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Leica M9 course registration

Leica S2 course registration

Full press release:

Leica will host first-ever series of experiential seminars on M and S-Systems

February 23, 2010 – (Allendale, NJ) – Leica Camera announced today that it will bring the latest and newest Leica products to major North American cities as part of the first-ever Leica North American Road Show. Leica’s product specialists will visit 26 cities over the course of 14 weeks; the road show will commence on March 18, 2010 in Miami, Florida and conclude on June 23, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee.  The series is designed to enhance participants’ knowledge of and familiarity with the M and S Systems.

The series will be equally valuable for amateur photographers who enjoy the best and finest as well as professional photographers who demand excellence in image quality and incomparable ease-of-use. Each participant will have access to experienced Leica photographers who can deepen their photographic abilities and enhance their shooting experience.

Topics covered during the Leica M and S-Events will include camera and lens orientation; troubleshooting and maintenance; understanding the digital imaging process; configuring your computer; organizing and storing your images; Adobe Lightroom introduction; color management introduction and  methods to produce better work in less time.

Participants to the M Event will have the unprecedented opportunity to become intimately familiar with the acclaimed Leica M9, the world’s smallest full-frame digital rangefinder camera and the M-System, including Leica’s newest lenses, the 18mm/f3.8, 50mm/f0.95 and the 24mm/f3.8. The S Event will showcase the exceptional offerings of the S-System, the defining instrument for fashion, beauty, advertising, landscapes, portraits and still photography, in addition to offering its participants the opportunity to take photographs.

The M Event will cost $99 per participant; the S Event will cost $149 per participant. Each participant will receive a voucher equal to the workshop fee, which can be used towards the purchase of a brand new serialized M or S Leica product from an authorized North American Leica dealer.  For additional information and to sign up, please visit www.leica-camera.us/news

The full 16 pages reports can be downloaded here. Some interesting Leica facts from 1946:

• It took 33 hours to assemble a Leica III C.

• In November of 1946 Leica was producing 1100 cameras per month. Out of those 1100 units 89% were allocated to the American forces, 6% to French forces and only 5% were available for sale in Germany.

• In 1946 Leica employed 2,453 men and 428 women. In 1939 they employed nearly 5000.

• Leica lost 400 employees during the war and 300 were prisoners of war.

• Every camera was tested by taking multiple black and white photographs between 1.25 to 10 meters.

• The drawing office had 50 drawing boards.

• “The office was well organised and was scrupulously clean”.

• The standard work week was 48 hours.

• Here are two of the final conclusions of this report:

“61. The Leitz factory is a well-run happy organisation, this being due in no small measure to the family nature of the business and to its importance in the neighbourhood. Discipline is strict without being severe and one gets the impression of great interest by employees of every grade in the work being performed.

62. This pride in workmanship and the just pride all have in their world-wide reputation for quality work is the permeating spirit of the place and helps greatly to offset apathy caused by the present dismal state of the country.”