BJP and AP issued a joint statement based on the recent comments form Leica executives that their comments on the mirrorless camera were misrepresented during previous interviews:
BJP and AP stand by their reporting of comments made by Leica representatives during a wide-ranging interview with UK journalists in Paris in June 2011.The magazines absolutely refute any suggestion that Leica’s stated intentions at that time were misrepresented.
This video represents the continuation of our Facing Change: Documenting America (FCDA) series. FCDA is a non-profit collective of prominent photographers and writers who have come together to explore the United States during one of the most enduring times in the nation’s history. The work of Carlos Javier Ortiz, one of the FCDA photographers, sheds light on the crime in Chicago and migrant workers in Illinois.
Some sample images taken with the new Leica D-Lux 6 during the October Fair in Leiden, The Netherlands by Rob van Keulen (check also his flickr stream and recent guest post on the Leica Monochrome + Noctilux combo):
Today’s guest post about shooting the Leica M Monochrome with the Noctilux M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH lens is by Rob van Keulen (flickr stream):
As a digital camera specialist and product manager I get the chance now and then to play with new and exiting stuff. I used to own a Sony A700 with a lot of Minolta AF lenses, but recently sold everything for an Olympus OMD with prime lenses. My decision to do this was the fact that I practice more and more street photography. For this I do not want to carry a big and visible camera with me. Since I followed a workshop street photography from Eric John Kim, were we all used Leica M camera’s, I became very fond of the compact rangefinder system. I like the way that you see your subject in a very bright and clear way without any distractions (because of my personal budget the OMD was the next best thing). For street photography I normally use “zone focusing” and guess the correct distance to the subject which I am about to take a picture of.
All images are shot in RAW and then edited in Lightroom 4. I change the brightness, contrast and very important for me the “blackness” of the image. With the brush tool I use dodge and burn take brighten the eyes and darken parts that distract from the main subject. Sometimes I even use the clone tool to remove annoying items in the background. To get it a “real” street photography look I turn it after that into black and white. In the beginning I only used Lightroom 4, but I was not totally happy with the results. Some one recommended Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 and I instantly fell in love with this software. I got much better highlight detail, a higher level of detail and more “analogue” looking end results. I have used the Leica M9 for a couple of times with the Leica Summilux 50 and 35mm F1.4 and like the fact that you can actually use it at wide open aperture, and get very sharp results. The special, almost 3D, feel to the images is something even digital camera “laymen” notice when looking at the Leica images.
So, when I was given the chance to try the brand new Leica M Monochrom, with the Leica M Noctiliux 50mm F0.95 ASPH, I happily accepted the offer. It was a pre-production model with a firmware like 0,0012 or something like that, but fully functional. Because of the extreme narrow depth of field of the Noctilux, only 1 cm when focused at 2 meter, I was given a small additional magnifier lens for the viewfinder. Because I am wearing glasses this gave me an even smaller field of view through the viewfinder. The size of the Leica Noctilux is also relatively big, in comparison with the Summilux 50mm F1.4, and therefore blocks part of the viewfinder. A positive aspect of the size of the lens is the very nice focusing ring which fits perfectly in your hand and give the combination of the Monochrom and lens a good balance. I decided to make a small tour in town to shoot as much street portraits wide open at F0.95 as possible. This turned out to be a bit of a problem because of the light level. I search of shadows I walked the main shopping street up and down were the shop staff was waiting for the shops to open. The first girl I asked for her picture was a bit anxious but after a small talk she agreed to do it, but only if she was allowed to keep on listening to her music on her iPod. I took 3 shots and one off them was bang on in focus on her eye and were she gave her best look.
When I opened the DNG in Lightroom and looked at 100% I was amazed by the level of detail in her eye. The background had some bright reflections so I diminished them and then gave it my treatment in Silver Efex Pro. Here you see the 100% crop.
Photographer Rankin talks about his experience with the new Leica S and shooting an entire issue of S-Magazine with it.
A prototype of the SLR Magic HyperPrime 50mm f/0.95 M-mount lens is now listed on eBay. The current price after 19 bids is $1,550.00 with 14 hours left. The MSRP price of the lens is $4,288. Lens description from the eBay listing:
Epson filed patent 2012-186726 in Japan for a way of displaying manual lens information (aperture, focal length, focusing distance) on the camera LCD screen or viewfinder. This can be achieved with a small camera located above the lens that captures the lens information and shows it on the LCD screen:
Robert Benson modified his Canon EOS 5D Mark II DSLR camera and attached a Leica Noctilux 50mm f/1.0 lens:
This has been my obsession for more than a two months, and its now complete. The camera above is (was) a Canon 5dmk2. I wanted to use Leica rangefinder “M” lenses on it, but of course you cant, because the Leica flange distance is really short – shorter than the Canon EOS – the Leica have to be mounted closer to sensor to work. So I ripped apart a camera, modified it, and now I have a camera better than the Leica M9, at a fraction of the cost. Want one?
Read the details of the modifications, including some sample images (via CR).
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