I like to travel light yet heavy on style but sadly I’ve never been able to find a camera that matched my sartorial sensitivities. To me, the humble camera burdened with the onerous duty of capturing scenes of beauty always suffered an unjust fate of utilitarian value, never quite meeting the standard of aesthetics as befitting a tool of great vistas- until today.

Introducing the Limited Edition Hermes Camera Leica M9-P

In collaboration with Hermes, Leica has released two new limited edition cameras: the M9-P “Edition Hermès” and the M9-P “Edition Hermès – Série Limitée Jean-Louis Dumas. Both exclusive and both luxuriously clad (shoulder strap included) with “Veau Swift” calfskin leather in “core,”- the Leica M9-P camera follows the same design aesthetics of the Leica range but updated with silvered chrome.

A 300 limited edition run, The Leica M9-P “Edition Hermés” includes a silver-anodized Leica Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH. lens. The Leica M9-P “Edition Hermès – Série Limitée Jean-Louis Dumas” is creme de la creme of the pair: If you weren’t preparing your credit card just for the exclusive hand-finished unique Hermès camera bag, the limited edition camera numbering to 100 pieces also includes three lenses: a Leica Summicron-M 28 mm f/ 2 ASPH., a Leica Noctilux-M 50 mm f/0.95 ASPH. and a Leica APO-Summicron-M 90 mm f/ 2 ASPH; additionally, the Série Limitée Jean-Louis Dumas is accompanied with an excellent coffee table portfolio of 200 black-and-white images all captured by Jean-Louis Dumas with his Leica M camera.

The “Edition Hermés” (one lens) will be released in June retailing $25,000 while the “Série Limitée Jean-Louis Dumas” (with three lenses) will be released in July retailing $50,000, both exclusive to Leica stores and boutiques.