Jony Ive, perhaps the best-known Apple employee--yes, the one responsible for the iconic designs [3] of the company's products--is jumping ship to Leica. Not permanently, you understand, just for a one-off collaboration [4], the German firm's owner announced yesterday--and it's all for charity.

The British-born designer is to design an Ive version of the Leica M, said Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, Leica's chairman. Just one of the objects will be auctioned off for charity--call it an objet d'art, call it a camera, but whatever the eventual owner decides to call it, the finished article will be preceded by two words: really and expensive.