Designed by Apple's Jony Ive and designer Marc Newson, Leica's one-of-a-kind M for RED will be auctioned off at Southeby’s on November 23rd 2013 to raise money for The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The hallmark of Ive design is on display with the rounded anodized aluminum outer shell and machined aluminum body. The camera has s a full-format CMOS sensor, high performance processor and new Leica APO-Summicron M 50mm f/2 ASPH lens.
![Fstoppers_130613RD_Leica_136(key)[1]](https://cdn.fstoppers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Fstoppers_130613RD_Leica_136key1-710x533.jpg)
![Fstoppers_130613RD_Leica_092[1]](https://cdn.fstoppers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Fstoppers_130613RD_Leica_0921-710x533.jpg)
An article in the November Vanity Fair details the design partnership forged between Ive and Newson in the design of the camera and a desk manufactured by Neal Feay Studio. In the creation of the camera, 561 models and nearly 1000 prototype parts were made with 55 engineers at work for a total of 2,149 hours. Ives commented to Vanity Fair writer Paul Goldberger that he posits the camera could fetch as much as $6 million at auction. You can read the press release and see more images of the camera on Leica's Google+ page.
That's a lot of money put into it. Does Leica donate all this, or will they get a cut from the auction?
It's rather interesting, all the things that are *missing* from this one-off, too:
http://lavidaleica.com/content/leica-red-m-revealed
True but even if it is missing to the buyer that wouldn't really matter since I doubt it would be used especially if the amount it is estimated to sell for is reached. The only thing the buyer would be thinking is how much it would be worth in years to come chaaa ching!
Absolutely. Where this camera's going, it'll never get dirty. As long as it brings RED a nice windfall, that's okay.
does it have ios7?
Yawn... i mean Braun....
that metal ring around the eyepiece, another biometric sensor, maybe? :D
am i the only one that thinks an M6 still looks nicer than this?
Not the only one.
From the pics it's really ugly but I could imagine that it looks a lot nicer in reality.
Talking about special editions: The Titanium M9 was sooooo much nicer and the Hermés as well. And in comparison they're a bargain.
Also: If they really wanna raise money they should rather sell the 561 prototypes...