted the size reduction. The market wanted the cool lenses. The market wanted fast and sure autofocusing. But they were not willing to give up perceived image quality of existing cameras in exchange for the benefits of the size and weight reduction. When Olympus removed IQ barriers all of the other features were unleashed to become market drivers… [It's a] cost effective package that, when used well, would create the same kind of results, on paper or on screen, they were getting from a Canon 7D or a Nikon D7000 but in a smaller package with much smaller lenses.

It is definitely one of the primary reasons that the OM-D is just as difficult to obtain as the Nikon D800. It really is back-ordered everywhere! A truckload of pros with very little cons in a small size package.

Even DPReview’s test results and love for the Olympus OM-D was kind of surprising, too. I mean, take a look at their dynamic range chart for the OM-D versus the Nikon D800.

There are a lot of good points in Kirk’s post, but these two paragraphs is probably the important point about the paradigm shift that the OM-D, as well as other high-end mirrorless cameras are bringing:

Once professional photographers catch up they will return to the time honored marketing tradition of selling their personal vision instead of their technical inventory. At that point they’ll consider the same cameras that their hobbyist counterparts are embracing today. And for all the same reasons.

It’s good to remember that in the age of the Nikon F2 and the Canon F1 that the most popular professional photographer tool was the Nikon FM or the Canon AE-1. Both were small, light and capable. Neither were originally aimed at professionals but were quickly adopted for many of the same reasons m4:3rds is in ascendency today: Smaller, lighter, easier to use, cheaper and just as good image quality.

The professional level of photography tends to stay rather conservative, with few daring to change from Canon or Nikons, which is why Sony, Pentax, Fuji, and Olympus have yet to make a sizable dent in that market. The enthusiast and prosumer market, however, are a different story. So do you see the OM-D and similar higher end mirrorless cameras as a replacement for the APS-C DSLRs?

If someone makes a full-frame full-featured mirrorless camera that is smaller than the current full-frame DSLR lines, would you get it?

Be sure to read the rest of Kirk’s post on Why he think the Olympus OM-D, EM-5 is making so many waves.
Stay creative

Just to give you an idea of what Kai and the gang put the 7D through, here is another snapshot from the video when the 7D is getting shot at with an airsoft gun in order to break it from the SOLID block of ice that it is encased in!

So in the end, does the Canon 7D survive to take another shot? Only one way to find out, so grab some popcorn (and maybe a barf bag), sit back and enjoy this Saturday matinee!