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Author Topic: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published  (Read 5027 times)

Kevin Raber

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The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« on: November 10, 2017, 10:03:45 am »

I just published the first of 14 videos on the story of Leica.  Today's article/video describes what to expect over the coming weeks.  Next week we publish the History Of Leica.  We hope you enjoy the series.  It's an interesting story.  The Leica Story - Introduction
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KLaban

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #1 on: November 10, 2017, 12:08:01 pm »

"3 APS format Cameras and Product Announcement with Maike Harberts"

So, part three of the video series would seem to confirm that the Leica announcement on November 22 will be for an APS format camera.

Mark D Segal

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #2 on: November 10, 2017, 04:57:21 pm »

Leica was showing a new mirrorless APS-C model - something like T2 if I'm not mistaken. Real sweet looking camera, but around 4K US with the regular zoom lens.

Also, there's a big - I mean really big - history of Leica published in Germany by Kehrer Verlag of Heidelberg. The English language edition "Eyes Wide Open", (from the German "Augen Auf") is temporarily out of print, but they tell me it will back in stock this December. It's beautiful and very comprehensive - 564 pages. Don't pay the crazy prices being offered on Amazon for the few English language copies available. It will be 98 Euro when back in stock.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Robert-Peter Westphal

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2017, 05:36:01 pm »

Hello,

in Germany, we have an old common saying, which I try to translate as good as possible :

As long as there are enough retired high-school teacher and directors, Leica will survive !

Best regards Robert
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Internaut

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2017, 06:26:56 pm »

"3 APS format Cameras and Product Announcement with Maike Harberts"

So, part three of the video series would seem to confirm that the Leica announcement on November 22 will be for an APS format camera.

Given the T update, perhaps they refer to X variants (and perhaps, since they have the mount, a more traditional T)?
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Internaut

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #5 on: November 10, 2017, 06:46:26 pm »

What a great idea for a series.  I’ll probably never own a proper Leica, and that’s something I’m comfortable enough with*.  However, I think it’s important for the audience to understand that, since Nokia committed suicide, Leica is something of a rarity: a successful European consumer electronics company.

* I call my A7II, plus 28mm f2, the pauper’s Q.
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Telecaster

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #6 on: November 10, 2017, 08:15:36 pm »

in Germany, we have an old common saying, which I try to translate as good as possible :

As long as there are enough retired high-school teacher and directors, Leica will survive !

In the US substitute *dentists for teachers. (Few US teachers make enough money to afford new Leicas.)

-Dave-

*All my digi-M cameras came from the same orthodontist.  :D
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Mark D Segal

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #7 on: November 11, 2017, 02:12:56 am »

Hello,

in Germany, we have an old common saying, which I try to translate as good as possible :

As long as there are enough retired high-school teacher and directors, Leica will survive !

Best regards Robert

Yes and Canada we have another one that "old school teachers never die - they turn into librarians", so on that basis Leica will go on forever!  :-)
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Rob C

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #8 on: November 11, 2017, 07:16:28 am »

Yes and Canada we have another one that "old school teachers never die - they turn into librarians", so on that basis Leica will go on forever!  :-)


That's kinder than old photographers just going out of focus; focus can affect your right to drive!

Rob

E.J. Peiker

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #9 on: November 11, 2017, 10:43:01 am »

My Leica Story:

As a kid growing up in Germany until a couple of weeks before age 9 when my family moved to the USA my dad would often take an vintage Leica camera with him.  Growing up as a teenager in Ohio I would occasionally run across the camera in an old camera bag in the basement but it went unused.  Meanwhile I was coming of photographic age with slightly more modern cameras, first with an Yashica rangefinder and later with my first "pro" camera, a Minolta XD-11.  Fast forward about 40 years, one day I remembered the Leica and gave my dad, still in Ohio, a call to see whatever happened to the camera.  He said he had no idea but he'd look for it.  About a half a year goes by and a box shows up at my home in Arizona and inside was the old Leica, three lenses, a bunch of Leica accessories and an old Zeiss Ikon Medium format camera - he had found them in the attic.  The Zeiss, a 1954 model, was in great condition and after some lubrication and polish worked perfectly.  The Leica, a 1936 Leica IIIa with 28mm, 50mm and 135mm lenses was not in great shape.  Years of humidity in Ohio basements and attics had taken it's toll.  After getting some quotes for getting it restored and finding that for the price I could buy a flagship DSLR, I decided to tackle the project myself.  A few months later, the camera looked and worked like a slightly used, almost new camera.  The 50mm lens optics were trashed but the 28mm is now like new and the 135mm, while heavily worn, functions well after my work on them.

« Last Edit: November 11, 2017, 10:46:49 am by E.J. Peiker »
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Rob C

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #10 on: November 11, 2017, 11:27:56 am »

Congratulatiions on the result of all that effort!

Rob

Paulo Bizarro

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #11 on: November 11, 2017, 12:49:49 pm »

Looking forward to it.

DougDolde

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #12 on: November 12, 2017, 12:40:45 pm »

The only Leica I ever wanted was the Q.  But it's just too expensive
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Rob C

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #13 on: November 16, 2017, 02:52:24 pm »

Just watched the first interview segment, and everything looked normal except for the editing: fake as you will, beer has to be consumed or it looks like pee. I know this; I did six or seven years of calendars for a beer company and as neither I nor my models liked the stuff, it had to be given a little prod now and again to make it look like beer, even when just a distant prop.

So, was the beer lousy and left, or was this a ploy to defeat the distaff members of the management?

As far as the cameras go, my masochism level is rising fast - I hope I can balance my juices over the series. Thank goodness for a "careful" streak I think came from my Italian granny.

Rob C

MattBurt

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #14 on: November 16, 2017, 04:24:53 pm »

Interesting history and lots I didn't know. I also noticed the poor beers languishing there.  ;D

I inherited a couple of Leicas from a friend who passed a few years ago. An old Leicaflex with a 50/2 and a R50 with a Summicron-R 50/2 and a Elmarit-R 135/2.8.
I sold the Leicaflex and lens, that thing was a beast of a body for 35mm and I didn't expect to use it much. I tried to use the R but it has flaky electronics and locks up after every few shots which was annoying. So I got a couple of Leitax mounts and converted the 50 and 135 and use them on my K mount gear. Really beautiful rendering and nice handling on those lenses. They still are in pretty regular rotation.
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Chris Kern

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #15 on: November 16, 2017, 09:06:30 pm »

Fast forward about 40 years, one day I remembered the Leica and gave my dad, still in Ohio, a call to see whatever happened to the camera.  He said he had no idea but he'd look for it.  About a half a year goes by and a box shows up at my home in Arizona and inside was the old Leica, three lenses, a bunch of Leica accessories and an old Zeiss Ikon Medium format camera - he had found them in the attic.

My only experience with any Leica was when an early photography mentor, my high school physics teacher, occasionally and rather anxiously allowed me to snap a few pictures with his M3.  He was extremely protective of it, however—it represented a very
substantial investment for a faculty member of a U.S. public secondary school in the 1960s—and always followed me around while I was trying it out.

But, frankly, it didn't strike me as superior, either optically or ergonomically, to my father's pre-war Zeiss Contax II, the other classic rangefinder from the golden era of photojournalism.  Although my physics teacher was always eager to point out to me that his 50mm lens (a Summilux, if memory serves) was coated, the results didn't seem any sharper than those I got with my Dad's Contax and its collapsible, uncoated, and slightly scratched 50mm Sonnar (first attachment).  That old Contax was like an extension of my eyes and hands.  Despite being manual everything, it required almost no effort to operate and the focus was always spot-on.

Alas, the Contax disappeared sometime between my departure for college in New England and my family's return from a foreign service assignment in 1974.  However, during that assignment in then West Germany, my father made several trips to the Soviet bloc—and during one of them he picked up it's spitting image (sorry: Americanism for visual duplicate), a Kiev-branded rangefinder which is still in my possession (second attachment).

Sooo, where is the camera nostalgia thread?

Paulo Bizarro

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #16 on: November 17, 2017, 04:11:29 am »

As for the beer, I fully agree, its purpose is to be consumed:) Also, nothing strange in drinking beer at 1 PM.

Rob C

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #17 on: November 17, 2017, 04:51:35 am »

As for the beer, I fully agree, its purpose is to be consumed:) Also, nothing strange in drinking beer at 1 PM.

Absolutely nothing odd about the hour - the only strange thing is wanting to drink it at any time! Of course, if one has a prostate problem, then it does help flush the system better: the bubbles are a greenhouse gas which helps raise the pressure within the bladder that overcomes the python-like effect of the condition on the exit piping... you can never get a plumber when you need one, though you may encounter a roving finger or two.

;-)

Rob

Dave Rosser

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #18 on: November 17, 2017, 07:52:18 am »

Is that a British Billingham bag I see Stefan Daniel carrying his Leica gear in? Good taste if it is.
Back in 1970 I was collecting rangefinder cameras and in addition to a non working Contax (shutter defunct - common with that camera), a Canon 7 Dream (50mm f/0.95) and a Nikon rangefinder (can't remember which model) I had a full Leica M4 outfit (35mm f/1.4 Summilux, 50mm collapsable Elmar and 90mm Elmar).  The M4 was a great camera but I also had a Nikon F outfit and so, to rationalise and fund more Nikkors I sold all the rangefinders including the M4  :-[ . The Nikon outfit has gone now and my main camera is a Fuji X-Pro, sort of back to the rangefinder  8) .
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Telecaster

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Re: The Leica Story Introduction Just Published
« Reply #19 on: November 17, 2017, 05:00:21 pm »

I have a pair of 1950s Contaxes, IIa (pictured) & IIIa. The IIIa has a built-in but no longer reliable meter. Both cameras are fine & dandy with 50mm lenses but kinda awkward to use with other focal lengths, in the same way as the Leica LTM (screwmount) cameras. The Ms with their multiple-focal-length framelines are a big step up in this regard.

-Dave-
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