SINGAPORE — Leica has long been vaunted by camera enthusiasts for its expensive, amazing, vintage-looking cameras that deliver great photos. The new Leica T camera blends retro looks with a modern edge — but does it retain the charm associated with the famous red logo?

The Leica T is an interchangeable-lens, mirrorless camera system with a 16.5-megapixel APS-C sensor. Designed in collaboration with AUDI Design, the camera body is crafted from a single block of aluminium that is polished by hand for 45 minutes and weighs only 384g with the battery.

The time spent on perfecting the camera shows: From the sound of the shutter, the feeling of the lens snapping into place, to the way the flash pops out, there is satisfaction in holding and using it. Another great feature is the 16GB of in-built storage, just in case you forget your SD card.

The Leica T also boasts great image quality. Images are sharp, detailed and have lush film-like colours and organic-looking noise at lower ISOs. For my review, I had the Leica Summicron-T 23mm f/2 ASPH lens, which translates to about 35mm focal length — great for street photography and at the largest aperture, delivers smooth bokeh (out-of-focus blur) that is just delightful. For image quality, you cannot go wrong with it.

However, its autofocus is not the fastest, so you will not be using it for sports photography. It can even take quite a while to focus during night shots — you will need to have time to plan your shots when using it.

The Leica T is controlled mostly through the configurable touchscreen interface, which allows the camera’s minimalist-looking body to have only a shutter button, two blank dials and a video recording button. The blank dials are not confusing: Depending on the mode you are in, the display easily shows what each dial does — an elegant yet simple solution that some other camera manufacturers have not figured out. The touchscreen is easy to use, but I did wish for more manual buttons, especially when I wanted to make quick changes to the settings.

There is also a dedicated Leica T app for iOS users that allows you to adjust settings, shoot photos and transfer photos via the phone, as long as the camera is connected to the same WiFi network as your phone. It is well designed and easy to use, but is flawed because you cannot connect the camera directly to your phone. The camera also had problems finding my home WiFi network.

With a combination of aesthetics, ease of use and photo quality, the Leica T is more than only for hipsters who want a camera to look good with. The biggest problem, for most of us, will be the price — Leica’s cheapest digital system starts at close to S$5,000. Still, if you can afford it, the Leica T is a great camera that will especially appeal to those who love the Leica brand.

The Leica T goes on sale today, priced from S$4,950 for the body and the Vario-Elmar-T 18-56/f3.5-5.6 ASPH lens.