Have $30k to spend? Then snag up this White Limited Edition M9-P and Silver 50 Noctilux ASPH!

March 22, 2012 First Looks, Just for fun, Leica 60

Have $30k to spend? Then snag up this White Limited Edition M9-P and Silver 50 Noctilux ASPH!

Looks like Leica is up to their old tricks, this time with special edition M9-P’s. They usually do this near the end of a product run it seems (the white M8, safari M8.2 just before the M9) but this one is not for the weak wallets. For your $30,000 US dollars you get a WHITE M9-P with chrome top and a matching chrome Leica Noctilux ASPH (which I have seen and held in person and MAN OH MAN is this lens a beauty). The kit is finished off with special packaging and a white leather strap. This is only being made in a limited run of 50 for  the Japanese market but I am sure if someone had the desire for one, along with the cash you could snag one up.

Me? I’ll stick with my standard setup 🙂

60 Comments

  5. You can get the great V1 in the unlimited white edition for 30 times less including the 10-30mm and a white vegan strap 🙂

  7. Looks cheapo hospital style. Wonder why Leica didn`t made urushi laquered both body and lens. That would be very japanese way.

  13. Use that camera for 20 mins and it would look like a used, brown/grey dishrag. What a ridicuolous idea….kind of like white leather seats in a sports car, they look good for 5 mins when you pick the car up from the dealer and as soon as you sit on them they’re trashed.

  14. Just took a load of pictures in a dark church with this camera, ISO 100 and F8 (surely T* stop?) and everything can out underexposed and blurry. I want my 30K back.

  15. If there was any more proof needed of what Leica is now as a company, here it is. A camera with an almost useless monitor, no high ISO capability, a noisy shutter and iffy reliability for $30,000, because well, it’s white, and it’s a Leica. It’s a white Leica, you see….? Still don’t get it? Must be one of the great unwashed.
    What an utter farce. They should be embarassed.
    How do you Leica owners feel about them wasting their time on this, while your lenses remain on backorder?
    Incredible.

    • Oh, by the way, I just noticed that the world’s best camera company has the lens covering what I assume is the release button and part of the viewfinder. Either they can’t design cameras or can’t handle basic Photoshop. Neither is encouraging.
      Absolutely incredible.

      • I’ve reconsidered. Please ignore my earlier comments.
        I’ve just ordered a slew of M9-P’s and the appropriate lenses, 4 cans of semi-gloss white paint and a roll of masking tape. In several day’s time, (when the paint is dry), these will be on sale for $28,500.
        Please order quickly! These are gonna go like hotcakes!
        And, I will limit these to 70 only.

      • “..the world’s best camera company has the lens covering what I assume is the release button and part of the viewfinder..”

        The rear of the lens tapers (like the Konica 50mm f1.2) so that from the front it appears to cover the lens-release button, but it’s actually tapered sufficiently to fit your finger in there and press the release button.

        The window which the lens appears to partially obscure isn’t the viewfinder (it’s serrated translucent plastic) but the “illuminating” window which lets light through the various cut-outs which show each lens’ frame lines. So light through that misty plastic window shows the 50mm frame lines (and the 75mm frame edges) when the Noctilux is attached.

        The lens doesn’t actually obscure anything: it only appears to from this angle.

        (See my message further up, at Comment 3 – once Steve’s approved it and it appears here! – explaining why this photo looks weird, because it’s been taken with a “front-fall” lens.)

  16. Wow, what a stupid idea. Just goes to show how far Leica has fallen. As someone above said, they have become a poser’s brand, nothing more than status symbols. So far removed from the original street shooter cred they once had…

    Oh, and this horribly butchered Photoshop-job should be sent to the Photoshopdisasters website.

  18. Well…let’s see…by early summer the new, silver, all-metal Olympus 75mm f/1.8 will be released and I can slap that on the front of my White Panasonic G3….That is as close as I am ever getting to this look!!!!! LOL! (mine will have a grey strap. Thanks!).

  20. I’m wondering about some of the comments belittling or even dismissing this special edition. Leica is positioning itself in the luxury segment and this type of releases certainly aim at a very specific audience. Although I would never not consider buying such a camera, I appriciate the fact that the 900k$ revenue from this limited edition will help Leica continuing its business and develop further – more useful – products.

  21. Is it a camera or a fashion accessory? In what way does a paint job improve the purchaser’s photography? In what way does this enhance Leica’s brand reputation?

  23. Sorry, that body is ghastly….to my eyes. That chrome Noct is fantastic though…

  29. even if you have that money? what s a point to spend it on something that does not cost that much and it is almost outdated?

    I feel about it the same way as i would go ahead and by a gold-plated Olympus EPL1 for lets say $3500, special kit…..

    What is the point if i can just get then newer Olympus for cheaper and it will give me much better quality wise results.

    DO YOU KNOW WHY RICH PEOPLE ARE RICH? BECAUSE THEY DON’T SPEND THERE MONEY LEFT OR RIGHT EVEN IF THEY CAN AFFORD IT….

    If you that reach and have extra 30K in the pocket, go direct to the Leica and for this money they might let you get the new M10 way before everyone else – BE WISE )

  31. I can see this being a perfect camera for Mr. Roarke (Ricardo Montalban in Fantasy Island TV-series)!!

    I think I’ll go sell my one of my kidneys and my left cornea (I’m a right-eye shooter), and buy myself of one these.

    Oh wait, I already sold my kidney for the M9 and 50 Lux. So I guess … I’ll do one of those fake marriage things to help a foreigner get a quickie green card. 🙂

  33. Is Leica moving toward Funeral business companies!? there is no any logic behind that!, painting such a beautiful camera in white and make it so ugly! and price it $30000! in this bad economy!
    Awful taste!!

  35. There was a time when a Leica was a discerning photographer’s camera of choice. This sort of gimmick from Leitz only suffices to diminish their street cred, I regret to say. The limited production run of just 70 will, sadly, never ever be used, or see the light of day again, and will simply gather dust in some non-photographer’s collection. Still it lines the pockets of Leitz.

    • Ugh ! Conspicuous consumption at it’s worst ! Leica has lost the plot ; in an era where entire countries are going bust, such releases, ( when there are far better and more contemporary choices available,) are just plain vulgar, in your face and go to prove that the Leica brand is no longer for the enthusiast. The famed “Red Dot” I’m sorry to say has degenerated into a boutique and effeminate symbol , fit only for posers .

  36. Just bought a Pentax K-5 yesterday …guess I should have waited 🙂 Thanks for the great reviews Steve, helped me make my purchase decision.

  37. I guess these do not exist yet – the image is obviously photoshoped.

    Still – may be a better deal than the Sigma SD1 in burl-wood 😉

  38. Well at least they included a lens for that price. I bet that took all of Leica’s self control.

        • Is it just me or does the lens look like photoshopped on the body…it is a beauty of a lens, but the picture looks fake….

          • The camera and lens in this pic have been shot with a “falling front” lens (notice that both sides of the white camera are vertical: the camera and lens which took this photo haven’t been pointed downwards towards the white M9).

            That’s why the slightly vertically-stretched and “oval-fronted” Noctilux looks odd: it’s a quirk of the way that this kit was photographed.

            It’s not a snapshot; it’s been carefully shot by a professional. Compare the shot above with these amateur snaps of an M9: http://tinyurl.com/3xhpnvu

            See how their edges narrow down towards the bottoms of those pics? They were shot with an ordinary lens pointing downwards towards the M9. The camera which shot the pic, above, of the white M9 wasn’t tilted down towards the white M9 ..instead, the camera would have been level, but its “tilt/shift” lens was slid downwards so that all of the M9 and its lens were in the picture (plus the camera strap). The setup will have looked something like this:
            http://tinyurl.com/8ynv6fm

            That keeps the edges of the white camera vertical, but it makes the Noctilux look slightly odd.

          • David, thanks for the explanation…I guess you might be right…what throws me off though is that the button to change the lenses is half covered by the lens…just wonder how that can work?

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