By now, everyone would have heard of the Leica T. It's a first for Leica as it taps a mirrorless camera market segment with a spiffy new T mount lens. 

We had heard the rumors, that maybe Leica would produce a MFT type mirrorless but that would be watering down its image. 

Presently, the MTF segment, dominated by Olympus and Panasonic already offer mounts to use Leica M type lenses as well as mount Panasonic made Leica camera lenses. The Leica T for that matter uses custom T mounts, so it won't be backward compatible with any of the other Leica lenses on the market. It would only be be appropriate that Leica found a way to squeeze more money from a user with this US$1,850 body designed specifically for a point and shoot photographer. 

The APS-C sensor is the same 16 megapixels and should not perform any better than the current crop of cameras with similar specs. The Leica comes with the option of having a Vario-Elmar-T 18-56mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom or a Summicron-T 23mm f/2 prime (non-zoom) lens. Both lenses will cost $1,750 each. You could add on a US$500 M mount made by Leica just to mount those old M type lenses. 

This means you will have to fork out US$3,000 for the privilege of owning one should you be devoid of any M lenses to begin with. 

Leica has partnered with Audi to make the body. It is cut from an aluminum block just like the engine block of a Audi R8 so this could be the reason why the featureless camera is so expensive. 

It looks pretty normal from a design point of view, like maybe a brick that has been crafted to fit a camera's body and not the other way round. No much thought has been used in this process, precision equipment shaved the block into a heavy skeleton of a camera and hopefully it will qualify as a weapon once you decide to toss it at your enemies once it stops working. 

Photography is a Gentleman's Hobby

Leica can do no wrong with this model. You don't have to make many to make that much money and with the Leica brand name attached to it, people will line up to buy it. The demand for premium cameras is growing. Pros will carry Nikon and Canon to do their job, casual photographers will turn to Fuji, Panasonic and Olympus for everything else. 

This means there is no one company able to tap the luxury market. Carl Zeiss isn't in that line of business even though Sony thinks it could hack that market with the wildly expensive A7s. Leica, well, they just fit in like a glove. It doesn't even look out of place in a Prada handbag. So there you have it. Luxury in photography is Leica. 

For those who do not have the money to buy into such madness, well, consider eBaying one of you your kidneys. It might just do the trick. 

By now, everyone would have heard of the XT-1, the new DSLR camera from Fujifilm. Its retro look is positively amazing and the dials make it easy for you to select exposure options while wearing a glove, but is it really a new camera?

For those who have some technical background, you'd realise that this is the Xpro-1 in a different costume. The Xpro-1 has a rangefinder style jacket while the XT-1 will wear a DSLR outfit. 

I hate to say this but the innards, regardless of what they sell you on the features, is the same thing. Underneath it all, the camera uses the same 16 megapixel sensor. 

Why the same sensor?

Good question. But the underlying reason is still the cost that went into developing the sensor. Those of you who know how much effort is spent into R&D will understand that Fujifilm has to make money from this. Selling a million units a year isn't going to claw back the investment made and photographers have to stick around to buy the same camera twice before you see any significant changes to the specification. 

Developing new tech is an expensive affair. Fujifilm also charges a premium over its models and this means that it won't sell that many units. As of 2013, none of the DSLR manufacturers were actually seeing any increase in profits. The stagnating market has been due to Smartphones taking over most of the market for cameras. 

So when you put the same sensor into a variety of models, your amortize the cost of development and hopefully claw back the dollars poured into development. Sony does the same thing with its range of sensors as it sells it off to different manufacturers. 

Performance versus the Price

There is no denying that there will be a demand for performance in the professional circles and this is where the XT-1 will come in handy. Having seen the test performances of Fuji's X-trans CMOS sensor, you will be impressed by its noise handling in low light at 1600 ISO. In fact, it kicks most of Nikon's and Canon's Professional line up at that ISO range. Price performance wise, it can't be beat. I love seeing the details and if I ever wanted to shoot in low light, I would use a tripod to hold the camera steady. No point trying to make a statement by hand holding and pushing the ISO handling right up to 6400. This is where Nikon and Canon's line up will truly show its colors—a feat which I have little use for. Take for example the D4 or the Df. Fitted with a 16 megapixel sensor, it goes head to head with the TX-1. From ISO 1600, you won't notice much difference until you up the ISO to 3200. From here, you'd see how the large sensor DSLRs will shine. 

Dynamic range wise, there isn't much difference. That is until you throw in a large sensor unit (full frame) into the arena. 

Comparison made from dpreview.com

Body alone, the Xpro-1 sells for about US$1100 online. This is just a tad cheaper than the US$1300 selling price of the XT-1. The Olympus EM-5 sells for roughly US$800. Both the Nikon 610 (uses the same 600 sensor) and D4 are way out in the US$2000 ballpark. 

Then you have daylight capture which can already be handled with a smartphone. Not a good thing all the time since it doesn't give you the 'bokeh' quality everyone is crazy about but heck, I got a work around that keeps me happy. So daylight shooting isn't a big thing. 

I would love to have the XT-1 but I reckon the Xpro-1 is a far better deal. Since it is officially being replaced, stocks will be aplenty and price would be cheaper too. And you can't be looking at a significant improvement in image handling between the two. They have the same sensor and performance won't be far apart. 

The Olympus EM-5 has even better value for money if you're not too fussy but when it comes to high ISO, this is where it loses out to the Xpro-1 and XT-1. 

Now that the prices are sorted out, you have to ask yourself on what you'd be using the camera for. Semi-pro or Pro users will find the XT-1 a good buy, but casual users are really better off with the Olympus EM-5 which at US$800, is a hefty discount from the XT-1. You have to justify that price with better dynamic range and high ISO handling found on the XT-1. That said, unless I really find a paying market niche in photography, I won't be getting any of them soon.