New custom plate for Leica M8/M9 from RRS

By LR admin | Published: April 6, 2010

Just received an email newsletter from ReallyRightStuff – they are working on a custom plate for the Leica M8/M9 with an optional grip. Here are the details:

“Due to popular demand, Really Right Stuff is creating a custom plate for the Leica M8 and M9 cameras. This new Leica plate will be unlike any other ever made.

The passionate voices of our Leica shooters dictated a fresh approach to the design of this plate. Instead of a standard L-plate that mounts to the camera’s tripod socket, our plate actually completely replaces the Leica base. This replacement base will have an integrated dovetail for mounting in a Really Right Stuff clamp. Use the base alone as a conventional plate, or add an optional vertical component to create the L-plate. This vertical component will screw precisely to the base using our standard hex key tool.

Excited about this design, but still want to use a grip? No problem. Add our new optional grip; the grip will screw to the other side of the base plate.”

Posted in Leica Accessories, Leica M9 | 2 Comments

Leica C-Lux 20

By LR admin | Published: April 6, 2010

Leica C-Lux 20 mockup

The latest rumor: in the next 30 days Leica will release a new point and shoot camera that will be based on the Panasonic ZS7 model (Leica will create its own housing for the new camera). The rumored model name will be Leica C-Lux 20. This is not really a surprise, since the Leica C-Lux 3 model has been discontinued for a while.

Not sure why Leica decided to go with C-Lux 20 model name instead of the expected C-Lux 4 model.

No word on the Leica 35mm Summilux-M replacement yet.

Posted in Leica Compacts | 4 Comments

Reduced Leica prices in Canada

By LR admin | Published: April 5, 2010

An update on the latest Leica news:

  • Leica prices in Canada dropped due to the strong Canadian dollar. The new price for the M9 in Canada is now 7195.00 CAD.
Posted in Leica Accessories, Leica M, Leica M9 | Leave a Comment

Compressed Leica M9 DNG photos on Apple’s iPad: “snappy”

By LR admin | Published: April 4, 2010

I was curious to see how the new iPad from Apple will handle compressed DNG files from the M9. I transferred 84 photos (each 18.3MB in size) via iTunes and the results are illustrated in the video below – I did not see any delay rendering the pictures whatsoever. The iPad has a 9.7-inch, 768×1024 pixel backlit LED screen with 132 pixels per inch and photos look great on it. Apple also has a SD card reader as an accessory which will make photo transfer even easier, especially when traveling. I haven’t tested full size, uncompressed DNG files yet, but I expect the results to be the same.

I cannot wait until we get an iPad version of Lightroom or Aperture 🙂

(The video will look much better few hours from now – I just uploaded it on YouTube)

Posted in Leica M9 | 14 Comments

Leica Freedom Train

By LR admin | Published: April 3, 2010

More about the Leica Freedom Train:

  • Leica helped Jews flee Nazis: fresh evidence uncovered
  • “Ernst Leitz Optische Werke Wetzlar” short film directed by Oskar Barnack (1932). From the description:

“A portrait of the Leitz factory. Following a view of Wetzlar and the Leitz factory from Kalsmunt, the film introduces several departments of the company: milling, engraving, lens cutting, and adjusting. The film also shows the assembly of a microscope and a Leica. This Leica eventually allows to date the film: it is a Leica 1, production of which was stopped in 1932, when it was replaced by a camera with exchangeable objective lenses.”

  • Leica Freedom Train:

“The Leica Freedom Train was a rescue effort in which hundreds of Jews were smuggled out of Nazi Germany before the Holocaust by Ernst Leitz of the Leica camera company, and his daughter Elsie Kuehn-Leitz”.

  • Read more about it on Wikipedia: “During WWII Ernst Leitz II helped dozens (some say hundreds) of Jews to flee Nazi Germany prior to the closing of its borders. This is a short documentary explaining his role.”

  • For our German readers: another Leica documentary in German language after the break (probably 2 years old):

Posted in Other Leica Stuff | Tagged | 1 Comment

New technology from Kodak could be used in the next Leica M10 rangefinder

By LR admin | Published: April 1, 2010

Read all about the new technology developed by Kodak at kodak.com.

Full explanation of the new technology with video and illustrations available here.

The word on the street is that Leica engineers were at  the heart of this research and have made huge contribution to this invention with various product test samples from Germany.  Of course, it is expected that this technology will be implemented in the future Leica M10 camera.

Posted in Leica M | 6 Comments

It’s April 1st…

By LR admin | Published: April 1, 2010

Posted in Leica M9 | 2 Comments

B&H taking Leica M9 pre-orders again

By LR admin | Published: March 31, 2010

Every time B&H lists the M9 as “available for pre-order” is an indication that they are expecting a shipment. Few readers have emailed me in the past that they got their M9 this way with minimum waiting:

Posted in Leica M9 | 3 Comments