Today, Leica is making a pretty large announcement. They’re now developing a strategic partnership with a CMOS-sensor company called GPixel. GPixel, which is located in China, a separate from Sony — who makes most of the camera sensors that you see in your cameras. Besides Sony, some manufacturers get their sensors from companies like Tower Jazz or Toshiba. What this is likely to mean is that in the future, when you buy a Leica camera, it’s very likely to not be something very similar to what the Japanese brands are making. Hence, this is adding the variety that our industry so desperately needs.
Leica is a small enough company to where things are often custom-built for them. For example, the 60MP sensor in the SL3 and the M11 are geared more towards low megapixel photography because the ISO goes even lower than many others. In contrast, lots of sensors on the market tend to skew more towards higher ISOs and simply just capturing the moment.
The cameras that prioritize lower ISO settings are really for the tried and true who know how to light and don’t just try to use our cameras as glorified phones with big sensors.
But now Leica seems to be taking things even a step further. GPixel’s full-frame sensors on their website only feature Global Shutters. So that means a few things could happen. Where most photographers’ minds may skew is towards thinking that the cameras coming from this partnership will be for cinema. And that’s probably the case, but Leica is also never going to abandon photographers for content creators. They’re too small of a brand to get rid of their core customers like Apple did.
It could mean that a global shutter camera is coming that’s purpose-built for photographers. Or it could mean something else entirely.
The company often buys fewer components than many of the Japanese companies and they could probably put in a custom-order because of this. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be an announcement of a strategic partnership of some sort.
This truly is something worth talking about because it will eventually mean that we’re getting a brand new style of camera sensor. Canon already makes their own for its cameras. Sony makes them for everyone else mostly. And otherwise, brands are oddly secretive about if they’re coming from Sony or not.
I’m really excited about this announcement. I’ve been saying for so many years that the brands need to stop relying on Sony and it’s only in recent times that all the influencers and even the press have been agreeing with me. Next, the industry needs more optics companies that make lenses. Tamron, Sigma, and Cosina have been making lenses for so many of the camera brands out there. It’s all started to feel really like a lot of the same.
Our industry needs new ideas and new manufacturers. With the growth of how things are developing with China, I’m really excited for the future of our industry providing greed doesn’t enshitify it.
For those of us worried about China, remember this: Nikon started out as a company copying Leica. Canon started out trying to copy Nikon. Fujifilm started as a company copying Kodak.