Category: Photography

Today we had the Leica announcements and it was a pretty impressive list.

A new medium format S camera, new film M, a limited addition digital M that was incredibly brave, a digital camera with no LCD.  You don’t know what you have until you download the images to your computer.

A new Leica X camera to replace the X2 and two rebadged Panasonic’s 😉

The new D-Lux is based on the Panasonic I blogged about yesterday and it looks to be a stunning compact camera.  Normally it is a difficult choice to decide if the Leica is worth the extra.  The glass tends to be different and the firmware but apart from that they are the same camera with slightly different body shells.

Normally if you are in the USA, the Leica model makes more sense as it comes with two year warrantee and a copy of Adobe Lightroom.  Here in Europe we get two year warrantees by EU law so it makes the Leica model harder to justify, but I was shocked to see the UK prices.  The Leica is £825 while the Panasonic is £799 and Leica have increased the warrantee to three years.

There was some tricks as well that we have seen before, the old S and been re-released as S-E, the old X2 as the X-E, there were also a lot of new lens released for both the M and the T.

Altogether a very powerful set of updates.  At the next Photokina I expect the big thing to be a new M, but until then this will keep a lot Leica users very happy.

Leica M-A rangefinder camera (body only, black)
Leica M-A rangefinder camera (body only, silver)
Leica S medium format camera (typ 007)
Leica S-E medium format camera (typ 006)
Leica D-Lux (typ 109) digital camera
Leica handgrip for Leica D-Lux (typ 109)
Leica Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH lens (silver)
Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH lens (silver)
Leica Summarit-M 35mm f/2.4 ASPH lens (black)
Leica Summarit-M 35mm f/2.4 ASPH lens (silver)
Leica Summarit-M 50mm f/2.4 lens (black)
Leica Summarit-M 50mm f/2.4 lens (silver)
Leica Summarit-M 75mm f/2.4 lens (black)
Leica Summarit-M 75mm f/2.4 lens (silver)
Leica Summarit-M 90mm f/2.4 lens (black)
Leica Summarit-M 90mm f/2.4 lens (silver)
Leica Super-Vario-Elmar-T 11-23mm f/3.5-4.5 ASPH lens
Leica APO-Vario-Elmar-T 55-135mm f/3.5-4.5 ASPH lens
Leica V-LUX (typ 114) digital camera
Leica X Digital Compact Camera With Summilux 23mm f/1.7 ASPH Lens (Black)
Leica X digital compact camera with Summilux 23mm f/1.7 ASPH lens (silver)
Read more on LeicaRumors.com: http://leicarumors.com

The Photokina announcements are now coming think and fast, the Canon 7D Mark II looks interesting for Canon users, certainly there is nothing like that for Nikon users.  Come on Nikon where is the D300s replacement?

The most interesting announcements was the new Panasonic LX100, this is a direct descendent from the joint Panasonic venture that brought us the Panasonic LC1 (see above and the Leica badged Digilux 2 (see below).

Leica are planning there press conference tomorrow morning but I bet there is a Leica version of this LX100.

Instead of a small compact sensor its got a MicroFourThirds sensor, slightly cropped depending which picture ratio you choose.

There are a surprising number of pros that still have the Panasonic or Leica version of this older version of this camera at the bottom of their bags, its still well liked and how many good handling compacts with a viewfinder have there been until recently?

It reminds me of a fixed lens GX-7, I look forward to trying it out, I think this, the Fuji X100T, Panasonic GX-7 and the Leica T have just gone to the top of my compact camera wish list.

Well Photokina starts next week, and as has become a tradition most manufactures have announced their new products.

So far the things that have attracted my interest is the new Fuji X100T, looks good but still not sure about the X-Trans sensor and the Nikon D750.

For my SLR needs I do not upgrade often, generally every ten years in the film days, today in this digital age I am still using 2007 10 MP DSLR’s they do a great job at base ISO but I feel I need something better for church weddings as the light is often poor.

I have hopes that the D750 will be the replacement body I need.  In an ideal world I would just buy a D4 or D800/D810 but that would stretch my budget a little too far.

One issue that I may have is that the D750 looks like a consumer chassis and I am not sure if it will take the long lens I need to use for wildlife, the D600 had issues with the body warping when using heavy lens.

Over the last few months there has been the occasional rumour about a new digital Leica rangefinder but with no rear screen.

With Photokina starting on the 16th September the rumour has come back and briefly a new Leica Rangefinder appeared on Leica’s website.

The M-A was a special addition film camera and is likely to be released now as a replacement for the film MP not to be confused with the new digital M-P.  On that list is the a new Leica M Edition 60, this according the latest rumours will be a digital M with no rear LCD screen.

Its an odd concept but worlds first digital rangefinder the Epson RD1 had some great concepts.  It looked all analogue, with dials and the rear LCD screen was reversible so with it folded away it looked like an old film camera, I hope the new Leica is in this style.

Well it looks like the Nikon D750 is real and will be announced 11th or 12th September.  I am really hoping its a little D4, with the D4 sensor and focusing system, plus a proper metal chassis not like the D600/D610 which can warp its lens mount if you try and use big heavy pro long glass.

This would be a great camera for me if I don’t succumb to a second hand D3s.

Another rumour that was of interest to me was the Panasonic LX8 which will also be released with minor tweaks as the Leica D-Lux Type 109.  Some rumour sites are saying that it will have a larger then standard sensor.  Some say MicroFourThirds which I doubt others say the 1 inch sensor like my Nikon V1 which would be fantastic in a small body.  The rumours also state it will have a built in EVF so it could be a rival to the Sony RX100III.  If so it would be an ideal solution for a carry everywhere camera.

Back in my early days as a photographer I bought books on technique and equipment, now I tend to purchase books of photographs by the great photographers of the past and present.

It was while catching up on my blog reading this evening I spotted a post about inspirational books, and the “The Decisive Moment“ by Henri Cartier-Bresson was mentioned.

Its now back in print and as an occasional street photographer i’ll be adding it to my Christmas list.

With Photokina getting closer and the Apple iPhone/iWatch iAnything press conference coming in the next couple of weeks for tech and camera geeks like me its proving an interesting time.

It was Olympus’s turn today to announce the new PEN E-PL7 in time for Photokina.  I was very impressed with the first Olympus digital PEN, it and the Panasonic GF-1 and the Leica X1 where about the only large censored compacts around.

For most people it was about there, I only did not buy it because of the lack of viewfinder.  Now with this latest iteration its got better focus and image stabilisation, better image quality but there are lots of other camers that do all that.   If your a Pen user and love it but want a newer model, upgrade but for most users there is nothing new in this.

There are rumours growing of a new Leica X camera.  Its likely to be the replacement for the X2, lets hope they finally learn and give it a viewfinder.  The X1 was revolutionary, by the time the X2 came out it was just an expensive minor upgrade.

Lets see if they can put one out of the ball park as our American cousins would say.

There was one piece of news from Leica, the much expected 100mm f/2 short telephoto for their medium format S range.  Its not been much of a surprise since the lens was listed in the last Adobe RAW updates.  Still a very nice piece of glass and f/2 for a medium format camera is stunningly fast.  If I wanted a new medium format system the S system would be top of the list.