Icon Leica Q2 Daniel Craig

LEICA Q2 DANIEL CRAIG X GREG WILLIAMS

R128 000 / leica.com

So this is what Bond’s been up to during the Hollywood shutdown? Looks like it. Everyone’s favourite sea-exiter is apparently just as handy behind a camera as he is in front of them, and he’s teamed up with official Bond photographer Greg Williams to bring us an extremely limited-edition redesign of Leica’s Q2 camera. And when we say extremely limited, we’re talking just 750 of the things.

What’s so special about it? As you’d expect, it’s all about looks. The Leica Q2 Daniel Craig x Greg Williams (the entirety of which you must say aloud each time you mention the camera) is still largely black, but all the engravings on the body and lens have been inlaid with Bond-worthy gold paint. Even the iconic red Leica logo has been replaced – apparently for the first time ever – by a black and gold version. And the premium stylings don’t end there. The covering and strap are Napa leather, while the name and serial number have been laser-etched beneath the display.

And there’s a Bond-style poison dart hidden in there somewhere? Not that we’re aware of, sadly. But it should be great at taking pictures. At its heart is a 47.3MP full-frame sensor, just about twice the resolution of the one in the original Q (no, not that Q), giving you a load of extra detail to work with. While the Q2 has a fixed 28mm f/1.7 lens, that enlarged resolution means you get more digital crop options than before. Autofocus takes less than 0.15 seconds, and you can inspect your shots on a high-res OLED viewfinder.

How many moneypennies are we talking here? Just the R128 000, and that’s if they haven’t all gone by the time you read this. Good luck, 007.

EVEN THE ICONIC RED LOGO HAS BEEN REPLACED, FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER

Gimme thumb lovin’ 8BITDO PRO 2

As well as having one of the best brand names going, 8BitDo makes some of the best third-party controllers out there – and its latest is the most feature-packed yet. The Pro 2 builds on the Pro+ before it, with an enhanced grip and two mappable back buttons beneath the triggers. The placement of these buttons, to which you can assign any function or macro, means you don’t need to take your thumbs off the sticks at all while playing (except to go to the toilet). You can switch between three custom profiles, while a four-way Mode Switch allows you to hop between different connected Bluetooth devices. Switch, PC, macOS and Android are all supported and playtime is rated at 20 hours. Rtba / 8bitdo.com No flipping tuna? Errr, no. NFT stands for ‘non-fungible token’ – which, despite what it sounds like, has nothing to do with mushrooms. An NFT’s non-fungibility means it’s unique, like a digital equivalent of that one-off album that the Wu-Tang Clan recorded and then sold for $2million. That money can be swapped with two bags full of $1m each and it’ll still be worth the same, but the album is one of a kind and cannot be replaced.

If it’s digital, can’t someone just make a copy of it? Yes, but that’s exactly the point of the NFT. The copy-and-paste nature of digital stuff is what affects its value, but if you tokenise something with an NFT then you have a certificate of ownership and originality that gives it undisputable value. NFTs are part of the blockchain, similar to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, which means every single one can be accounted for with a ledger that includes the details of who owns what. That ledger is maintained by computers all over the world, meaning it can’t be forged. There’s nothing to stop someone copying the original, but the NFT and ledger will prove who bought it.

So I can tokenise my selfies? You can tokenise anything digital, but that doesn’t mean somebody’s suddenly going to want to buy it off you. A lot of the NFTs sold so far have been digital artworks, but a gif of the meme icon Nyan Cat fetched nearly $550,000 in February, and the chap who filmed himself skateboarding down the street to Fleetwood Mac has put the video up for sale with a starting price of $500,000. Kings of Leon’s latest album When You See Yourself has also been released as an NFT, with six versions of it granting the owners lifetime access to the band’s live shows… though having to sit through a load of Kings of Leon gigs is not our idea of added value.

Roller coster LG SIGNATURE OLED R

LG’s rollable TV reveal left us stunned in 2019, but we never thought they’d actually make it. As of now, the LG Signature OLED R is, amazingly, due to land in South Africa. The main attraction is, of course, the 65in flexible OLED display created from one sheet of glass that rolls up so it’s out of sight when not in use, or halfway should you want to keep some smart features available. Each TV is ‘produced to order, painstakingly assembled and finished with a craftsman-like attention to detail’. It’s certainly innovative... but it’s also due to cost you around a couple of millions when it makes landfall here. Literally. We’re not expecting it to cost less than two bar when it lands here at the end of the year. Rtba (Q4 2021) / lg.com/za