3 times camera brands failed with phones – what the Lecia Leitz 1 could learn

Leica has taken the wraps off its first phone – and as you can probably guess the focus of the Android device is the photographic camera.

Available exclusively in Japan and built-in partnership with Sharp, the Leitz 1 mimics the mode of the legendary brand's range of highly desirable cameras.

Leica is no stranger to phones and it has partnered with Huawei on multiple occasions before, slapping its branding across many entries in the P and Mate series.

This also isn't the first time a big camera brand has tried to transfer its expertise to phones. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked out particularly well in the past.

Will Leica manage to avoid joining these photography heavyweights in smartphone embarrassment? Just time will tell, but history doesn't bode well.

Hydrogen One

Arguably one of the biggest smartphone failures of all time, the Hydrogen Ane was massively hyped by cinematography brand Scarlet in the run-up to release in 2018.

The much-delayed device had a 3D display and a set of pins on the back that were supposedly there to allow you to connect a range of high-cease camera add together-ons, similar a viewfinder, to the phone. These never materialised.

It was wildly expensive at $1300 and clearly disappointed many when it somewhen saw a release.

The phone never arrived in the Uk and we never managed to get our easily on one. In The Verge's damning review of the Hydrogen One just about everything was criticised, from the camera operation to the poor display and beefy build.

Y'all won't be surprised to hear a Hydrogen Two was chop-chop cancelled.

Kodak Ektra

The Ektra was a 2016 telephone that was supposed to take inspiration from the Kodak Ektra camera. As you can probably judge, it wasn't very good.

Built in partnership with Bullit Group (the people behind the Land Rover and JCB phones), the phone had a decent look with a false leather back that did sort of wait like a camera.

Shame the photos captured past the Ektra were awful and the performance every bit bad.

Hasselblad True Zoom

Hasselblad partnered with OnePlus before this twelvemonth. The OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro carried some branding and a camera app inspired by the Swedish brand.

While the results weren't revolutionary, they were far from bad. So why has Hasselblad found its way into this list?

Well, the partnership with OnePlus wasn't the first fourth dimension we've seen that proper noun emblazoned on something smartphone-related.

The Hasselblad True Zoom was an add-on for the Moto Mod modular phone organisation, a short-lived line of accessories for Motorola devices. The True Zoom was a camera attachment that added a 12MP camera, 10x optical zoom and a physical shutter push button to compatible phones.

While information technology sounds like a clever idea, the result wasn't slap-up. In our Truthful Zoom review we said, "While the Hasselblad True Zoom as a concept is great, the execution isn't quite there. As y'all likely won't continue the Hasselblad True Zoom permanently fastened to your Moto Z, it's non going to exist vastly more than inconvenient to carry a superior-performing compact camera around with y'all and you lot won't as well be sacrificing bombardment life of your telephone.

How can Leica avoid joining this list?

The obvious thing nigh all these phones and accessories is that they weren't actually very good at taking pictures, usually going for manner over substance.

While the Leica Leitz ane certainly has style, it'southward the substance and the skill of the camera that'll really make it one of the best camera phones around.

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Source: https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/times-camera-brands-failed-with-phones-4155640

Posted by: hawkinsausiout.blogspot.com

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