Leica Sofort
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| The Leica Sofort image by daveseargeant (Image rights) |
The Sofort is a camera for instant prints 62 x 46mm, made by (or for) Leica for a short time from 2017.[1] It uses Instax Mini film-packs. Leica-branded film-packs were offered, in ISO 800 monochrome or colour, with ten pictures per pack. The camera was made with white, 'mint' (pale green/blue), orange, and later red bodies. It has a 60mm f/12.7 Automatik-Hektor lens. This focuses in one of three zones: 0.3-0.6m (macro and selfie modes), close-range (0.6-3m; the default focus when the camera is switched on), and distant (3m-infinity). These ranges are selected using the spring-loaded knurled ring around the lens.
Other control is all by means of five buttons on the rear of the camera, next to an LCD mode display:
- On/Off
- Mode (Default (close-range), Selfie, Party, Sport, Macro, Double-exposure, Bulb shutter)
- Flash (Auto, Single pre-flash (to light a dark main subject subject, to bias the auto-exposure), Three pre-flashes (for red-eye reduction), and Off)
- Self-timer (Off, 2 seconds, 10 seconds)
- Brightness (Default, +0.7 EV, -0.7 EV)
Exposure is automatic (except for the bulb-shutter mode). The shutter time is varied between 1/8 and 1/400 second. The aperture is not variable.
The camera has a reverse-galilean viewfinder, and also a small mirror above the lens for framing selfies. This might itself be mistaken for a mirrored viewfinder, and the two together might be mistaken for a rangefinder. There is a standard tripod socket. The camera has a rechargeable 3.7V lithium-ion battery, which Leica state should last for ten film-packs, which inserts in a panel in the back.
Notes
- ↑ As of July 2021 neither the camera nor film-packs are available at Leica's web-shop. A few accessories (wrist-strap, photo albums, etc.) are still listed, so the camera may only recently have been discontinued.
