Leica Rumors

Leica TL2 now in stock in the US

By LR admin | Published: October 3, 2017

The Leica TL2 mirrorless camera is currently in stock in the US at Adorama, Amazon, Leica Store Miami and PopFlash.

Like the new Leica TL2 Facebook page for a detailed coverage of the TL2.

Posted in Leica TL2| Tagged in stock| 1 Comment

Updated list of upcoming/rumored Leica cameras and lenses

By LR admin | Published: October 3, 2017

Here is an updated list of upcoming/rumored Leica cameras and lenses:

Leica camera with L-mount and EVF
Leica Noctilux-M 75mm f/1.25 ASPH lens
Leica is also expected to release their APO-Summicron-SL 75mm f/2 ASPH lens
Leica Thambar-M 90mm f/2.2 lens
New Zenit-Leica camera
New LHSA special edition camera or lens – it could also be one of the rumored items listed above. This year is Leica Society’s 50th Anniversary and they will have an event in Chigaco (October 5th – 8th). There are rumors floating around for a potential new Leica product(s) announcement in October.
There could be a new 35mm f/1 or f/0.95 M-mount lens. I am not sure if this will be under the Noctilux brand as I already reported a few months ago or it will be one of the new lenses from the rumored Leica-Zenit joint venture.
There are also rumors about a new Andy Summers limited edition Leica camera being worked on.
Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro smartphones with dual Leica cameras are rumored to be announced on October 16th.

Rumors: the new Zenit D1 mirrorless full-frame digital camera could be a limited edition based on the Leica M9, new Zenitar lenses for Leica M-mount

By LR admin | Published: October 1, 2017

Another very interesting report from ZenitCamera.com (see also previous related posts) – the new Zenit D1 mirrorless full-frame digital camera could be a limited edition version based on the Leica M9. The Zenit D1 could launch with several new Zenitar lenses for Leica M-mount.

My understanding is that another Zenit D11 model will also be released, but the details are not clear.

The price of the new Zenit digital cameras are expected to be 30% lower than the corresponding Leica products.

It makes sense for Zenit to launch a new M-mount digital camera and lenses – after all, they have been producing fake Leica rangefinders for decades (Zorki and FED cameras were also produced in the Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory KMZ, which also produced the Zenit single lens reflex camera):

Fake Russian Leica M camera

Here is the full Google translation of the article:

Posted in Zenit M| Tagged Leica purchased Zenit rumors, Leica-Zenit joint venture, Zenit, Zenit D1 mirrorless full-frame digital camera, Zenit D11 mirrorless full-frame digital camera, Zenitar lenses for Leica M-mount| 30 Comments

Leica executives visited the Russian KMZ plant where the new Zenit full-frame mirrorless digital camera will be produced

By LR admin | Published: September 30, 2017

On October 12th, 2016 Leica executives, including Andreas Kaufmann (majority shareholder and chairman of the supervisory board of Leica) and Markus Limberger (COO, member of the management board) visited the KMZ plant in Russia following some conversations during the last Photokina show (KMZ = Krasnogorsk Mechanical Plant where the new Zenit camera will be produced). According to Patriot, the internal KMZ newspaper, the parties “expressed an interest in joint work (…) in the field of observation and photographic equipment”. During the visit of the plant, Dr. Kaufmann reportedly appreciated the Optar 8mm f/1.2 Super-16 lens (Google translation):

Posted in Zenit M| Tagged Andreas Kaufmann, Leica purchased Zenit rumors, Leica-Zenit joint venture, Zenit, Zenit-Leica full-frame mirrorless digital camera| 1 Comment

Confirmed: Leica to announce also a new THAMBAR-M 90mm f/2.2 lens

By LR admin | Published: September 28, 2017

The original Leitz Thambar 9cm f:2.2 lens

A few weeks ago I received a tip about a new Leica THAMBAR-M 90mm f/2.2 lens but I did not report it on the blog because it came from a new source and I wanted to get at least one more confirmation before publishing online. I usually never report on “unconfirmed” rumors coming from unknown sources or questionable websites. A few days ago I even mentioned the exact same lens here in the comments section of LeicaRumors:

The Japanese site Nokishita just confirmed today that in addition to the Noctilux-M 75mm f/1.25 ASPH, Leica will announce also a new Thambar-M 90mm f/2.2 lens:

Leica NOCTILUX-M 75mm f/1.25 ASPH lens: late 2017 announcement (was initially scheduled for April)
Leica THAMBAR-M 90mm f/2.2 lens: to be released in the first half of 2018

The new lens will be a re-edition of the famous Leitz Thambar 9cm f:2.2 of the late 1930s, a portrait lens with adjustable blur – see this eBay listing for pictures: