Not sure if "jewelry camera" announcements really belong here. They hardly contain information actually relevant to photography and generate a lot of negative responses. And, of course, their value in terms of advertisement is, at the very least, not obvious given the target audience.

For the money, why not a solid silver body ... actually, for durability, 93% silver, 7% copper, like the old US silver dollars. Silver's only $21 per ounce these days, wouldn't exactly be a cost problem.

Then, you could add value by having famous firearms silersmiths make classic silver etchings and carvings... deer, ducks, all that hunting stuff.

And since it's a camera, Leica could sell special silver-toned paper, just to ice the cake.

so many negative comments...

this camera is amazing...it makes very good photos..classic design...it comes with lightroom download..
check Pbase or flickr for great photos taken by this camera

http://www.pbase.com/cameras/leitz/d_lux_5

these photos are mostly taken by clowns , no talent photographer..oh and i love this one: red dot lover wanna be photographer

This wouldn't have seemed so silly if the LX7 hadn't come out around 18 months ago and hit a street price around half of this version's MSRP. Seems a bit late in the life cycle for special editions.

That said, a lot of the comments are over the top IMO. It's not a bad camera, just a little long-in-the-tooth. And this is far from Leica spiralling Hassy-style. Leica has been rebadging since at least the 90s (or was it 80s?) and has always kept making "real" Leicas while selling the rebadged models, which presumably are good moneymakers or they wouldn't do it. I'd say a lot of people are a little too fond of a good old fashioned pile-on.

Yup, these things walk out the door in China, the place where millionaires happily pay for gold plated brown sticky things.

The billionaire owners of Leica, paying an overall tax rate of 12%, gleefully inspect their offshore balance sheet, noting the 800% GP on the Leicasonics...

All these boutique camera announcements are bringing some comic relief to the news page. Right up there with "What the Duck" comics.

Get the G-STAR RAW edition.

What the heck!

Continue making them as long as it sells. We may think that it is not worth the money but many just want to be different and are willing to pay for it.

The Leica D-Lux 6 (with the LX7 innards) is quite a capable camera. In fact, it is one of the better compact cameras around with an excellent lens.

This is the second announcement from Leica this year I don't like. This one is overkill, even Leica collectors are likely to pass this time around.

Frown.

it gets a silver award! Wait, no it doesn't.

At last! ... :-)

In China, this makes great gift for a manager or party leader who has no idea and does not care how good/bad it is as long as it has a luxury brand logo. L or H's management understand this and they know such products have nothing to do with photography. People who buy this want no part in good picture taking. Therefore, this is a very logical product.

If this does well, we might start to see Gucci, Prada, and Louis Vuitton get into the camera business.

If I was to apply logic to this camera purely based on price and the types of people who'd even consider buying one then I draw the following conclusions:

1) These people would buy a Suzuki over a Honda for the same price.
2) These people would buy a Casio over a Seiko for the same price.
3) These people will consider the Leica to be much better than the Nikon D7000 or RX100 II
4) Even if the Sony A7R was reduced to the same price as this Leica, the people who this camera is intended for will preference the Leica simply because it is a Leica.
5) When I look into the toilet bowl my floating turd is actually much more valuable than what I think it is if only I knew how to market it properly.

Mutton dressed as lamb

Ths is like if BMW were to market Hondas with better leather seats and charge 5x the price. Nothing against Honda - they make fine cars . And Panasonic makes fine cameras.

No one can polish a turd like Leica can. What a waste of time.

No sense. Old sensor, nothing attractive.

These rebranded Panasonics seem to be selling remarkably well here in Germany. I personally know several - otherwise quite sensible - people of normal income who bought such cameras telling me with utter conviction that Leica did add something - other than the red badge - to the product. If it makes them happy. (I am still waiting for my Leica smartphone - a rebadged HTC?)

Leica have got the strategy wrong in my opinion. They should offer lamb chops instead of the inedible pouch.

Leica know something but the enthusiast and the pro's don't? It may be that Leica don't make these cameras for photographers instead they make them for the richest 3% which we have no idea about where they live or what they do. I can't imagine any hard working middle class going for it. Errm there is the third possibility too; Leica are trying to bankrupt "elegantly" for tax reasons.

It seems to me that an LX7 with a Leica badge attached constitutes counterfeit goods. These cameras should therefore be seized by the authorities.

My word what is the world coming to.

When I first saw this I literally laughed out loud, now I'm beginning to feel sad that we are witnessing the last desperate death throes of a once great camera manufacturer, driven to the brink by superior competitors and a management team who have pulled the same tricks a few too many times.

Surely there aren't enough gullible people around to make any kind of success of this for Leica?

For me, it's missing wood. Wood is what discerning photographers want.C'mon Leica - where is the wood?

Let the hating COMMENCE!

oh... the pouch...

leica is destroying its brand with this strategy, and by extension so is hasselblad. verbatim cloning another product. this is indicative of a firm that has milked its brand for too long without investing in its future.

Not mentioned, but this comes with a name, history and photo of the lamb used to make your pouch.

Fascinating incredible design, with this awesome large red dot in front, and a wonderful soft pouch, probably the most interesting pocket camera launch of this century (if we except all other Leica special series or Hasselblad rebranded gears naturally).

I am thinking about selling my X100s that is just a camera, to buy one of these Leica D-Lux 6 Silver Edition, that is much more than a simple camera, but a tribute to centuries of photography and an iconic object that deserve to be exposed on a photo gallery among the bests photos of the world.

Thanks Leica to give us this marvel, this photography icon, where the black of the body answer to the white silver of the lens to reimaginate how pure black & white defined photography for most of its history.

Thanks again to give us cameras that do more than shooting: they show!

Dear me. It looks like a reasonably pricy sort of camera wearing a 19.95 el cheapo silver lens. "Spent all your cash on the camera and could only afford a department store lens eh?"

However no one can deny that Leitz Wetzlar leads the world, pushes the envelope, in advanced lambskin nappa leather pouches! Leica and Hasseblad, isle six, jewelery department.

Sadly, the dot still creates feelings of unmitigated lust.

Leica unveils the Panasonic Lumix LX-7 Ultra Vanity Edition.

So now silver lenses on black bodies are 'cool'? Pathetic...!

The black version is better.. This one is weird looking

soooo this is a Panasonic/Leica repainted to look like it has a retro interchangeable lens on it? (sigh)