where did you see this? i can’t find where it says it’s a magsafe battery to charge phone.
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Leica Announces $329 'LUX Grip' Camera Accessory for iPhone
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Oh you’re totally right. I was completely confusing this product with one shown at CES which is actually a Belkin, as they’re both MagSafe grips than contain batteries.
Belkin’s new accessory is a magnetic power bank and camera grip rolled into one
The Stage PowerGrip has a 10,000mAh battery and comes in fun colors.
I read it as a MagSafe battery for the phone, but it is indeed just a regular battery to power its own functions. Thanks for the call out.
You know, that's not the answers I hear.
It's "The Fuji does a much better job" / "Film is art, digital Leicas aren't Leicas", "So how many years were you a dentist" etc
Yea, I suspect many aren't willing to admit they can't afford it; and while film and digital are different mediums in the end it's the eye the counts.
Leica has definitely gone through some changes, but their glass gives a great look.
Personally, I like the "You have a nice camera you must take nice pictures...."
Automation has changed things, or sure, as well. Gone are the days of Sunny 16 and when you'd just set the exposure and f/stop for the desired DOF and just point, compose, and shoot without worrying about being in focus. I did a lot of action photography that way many years ago.
I shoot FF (Nikon Z8 and 7II) on assignments, but really love yPenF on holidays and the GM5 for habit just with me. With a nice prime like the 70/1.8 and edited raw in Lightroom, the iPhone 16 pm still doesn’t match the look. It’s not fullframe or what a Hasselblad will give you, but for a pocket sized camera, the GM5 impure fun. (Despite the horrible EVF).
Regarding the subscription model of the app: there is also the free version, which already offers many functions.
and: even with the free version you can save shots in raw with older iPhones, which the Apple APP does not offer
and: even with the free version you can save shots in raw with older iPhones, which the Apple APP does not offer
That is where we diverge.
The 75/1.8 + GM5 combo is an interesting one in MFT absolutes, but you're already looking at a package that occupies pretty much the same volume as any of my Q's or M's that will blow the Panasonic out of the water in all manner of ways while at the same time still being definitively not pocketable (or particularly good to use outside of mostly-assisted auto, and I wouldn't necessarily call compromised controls "fun").
As an "out of bag camera" then, I would expect a far greater level of core image differentiation in 2025, and that's why I carry one of my Q3's or one of my M11's for a balance of that real quality jump over a phone vs relative compactness.
Even back then in the mists of time, I only ever used the GM1 & 5 with the pancake zoom / similar lenses and pretty much at most the PL 15mm for that reason - size vs performance - beyond that it stopped making sense overall for me. The Pen F is a different prospect especailly from the most important controls aspect, but again in terms of the package it became irrelevant to me years ago.
When the S9 came out I was like 'whoa' - as the spiritual FF succcessor to the GM's - but the lenses to justify that succession aren't there.
I got curious enough to have a play around with the app and the subscription add-on, and the limitations I expected to see are pretty much exactly what I thought they'd be. In one primary case, worse than my assumptions.
The lens simulations are actually even more rudimentary than I expected. I was wondering if it does some fancier computational imaging to better sidestep the limitations of the iPhone sensor and fakeh modes... and no. There's no *technical* improvement to the image at all.
As for the "Leica Look", I've never used "Leica Looks" on the cameras that I have which has the capability since to me the "Leica Look" is the straight DNG's I pull out of my Leicas. The only actually different thing to any number of other filter apps on the iPhone is that it has been tailored as a first-party product to be a good approximation in terms of colour and contrast as what the Leica Looks do on cameras like the Q.
I get it from a wannabe influencer type aspect. It's essentially a filter app that gives you a somewhat recognizable, consistently classy look (within the confines of a crappy camera) from a straightforward, again classy and completely on-brand UX. And I doubt for the actual users of this app it'll be $70/year - it'll get used on demand, $7 to $7 at a time. I can see that being a bit of a draw.
The Leica Fotos app is a genuinely fantastic app as a camera companion. It might even be the best overall in the category. But of course, in order to use that you need a Leica of some type. Lux is basically Fotos for the iPhone camera... and I can't help but feel that's redundant, unless you're buying into the brand wholesale.
Of course there are people who unironically buy Ferrari keychains, and by the same token, you can have your smartphone with a relatively authentic simulation of the filter presets available on a Real Leica as well as a (crappy) pastiche of some lenses within the range.
Whether those filter presets on Real Leicas get used by anyone else except for people who bought a Leica Because It's A Leica is entirely another matter, of course.
Yes, since it’s made with high quality material and parts.
BUT, only if it worked with other camera apps. Otherwise it’s not worth the high price point.