Renowned German photography brand Leica will tonight (Friday 27 March 2015) officially open its first Sydney boutique, within the confines of digiDIRECT’s flagship store in the Sydney CBD.

The boutique is intended to capture the interest of both Sydneysiders and visitors to the city, giving them a hands-on opportunity to experience the cultish brand founded in 1849.

“I’m very happy to be opening a Leica Boutique at digiDIRECT in Sydney,” Leica Australia GM Ryan Williams told me. “The team at digiDIRECT have worked closely with Leica over the past few years to offer a more personalised experience for our customers, and have invested in some truly exceptional staff.”

Following the opening, the boutique will be open seven days per week, at 75 King Street Sydney. Shant Kradjian, managing director of digiDIRECT told me how excited the store was to include this foot traffic magnet, as well as providing me with an exclusive pre-opening peak inside.

“We are thrilled to be bringing this customer-focused Boutique experience featuring the  premium photographic brand,  Leica, to our digiDIRECT customers,” Kradjian said. “For us, opening a Leica Boutique in the heart of Sydney is an exciting evolution for our business and we look forward to serving the Leica community in Australia.”

digiDIRECT also has outlets in Bondi Junction in Sydney, as well as the Melbourne and Brisbane CBDs. There is a similar shrine to Leica within Michaels’ famous in-store digital imaging museum in Melbourne.

Here’s a look inside the Boutique, with images accompanied by interesting factoids about Leica:

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The brand name Leica is a portmanteau of founder Ernst Leitz’ surname and Camera.
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The first Leica film camera was originally created in 1913 for landscape photography in the mountains of Europe.
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The famed Leica M Mount was introduced in 1954 and is still in use today.
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Over the years, public floats and private transactions have seen the Leica brand split into four companies: Leica (the camera brand discussed in this article), Leica Microsystems, Leica Biosystems and Leica Geosystems.
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Leica is particularly associated with street photography, a popular type of artistry associated with hipsters. Street photography, a branch of the realism movement, attempts to show reveal the human condition by presenting people in their natural environment.
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Leica was one of the first manufacturers to create ‘action cams’, like what we see now from GoPro. In 1952, the company constructed waterproof cameras for the US Navy that are now collectors’ items.
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The Leica Camera brand is distributed in Australia by Leica Camera Australia, based in Port Melbourne, Victoria.