Leica has unveiled the Sofort, a luxury instant camera that comes with a price tag of $299.
The Leica Sofort, which will be released into the market in November, looks very stylish, though reminiscent of the logo of picture-sharing service Instagram. It will use the Instax film of Fujifilm for the instant prints that users will get right after they snap the shutter.
According to the official page of the Leica Sofort, the camera comes with color options of mint, white and orange. It will also have simple operations accompanied by a variety of manual settings, which will allow users to either take pictures quickly or take control of all aspects of the photos.
The instant camera has several automatic modes, including standard automatic, party and people, sport and action and macro. Selfie lovers will love the fact that the Leica Sofort also has a dedicated mode for self-portraits, with the instant camera featuring a mirror on the front to help frame the selfie being taken.
For users who prefer to use manual controls, the Leica Sofort allows them to adjust the focus distance and image brightness, activate or deactivate the flash and many more.
The Leica Sofort features a 60mm f/12.7 lens, a shutter speed of 1/8 to 1/400 and a battery that can take about 100 pictures before running out.
The Instax film that Leica will be using for the Sofort will feature the camera company's own branding, with the white borders replaced with cream-colored ones as homage to the classic Polaroid instant pictures of the past. The film packs will be sold by Leica at $13 per pack for 10 shots and $16 per pack for 10 monochrome shots, and there will also be several accessories available to the Leica Sofort such as colorful cases and straps.
There are many other options for instant cameras in the market right now which carry price tags of less than $299 such as the products of Fujifilm, but considering that the Sofort is a Leica product, customers would still be considering the instant camera as an option. At the very least, the Leica Sofort looks very unique, and customers should now be aware of the premium pricing that Leica has on its products.
Leica has been entering different sectors of the camera market. The Leica Sofort is the company's latest product to do so, with the Leica SL announced last year being the company's first full-frame mirrorless camera.
