Leica Fotopark (www.leica-fotopark.com) is the just announced cloud service for photographers:
Leica Fotopark: the new online platform for image archiving and high-quality prints
At this year’s photokina, Leica Camera AG, Wetzlar, is presenting a comprehensive digital service concept for the storage, processing and management of pictures – Leica Fotopark. With this concept, the manufacturer of premium cameras, lenses and sport optics products from Wetzlar is expanding its existing business model with an online platform that sets the focus in the digitally connected world on what is truly essential – the picture – and bridges the divide between hardware and software.
Smartphones with cameras, photo-apps and social networks have generated considerable interest in photography and the sharing of pictures. Leica Camera AG sees this as a positive development and now responds with a premium quality Web platform for all who wish to intensify their passion for photography. It offers photographers of all kinds, from beginners and ambitious amateurs to professionals, a multitude of intuitive functions, including the storage, processing, management and archiving of digital images and a premium print service for ordering photos and fine-art prints.
Independent of the user’s location or digital end device, photos stored in the cloud are accessible for immediate online processing at any time and anywhere in the world. Large numbers of pictures can be clearly and simply sorted and administered in archives with customisable structures. Without any need for additional software, the integrated print service allows the reproduction and ordering of pictures from the archives as proofs and fine-art prints in a quality that satisfies even the most-demanding photographers in terms of brilliance, colour rendition and permanence. Users of the service can also look forward to framing and hanging options in familiar Leica Galerie quality. What’s more, Leica Fotopark is home to a community that serves as a virtual meeting place where photographers can find inspiration and exchange their views on photography. With this new user-friendly, easy-to-use, highly versatile, reliably accessible and absolutely secure concept, Leica embraces the entire process from creating pictures and secure storage to sharing the captured memories.
Leica Fotopark guarantees, for example, comprehensive security and data privacy. The image data uploaded and the flexibility of access rights assigned to third parties remain completely under the control of the creator at all times. Equally stringent security regulations also apply to cloud storage: for instance, the servers are located within Europe and are protected by sophisticated security systems. Protection against unauthorised access to or misuse of private image data enjoys exceptionally high priority. Decisive, however is that the digital image data can be stored safely, without loss and without the inevitable risks of storage media failure and are thus permanently preserved for generations to come.
In terms of quality, reliability and security, Leica Fotopark is the virtual counterpart of the Leica Camera AG product universe. It addresses customers who expect the highest standards and have a particular passion for photography. Photographers interested in this concept can register free of charge for public beta-testing. The launch of the print service is planned for the pre-Christmas period and it will be available initially only in the eurozone. The portfolio of services will then be successively expanded with additional functions – also of interest to professional photographers – and ultimately offered around the globe. Registration is free, as is the use of the platform for data volumes of up to ten gigabytes. At a later date, larger data volumes will be offered at reasonable prices.
The Leica Fotopark can be found online at the following URL: www.leica-fotopark.com.