Last week, along with a cool-but-crazy monochrome-only digital camera, Leica announced that it was launching a a special edition of its M9 with fashion label Hermès. It will cost an eye-watering $US25,000 — and this video goes some way to explaining that price.
In fact, while the video concentrates on the Hermès collaboration, it helps explain why every other Leica camera is so expensive, too. There’s gentle care lavished on each and every component as the devices are put together, and the whole process feels so damn human. This isn’t mass production, it’s craftsmanship. Whether it’s enough to justify the purchase of a Leica though, well, that’s an entirely different question. [Leica via The Verge]