Love them or hate them, there’s no denying the aesthetic beauty of Leica cameras. It’s tough to fight the contingent that argue the line’s high prices have more to do with their inescapably eye-catching designs than interior technology, but we dare you to try and look away. Leica has revamped its V-Lux 20, a popular consumer compact camera that surprisingly retailed for a mere $399 (pennies by Leica standards), and brought us the V- Lux 30.
The new compact camera boasts a 15.1-megapixel sensor, 16x zoom, and 3-inch LCD touchscreen display – but the upgrades don’t end there. It also comes with built-in GPS (with one million geographical points of interest programmed for photo archiving purposes) as well as a 3D mode – not to mention its 1080i-AVCHD Full HD video recording, to round out just about all of your pocket cam needs. Sure, every digital camera worth buying these days comes with video recording, but the V- Lux 30 does many of them one better with an integrated stereo microphone that will keep your sound static-free and wind-proof.
While there isn’t an auto-share feature built into the camera, it does pull your geographical data when you upload photos to social networking sites. The only exception, Leica notes, is if you’re visiting China.
Still skeptical or possibly unimpressed with the camera’s more technical capabilities? There are a slew of scene modes – too many to name. But just for kicks, there are options like candlelight, baby 1, baby 2, starry sky, and fireworks.
You didn’t think Leica would add so much to its V-Lux series without a serious price hike, did you? The V- Lux 30 will retail for $749 starting this June.
