This is from trustworthy new sources with access — you can check our track record and we’ve consistently been right. We were the first to know the name of the X Vario, and THEME’s the first site again to learn more details about Leica’s long rumored, new, more compact system camera. There have been consistent […]
A Leica Mini M full-frame EVIL that is. As we know now, thanks to the Leica cock up teaser suggesting that a miniaturized Leica M will see the light of the day on June 11, 2013, Leica calls all its cameras an “M.” The M is a Leica M, the X2 is a Micro M, […]
Well I have been partially, maybe wishfully and intentionally wrong about the slightly underwhelming, upcoming, miniaturized Leica M. No full-frame, no M mount, but instead you’ll get a CMOS 1.5 crop APS-C sensor with a relatively slow, not really compact Leica Elmar F3.5-6.4 with an 28-70mm equivalence for a rumored price of €2,450 (more than […]
It sure doesn’t get boring in the photography gear world. We’re expecting a full-frame Sony NEX sometime in 2014, are just told that Panasonic will revive the legendary DMC-L1 with a “dream camera” successor, and now Leica does what I expected them to do back in March when I wrote on The Future of Camera […]
Our regular readers know that we have a pretty good track record as to future Leica products. Now Leica Forum posted Leica’s official invitation for the unveiling of the German boutique camera maker’s latest addition: the long expected mirrorless system camera with interchangeable lenses. This wouldn’t be THEME without giving you a bit more meat […]
Remember, you read it here first, a week before it was on all the other sites: the ominous X Vario’s name confirmed. But this post is not about unabashed self-promotion. Many photographers obviously want a “Mini M” that Leica marketing suggested. Leica could sell tons of slimmed down M with interchangeable lenses, EVF, image stabilization, […]
Who didn’t wonder why that Leica X Vario, to be announced on June 11, 2013, has this big and slow of a lens. Maybe, but only maybe good news. The latest Leica teaser suggests a smaller, lighter and — as I would assume — faster lens. Based on my source I stick to my guns […]
The cat’s out of the bag and Leica really must put on a very special show on June 11, 2013, if they want their latest baby to succeed, the Mini M a.k.a Leica X Vario Typ 107. They better make it a low-key event. If you scroll through the various online sites and orums the […]
Leica M à la carte: The German boutique camera maker introduces two new digital M cameras: the flagship Leica M with an 24MP CMOS full-frame sensor, and the Leica M-E with an 18MP CCD full-frame sensor. The M Typ 240 offers ISO sensitivity of up to 6,400 and comes with LCD frame lines like the […]
Good things don’t always come easy. In my old film days, when digital photography still was a wild sci-fi prophecy, I always had a Rollei 35 in the pocket, occasionally a Minox. Beautiful little, sturdy, legendary cameras, absolutely reliable in whatever task and environment. A Rollei was the perfect partner for the early sturm und […]
By JAAP VLEESKRUIJER A smaller camera is less luggage, but will it take lesser photographs? On the road with the Leica CL and Panasonic GX8. Originally I intended this article to be a somewhat technical one, with specifications, IQ comparisons, etc., but when I started processing and printing my images I started to realize that […]
Love it. A digital Leica in a film body. Sure there’s a lot of malice on the Web, ridiculing Leica’s latest $6,000 camera, the all-black digital Leica M-D. With emphasis on digital. What again distinguishes a digital from an analog camera? That’s right, the LCD screen, to give access to what’s on the memory card […]
“Perfect understatement,” “perfectly understated” — do these marketing terms ring a bell? Leica M, right. The German boutique camera maker just announced the Leica M-A, a purely mechanical camera reduced to the essentials of photography with no monitor, no exposure meter, no battery. Alright, we have to bear with marketing phrases such as “the Leica […]
Specs aside — it’s a “typical” Leica with relatively noisy upper ISO levels and unsurprisingly moderate AF speed — the new Leica T is quite a stunner. Well the ISO and AF judgment I got from people who shot preproduction models, so it can only get better. But as with any Leica, you don’t buy […]
Gathered own sources, industry chatter and added common sense. Leica isn’t in an enviable position. The competition gathers pace. Leica’s grand strength continues to be its brand recognition and, above all, the optics. The famed Leica advantage however diminishes as the quality of cameras becomes more similar. For instance, I know from personal talks with […]
Here’s a short synopsis of Michael Evans’ essay Leica Lenses on Sony’s A7s: The Big Controversy. At first take, writes Evans, the A7(R)s open up a fairyland of opportunity for owners not only of Leica glass but all M mount lenses including those from Zeiss, Voigtländer and others. Tantalizing thought, isn’t it, but the basic […]
Sony does it again. Newcomer Sony’s again the camera brand that innovates and thinks ahead. As rumors and industry sources suggested since last year and as Andrea of SonyAlphaRumors promised us over the course of the past few weeks, Sony is about to create a whole new playing field for high-end cameras. This week Sony […]
Or virgin Leica? This one-of-a-kind variant of the M Typ 240 is a clinically clean design by and true to the style of Apple’s chief designer Jonathan Ive. Designed by Ive and Marc Newson, this purist Leica M will be given to the highest bidder this November in New York at Sotheby‘s “Jony and Marc’s […]
By DIERK TOPP My topic is sort of special and probably not for many readers, but it may be worth to think about using tilt-shift lenses on your Leica when shooting architecture. We’re not talking the miniaturization tilt-shift, but the serious architectural photography. Now, what are tilt-shift lenses? Wikipedia does a better job explaining it […]
Agnostic Lloyd Chambers — a respected authority on Leica and quality photography — might have hit the nail on the head the other day with his thoughts on Leica gear becoming neck jewelry. Well those are not his words in the short editorial Hit Rate and Image Quality and Reliability and Price, the Camera World […]
Negativity has become the new favorite pastime of many photographers. Instead of going out and enjoying our cameras, we’re glued to the computer screen and comment on stuff that has nothing to do with our lives. We neither contribute anything positive to society nor are we able to look at ourselves in the mirror and […]
By BRIAN SWEENEY The revival of rangefinder photography in the 21st century has been guaranteed by the availability of the new generation of Leica digital cameras. The Epson RD-1 and Leica M8 opened the digital world to rangefinder enthusiasts. The M9 allowed use of 80 years of rangefinder lenses in the mode that they were […]
The Panasonic LX7, Pana’s practically identical version of the Leica D-Lux 6, can currently be had for $398 from Amazon. That’s about half the price of the Leica. You get a lot of camera for this money. The lens, a Leica 24-90mm F1.4-2.3 equivalent, is probably one of the best lenses ever fitted to a […]
Well it’s a concept. An awesome one. By Vincent Säll, a young industrial designer who’s always asking the question, “What if?”. What if Leica combined the features of a smartphone and it’s own high quality cameras with new technology and innovative design? So he created the Leica X3 — again, a concept just to enjoy […]
By JAAP VLEESKRUIJER “Die Leica in der Hand”… When Dr. Paul Wolff coined the phrase in the early 1930s, Leica was the camera of choice for travel photography. Small, light, high quality imagery, robust, what better tool to take out into the mountains skiing or hiking? Leica even brought out a special lens for the […]
Was a bit hesitant at first when receiving an M Monochrom from Leica — nah, just for a week. Who hasn’t yet read all the hands-on reviews praising the magic of this black-and-white only camera, consistently stating phenomenal image quality — while at the same time emphasizing that the camera really truly starts shining when […]
By MICHAEL EVANS Over the past couple of years there has been enormous interest in using manual focus lenses on the new technically advanced mirrorless cameras such as the Sony NEX–7 and Fujifilm X-Pro1. So when Fujifilm announced the new X-E1 at Photokina I was keen to see how it would handle with Leica glass. […]
By JAAP VLEESKRUIJER Africa has always been a bit of a passion for me. There are the people, landscapes, the safari destinations, and so forth. I have been coming there for more than twenty year, always carrying my camera. So when I got one of the first Leica Monochroms a week before my departure this […]
Lovely piece in the New York Times on the latest fad in Hollywood: Click if You Can Afford It. You won’t read it in the Technology, but Fashion & Style section, as the article is about Leica cameras favored by celebrities: The latest status symbol in Hollywood, it seems, is not the 8 p.m. reservation […]
While the other traditional camera maker Hasselblad infuriates its last loyal customers with a luxurized NEX-7 hardly anyone understands, Leica seems to feel the pulse of what the market wants. After the highly successful M9, world’s smallest compact full-frame rangefinder camera, Leica achieves the feat to further develop the digital M line without renouncing what […]