- Leica unveils the Leitzphone, its first globally out there cellphone
- The US is about to overlook out, although
- The digicam {hardware} is just like Xiaomi’s newest flagship
Leica makes telephones, however you most likely would not understand it as a result of to date they’ve been unique to Japan. That scenario simply modified, nevertheless, with the brand new, globally out there Leitzphone.
There’s unhealthy information when you’re within the US, nevertheless, as a result of that is the one market set to overlook out on what seems like a superb flagship cellphone – particularly for photographers.
Powered by Xiaomi and wrapped in a usually premium Leica shell, the Leitzphone shares a lot of the identical {hardware} as the most recent flagship Xiaomi cellphone — that means an iPhone and Galaxy-beating triple digicam unit.
The fundamental digicam is supplied with a big 50MP 1-inch sensor and LOFIC tech, for pure picture high quality and fewer of a reliance on HDR and computational processing. For camera nerds, LOFIC stands for Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor. In short, the capacitor sits at the pixel level and reduces clipping, thus increasing dynamic range. Leica hasn’t provided me with the actual numbers.
What’s unique to the Leitzphone model — besides its slick Leica design and UI / UX that’s consistent with its actual cameras, and which is a first for phones as far as I know — is a mechanical ring around the camera unit. It’s a real design centerpiece for photographers, providing a tactile way to manually control a setting of the camera.
By default the control ring is set to zoom, this avoiding screen tapping to switch between cameras and zoom settings. (The 200MP telephoto lens has a 3x to 4x optical zoom.) However, the ring can be reassigned to functions such as exposure compensation and white balance. Proper photographer’s stuff.
The Leitzphone will also be compatible with the latest version of Xiaomi’s camera grip, which comes in a photographer’s kit, and which will go a long way in improving the phone’s handling for photography. That was certainly my experience with the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.
There’s one version of the Leitzphone; a matte black with silver knurled trim, priced at £1,700 (around $2,000 / AU$3,400). Inside the box you’ll find a cleaning cloth, red wrist strap, silver lens cap plus a case (which is compatible with the mechanical ring).
My dream phone for photography?
I have previously declared the Xiaomi 15 Ultra as my favorite camera phone, and although I’m yet to properly try out the new Leitzphone, I’m pretty sure it’ll win my heart.
It’s equipped with the latest Xiaomi tech, as per the 17 Ultra announced on the same day forward of MWC in Barcelona. I actually felt that the bigger 1-inch sensor delivered the pure picture high quality I anticipate from a premium compact digicam, relatively than the overly processed look I usually expertise with digicam telephones.
Throw in Leica’s attractive design and UI, plus the varied colour profiles and bokeh traits impressed by Leica cameras and lenses, and it seems set to be my dream cellphone for images.
One profile is impressed by the Leica M9 — the final Leica digicam to function a CCD sensor (earlier than CMOS turned the trade customary). Images made with CCD sensors have a distinct look about them.
A black-and-white mode is impressed by Leica’s new Monopan 50 movie roll, too — its first movie, revealed final yr.
Leica is not skimping elsewhere, both. The Leitzphone encompasses a wholesome 6.9-inch show with 3500nit brightness, 16GB RAM, 1TB storage, 6,000mAh battery, and a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.
Speaking of chipsets, there is a distinctive (to telephones) extra safety chip, designed for securely embedding content material credential data onto pictures — the trade customary method of authenticating pictures as actual.
All in all, the Leitzphone looks like the posh cellphone for photographers and, satirically, one of many extra inexpensive methods to shoot with a Leica. I’ll report again as soon as I’ve had an prolonged time photographing with the cellphone.
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