Press Release
6th October, 2011 – (London) – Following the initiatives of working with local creative talent, Swire Hotels House Collection: The Opposite House, Beijing and The Upper House Hong Kong have collaborated with Leica camera, commissioning four local photographers, two from each of the respective cities to photograph the properties with the themes of Beijing opposites and Hong Kong views from the top, using a Leica camera of their choice.
A reader sent me his Leica M10 wish list. What is yours?
1. M-mount remains 100% backwards compatible. Recessed contacts allow newer lenses to report aperture setting and to allow automatic aperture control from the body. No Autofocus.
2. Live view for critical focusing, telephoto, extension tubes and macro. New Macro lenses on the way.
3. Body changes to modern magnesium and composite. Much lighter.
4. Manual winding. Much quieter. Saves on battery. External power winder is available.
5. Body design includes more comfortable shape with ergonomic grip and larger battery. With manual winding about 3000 photographs can be taken with a single charge. AA battery pack optional.
6. Classic range finder display with Live View similar to Fuji X100.
Amazon currently has a new Leica M9 Titan in stock for $34,999.00. Few months ago eBay had several M9T for sale, but it seems they are all gone now. Like anything else from Leica, this listing won’t last long.
Next Fuji camera: a baby M9?
Two days ago Fujifilm announced their plans for a new mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses. The new X system camera will be a “premium” camera” with “resolution and low noise that will surpass the 35mm full size sensor”. There were some speculations that Fuji may actually use Leica’s M mount for their upcoming mirrorless camera (FYI: Fuji did produce Leica L39 mount lenses in the past).
Leica Italy is currently running a photographic contest (in English) in order to find 24 photographers that will get an assignment to take 36 pictures of their hometown using a Leica X1. The voting is done through Facebook “Likes”. The terms and conditions can be found here (open only to Italian citizens).
Thanks Alfonso!
A new Leica store could be coming in Mexico (probably Mexico City) in the next few months. The store will probably be managed by Film Mates Mexico which is part of the Themates Group.
The current LX5 and D-Lux 5 cameras
In a recent interview with TechRadar, Yoshiyuki Inoue ( Senior Engineering Planner) mentioned that the LX5 camera sales are not as good as Panasonic had hoped. One of the possible improvement for the LX5 (and D-Lux 5) replacement could be the sensor size. A new 1 inch sensor (like the new Nikon 1) was mentioned, but nothing was officially confirmed (FYI: the Leica D-Lux 5 has 1/1.63″ CCD image sensor).
The Leica D-Lux 6 is expected to be announced in 2012, probably in September during Photokina.
