Leica V-Lux 20 is already available in several stores (the Leica SIS in Palm Beach where this video was recorded still have some in stock). Of course no product is official until the unboxing video is posted on YouTube:
And few pictures of the Leica V-Lux 20 size-compared to the D-Lux 4:
Some Leica dealers in the US got the first V-Lux 20 shipments yesterday. I got some info that Ace Photo and Leica SIS currently have few pieces in stock.
Amazon has listed the V-Lux 20 as available on May 14th.
After Really Right Stuff now Arca Swiss announced a new L-bracket that, among others, will also fit a Leica M9 rangefinder. The price will be 190 Euros. The original info is in French but Arca Swiss confirmed compatibility with M8/M9:
“Thank you for your message, our design department will send you a simulation of your Leica M9 with L-brakets ARCA-SWISS. We confirm that our L-brakets fit your device (and also with the M8).”
Besides eBay, there are few other places that have specialized in Leica auctions. The most famous auction house dealing with Leica equipment is Westlicht Auctions located in Vienna, Austria. They have an upcoming auction on May 29, 2010. Some of the more interesting items (complete list available here):
“Italian or French (?) spy outfit of Leica Standard body with Elmar 3.5/5cm, very interesting mechanism built by high standard built in a brown ladies handbag”
“Completely destroyed by fire camera of Prof. Dr. Ankel from Darmstadt (name engravings on top plate still visible). Dr.Ankel received a new camera by Dr.Ludwig Leitz.”
“Genius design of a 18x24mm half-frame camera by Leitz developer Adam Wagner, the concept was to built a camera that was still smaller, more convenient to use and simpler to operate. For some reasons this forward-looking camera with slide-out lens feature was never put in production, only approx. 3 prototypes are known to exist, this particular camera comes from the Leitz Museum.”
Images and text credit: Westlicht-Auction – while there check also the Daguerréotype Giroux (from 1839) – the first commercially produced camera in the world. The estimated selling price is between 500.000 – 700.000 Euros.
Update: here is another rare Leica M6 at Christies:
More after the break:
Model # UHR-LM8
More pictures available here, here and here.
Features (source):
More detailed specifications after the break (source):
There is already a listing on eBay France for the Leica V-Lux 20 camera with an auction end date of May 1st. The camera is expected to be released to stores at the end of April, 2010:
The new Leica V-Lux 20 was spotted at the Ginza Leica shop in Tokyo:
Leica V-LUX 20 Originally uploaded by Nokton
No, the new 35mm Summilux lens is not officially announced yet. The pdf brochure is now removed from one of the international Leica sites that leaked it earlier this week. The availability date on the document was listed as “End of March 2010”.
The leaked 35 lux pdf document was labeled as “info#9” and was created before the Leica M9 firmware update document, which was labeled as “info#12”. The M9 firmware was announced on March 15. Obviously the new 35 Summilux-M lens was ready to be released in the February- March time frame (see previous post here and here) but something changed that in the last moment. Maybe some exotic type of glass was hard to get or maybe Leica decided to produce enough pieces before the announcement, since this lens is expected to become an instant best seller.
Would you buy the new 35 Lux? Here is a small poll:
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