Logo for Leica Camera (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We know that top-of-the-line cameras can be really expensive but $2.18 million?  The price of a mansion?  And this is not even one of those diamond-encrusted iPhones, it’s a plain old Leica.  

This Leica M3D is not a prototype or a limited edition; it is a production camera although it is “one of four that was specially customized by Leitz for American photojournalist David Douglas Duncan.”  Another Leica, this one the legendary M3, also fetched $1.17 million.  This near-mint piece is “the very first production M3 ever made.”

We all knew Leicas were high-end cameras; however, they’re obviously collectors’ items and museum pieces too.

The new Fuji X-E1 is a display piece for your neighbourhood camera store.  Like other recent Fujis, this APS-C mirrorless has that retro look with a few manual controls which makes it stand out from the crowd of NEXes and such.  There’s also a material technical difference: instead of the standard Bayer Array, it uses a new, very different, ‘X-Trans CMOS’ Array which is meant to offer improvements in “remov[ing] colour moire and false colour.”

As with the X100, the X-E1 also has digital filters that mimic the palettes of Fuji’s well-known films – Provia, Velvia, Astia – plus other filters.  Another feature worth mentioning is auto-stitched panoramic photographs.  All you need do is pan.

Now here’s one camera that doesn’t have a retro look, it has a custom look, thanks to woodworker-photographer Siebe Warmoeskerken and his skills.  He “combine[d] his two passions.”  He took a Polaroid SX-70 Alpha and designed a wenge-wood veneer around it. 

Regardless of whether you go for a Leica, Fuji or a wood-worked Polaroid, you could always brush up on your photography skills.  To that end Digital Photography School has compiled a list of the top fifteen photography books that visitors to their site clicked through to actually buy.  

Have a look at this list and each of the books on it.  You’ll probably find that the subject-area of one or another book addresses one of your weaker areas or covers an area you wanted to learn more about.  Fundamentals of digital photography, composition, natural light, RAW, even HDR – several major subject-areas are represented on the list.

However, it’s probably the number one book whose title will resonate with many novice readers: “Beyond Snapshots: How to Take That Fancy DSLR Camera Off ‘Auto’ and Photograph Your Life like a Pro.”  If only it were that easy!  Perhaps the book makes it a little less complicated?