Leica Camera AG, a well-known German manufacturer of cameras, microscopes and other devices “with lenses”, decided to enter a new market for it – products for home cinema systems.

The company introduced Leica Cine 1 — an ultra-short-focus laser projector capable of creating a large diagonal image at a distance of a few centimeters from the screen. Leica reports that the projector uses the proprietary Summicron lens system (the company began producing the first photo lenses with this system back in 1953).

Leica Cine 1 has a triple laser system developed jointly with Hisense and a DLP chip manufactured by Texas Instruments.

Leica offers two versions of the projector: the first is capable of creating an image with a diagonal of 80″ at a distance of 15 cm from the screen, and the second – 100 inches and 30 cm. The values ​​of the luminous flux are 2,100 and 2,500 lumens, respectively. At the same time, the company advises using them in such a configuration, because the optical system has been specially optimized for such distances and screen sizes.

Also, Leica optionally sells ALR-screens of the corresponding diagonals. Ambient Light Rejecting is a technology for dispersing ambient light, which allows the projector to create a high-quality saturated image with a fairly deep “black” color even in a room with background lighting.

In addition, the projector has a built-in speaker system with Dolby Atmos support, a TV tuner and a “smart” shell from Hisense – VIDAA OS. Leica Cine 1 should appear on the European market in the second quarter of 2023. The recommended price of the 80-inch model is $6,900, and the 100-inch model is $7,900. Well, as for Leica, it is quite inexpensive.