We're a fan of the classic 24 Hours of Le Mans car race and classic Leica cameras, so add the two together and you should have a winner, right? Um…no.

Leica's special limited edition Le Mans version of its X1 digital camera — reviewed here last February — is underwhelming to say the least. Basically it's a Leica X1 with what looks like a sticker placed on top.

The Le Mans X1 was released back in June to commemorate the race and has a limited edition run of 50.

Not clear if all 50 have sold out yet but it's still up for sale at the Leica Store Paris.

On the bright side, the mark-up for the Le Mans version of the X1 is pretty slight. It's selling for 1590 Euros which converts to about $2035. So, in other words, that Le Mans sticker adds about $35 to the list price. Oh, there's also a version sold with a leather case for 1690 Euros or approximately $2163.

We say skip it and save up your pennies for something more extravagant like this gold-plated Leica MP.

(Via Leica Rumors.)

This entry was posted on Monday, August 16th, 2010 at 11:24 am ET by Dan Havlik and is filed under Products, Sports.