Leica has confirmed on Facebook what a LR reader already reported over the weekend:
“We have put the new D-Lux 4 firmware update since there still was a small mistake in the French menu. All other languages will not have the problem. We are presently working on a new, perfect version. Please excuse the inconvenience.”
1. Improved auto white balance performance.
2. Auto Focus speed-up.
3. Recording function with an aspect ratio of 1:1 has been added.
4. A white balance (WB) bracket function has been added.
5. [HIGH DYNAMIC] has been added to scene mode.
6. [LENS RESUME] has been added to the [SETUP] menu.
7. [MENU RESUME] has been added to the [SETUP] menu.
8. The exposure compensation and the auto bracket compensation can now be set up to ±3EV.
9. Position of the guide line can now be set.
10. It is now possible to display the highlights in playback mode.
11. It is now possible to record the user’s name in the picture.
12. Digital red-eye removal has been modified.
13. Items saved in the custom set have changed.
14. Improved auto white balance performance in sunset mode.
15. Improved recovery operation from unremoved lens cap.
16. Improved operation of MF ASSIST/AF area selection.
17. Improved display of Manual Exposure Assistance.
December 2009 — Leica Camera AG, Solms, extends their invitation to submit entries to their international photography competition for professional photographers, the ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Award’. Applications from interested photographers will be accepted exclusively online at www.leicaoskar-barnack-award.com between 15 January and 15 March 2010. The competition also includes the awarding of a ‘Newcomer Award’ that addresses all (prospective) professional photographers aged 25 and under.
An international jury awards the ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Award’ / ‘Leica Oskar Barnack
Newcomer Award’ to photographers whose unerring powers of observation capture and
express the relationship between man and the environment in the most graphic form in a
sequence of between ten and twelve images. Entry submissions must be a self-contained
series of images in which the photographer perceives and documents the interaction between
man and the environment with acute vision and contemporary visual style – creative,
groundbreaking and unintrusive. All photo series submitted will be displayed in a specially
dedicated online gallery on the Leica website.
The ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Award’ is a prize of 5,000 euros or, alternatively, Leica camera
equipment to the same value. The winner of the Newcomer Award receives 2,500 euros. The
prizes will be presented in the course of the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie
photographic festival held in Arles, France.
Further information, the terms and conditions for entering and specific requirements for
submissions will be available on the Leica website from 15 January 2010 and at www.leicaoskar-barnack-award.com.
The competition history:
From 1914 on, Oskar Barnack (1879–1936), the inventor of the Leica, increasingly used the
prototype camera he developed, today known as the Ur-Leica, for photography. He captured
various events in entire series of photographs and became one of the earliest photographers
to document the relationships between man and the environment. For instance, his
photography of the floods in Wetzlar in 1920 is now considered to be the first reportage
series ever shot with a 35-mm still-film camera.
The competition named after this photographic pioneer was first awarded in 1979, on the
occasion of the 100th anniversary of Oskar Barnack’s birth.
Delivery of the LEICA S2 has begun. The first camera goes to Jim Rakete, the prominent photographer from Berlin.
Jim Rakete is considered to be one of Germany’s most famous photographic artists. His work is particularly characterised by perceptive portraiture of musicians, actors and actresses and also numerous politicians. His connections with Leica are founded on many years of mutual friendship. His first contact with the S2 this year was such an intense experience that he spontaneously made the decision to buy the system. Jim Rakete: ‘The S2 is a camera that embodies the best characteristics of good tools – it never tries to tell me what to do. It fits my hands like a glove, and doesn’t make any superfluous suggestions when I’m shooting. For me, it’s an absolute superlative in digital quality – for the first time in ages you can really feel the depth of focus in your shots’.
Yesterday, Steve Huff wrote about his experience with the Leica 50 Noctilux f/0.95 lens in NYC. Here is a video comparison between the Noctilux f/0.95 and the older Noctilux f/1 versions:
If you have an M9, you certainly could – see Justin Stailey from Leica US stepping on top of a M9 (if you are annoyed by the interviewer, just skip to the 2:09 mark and yes I know, they got the wrong M9 picture at the beginning of the video):
