Update: here is a video from the 2008 tour (shot with Leica M8 – thanks Davi).
Be a part of an 18-days expedition to Southwestern China. Experience the rich & colorful cultures and landscapes of China with the latest Leica optics. Canadian Leica Photographer, Yau-Sun Tong and Brian Bell of Leica Camera Inc. will be on hand to guide you through this unique cultural and photography experience of a life time. Click here for more info.
At least this time we have an official press release from Leica. The first M8 Safari comment I came across this morning was: “Let me know when they produce a version covered in reticulated Ostrich testicles and I just might be interested” (source). I am not the target audience for this model but if I had the means, I would buy one.
Hoodman HoodLoupe modification for LX3/D-Lux 4. The duct tape “adds class” (source).
GGS pro LCD Screen Protector for LX3/D-Lux 4:
Remember this lens hood mod with the Ricoh LC-1 Auto Lens Cap? More details are now available at dpreview (see also this thread).
Got an interesting Leica Link? Email me: tips[at]leicarumors[dot]com. Thanks!
The renowned photographic competition, the Leica Oskar Barnack Award will be celebrating its 30th year in 2009. On the occasion of this special jubilee, Leica Camera AG has revised the entry conditions and included numerous changes.
Entries for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award/Newcomers Award 2009 will be accepted as online submissions between 15 January and 1 March 2009.
A Newcomers Award will be incorporated in the competition for the first time. The competition for this award is open to all (prospective) photographers who are aged 25 years and under.
An international jury awards the Leica Oskar Barnack Award / Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award to photographers whose unerring powers of observation capture and express the relationship between man and the environment in the most graphic form in a sequence of up to 12 images. Entry submissions must be a self-contained series of images in which the photographer perceives and documents the interaction between man and the environment with acute vision and contemporary visual style creative, groundbreaking and unintrusive.
The winner of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award will receive 5,000 euros or, alternatively, Leica camera equipment to the same value. The winner of the Newcomer Award will be awarded 2,500 euros. The prizes will be presented in the course of the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie photographic festival held in Arles, France.
All photo series submitted will be displayed in a special online gallery section of the Leica website for a period of time, ending with the request for entries for the new competition. All photographers have the possibility to be displayed in the online gallery under a nickname.
If the US price of the Leica M8 Safari is really going to be USD10,000, I am suspecting Leica will be in world of pain (source). FYI the M8.2 costs USD 5,995 and the lens Elmarit-M 1:2.8/28 costs USD 1,795 so the premium for the Safari Limted Edition will be over USD 2,000 not to mention that the current rebates will not be valid for limited edition cameras (this was also the case with the D-Lux 4 Titanium).
