Leica cameras and lenses have produced some of the most iconic imagery throughout history, hallmarked by their distinctive ‘Leica Look’.
Unfortunately, Leica cameras are prohibitively expensive for most people, meaning many out there will never experience first-hand the unique look of shooting through a Leica lens. However, Leica is making that experience a little more accessible with the launch of its latest app – Leica Lux.
The Leica Lux app aims to put the uniqueness of a Leica camera directly in your iPhone, enabling you to experience Leica lenses and distinctive Leica Looks through the phone’s native camera.
For me, the most exciting sounding feature in the Lux app is the ability to replicate the look of Leica lenses. The app's 'Aperture Mode' uses Leica's image engine alongside machine learning to replicate the rendering, bokeh and other characteristics exhibited by Leica lenses such as the Summilux-M 28mm f/1.4 Asph and the Noctilux-M 50mm f/1.2 Asph.
This appears similar to the portrait mode already featured on iPhones – but with a Leica twist.
Like Apple itself, Leica has its own color science for its cameras – which refers to how Leica chooses to interpret colors in an image for accuracy or artistic expression. However, Leica’s colors are especially idolized by many in the photography community for their distinctive look.
The Leica Lux app has been developed for the iPhone camera to apply those same iconic colors, including Leica Standard, Leica Classic, Leica Contemporary and Leica Black-and-White to iPhone shots, displaying colors and contrast differently than the native iPhone camera.
For those who prefer fine-grained control over their images, the Lux app also comes with a Manual Mode that enables you to control aspects like aperture, shutter speed and exposure compensation, to generate a photo that is unique to your vision. There are already plenty of manual camera apps available for the iPhone, but Lux's Manual Mode, plus Leica’s Looks and lenses, can offer a different iPhone camera experience.
The Leica Lux app is free to download and includes access to Automatic Photo mode and Aperture Mode, as well as emulation of the Leica Summilux-M 28mm f/1.4 Asph and five Leica Looks. There is an additional premium subscription, called Leica Lux Pro, that offers up to 11 Leica Looks and 5 Leica lenses for £6.99 per month.
The Leica LUX app is available to download now from the App Store for iPhone and is compatible with all iPhone models running iOS 17.1 or later.
For more on getting the best out of your images check out our guide for the best photo editing software.
