December152009

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A Century Of Great Gadget Design: Phaidon’s Design Classics | Gizmodo Australia

“Ur-Leica” Camera. Designed by Oskar Barnack in 1913. Led to Leica I, 1925 to 1932. Notable for being among the first cameras to take single shots using cinematic film.

Tags: /urleica, /leica /oscar barnack /Phaidon's Design Classics /camera /gizmondo

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November62009

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Gift Guide: Leica M9 Digital Rangefinder Camera

The Leica brand has represented the ne plus ultra of photographic excellence for nearly a century, and continues to burnish its impeccable rep with its new M9 ($7,000). As beautiful a piece of gadgetry as any we’ve come across, the M9 is somewhat of an oddity in the digital realm: it’s a rangefinder camera (meaning you don’t see through the lens to focus), is essentially all manually controlled (including focus) and is the smallest camera around to pack a full 35mm CCD image sensor. That giant sensor also explains why the M9 can capture positively massive (and gorgeous) 18.5-megapixel images — which, at about 36-megabytes (MBs) a snap, also means you might want to look into a new hard drive before you get snap happy. Nicely, the M9 can also accommodate any existing M-series lenses dating back to 1950s, a further enticement for any film Leica enthusiasts who are still sitting on the digital bench. Any devout shutterbug would kill or die to have one (and considering its $7,000 price tag, it’ll surely cross some minds), though casual shooters who aren’t comfortable messing with ISO, aperture and shutterspeed settings should likely opt for a DSLR with more automatic controls.

Tags: /leica /cost no object gift /Leica M9 /rangefinder /camera

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March302009

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In Ms. Levitt’s best-known picture, three properly dressed children prepare to go trick-or-treating on Halloween 1939. Standing on the stoop outside their house, they are in almost metaphorical stages of readiness. The girl on the top step is putting on her mask; a boy near her, his mask in place, takes a graceful step down, while another boy, also masked, lounges on a lower step, coolly surveying the world.

“At the peak of Helen’s form,” John Szarkowski, former director of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art, once said, “there was no one better.”

[…]

In 1935 she met Cartier-Bresson when he spent a year in New York. On one occasion she accompanied him when he photographed along the Brooklyn waterfront. She also trained her eye, she said, by going to museums and art galleries. “I looked at paintings for composition,” she said. In 1936, she bought a secondhand Leica, the camera Cartier-Bresson favored.

Two years later, she contacted Evans to show him the photographs she had taken of children playing in the streets and their buoyantly unrestrained chalk graffiti. “I went to see him,” she recalled, “the way kids do, and got to be friends with him.” She helped Evans make prints for his exhibition and book “American Photographs.”

"

— Helen Levitt, Who Captured New York Street Life, Dies at 95 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com © Estate of Helen Levitt

A 1939 image of trick-or-treaters by Ms. Levitt was part of the inaugural exhibition of the Museum of Modern Art’s photography department in 1940.

Tags: /ben shahn /bensonhurst /helen levitt /walker evans /cartier-bresson /leica /street photography /brooklyn /new york /the americans

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January12009

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‘I said to the cameraman: `Which one of you is going to do the interview?’ He said, ‘You are!’ ” Gianelloni said. “It was a cameraman and a sound man who had never been out of New York."

— U.S. citizen got the scoop: an interview with Fidel Castro - Americas - MiamiHerald.com

Tags: /interview /castro /capa /leica /gianelloni

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December82008

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Adapter Puts Leica Lenses on Micro Four Thirds Cameras | Gadget Lab from Wired.com

It could successfully be argued that the whole point of owning a Leica is that you are then able to use the (deservedly) legendary Leica M lenses. The cameras themselves are, like any other camera, just boxes. Exquisitely engineered, wonderful to use boxes, but boxes nonetheless.

So, Novoflex’s new lens adapter, which will let you put a Leica lens onto a Micro Four Thirds camera, has us rather excited.

Tags: /leica /four-thirds /adapter /camera /photography /nikon /contax/yashica /olympus /pentax /minolta /lenses

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November162008

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Jessica Lange Publishes Photography Book, '50 Photographs' -- New York Magazine »


Images from Lange’s new book, 50 Photographs.

Tags: /Jessica Lange /photographer /photography /Leica /black and white /University of Minnesota /King Kong

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November122008

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Samsung T929 Leica 8 MP camera phone now on T-Mobile - Mobiletor.com »

Samsung T929 Leica

T-Mobile users in US will have all their eyes and ears on the latest breathtaking device, Samsung M8800 Pixxon that is renamed as T929 Leica. It’s a compatible device entering the competition. It’s basically a camera oriented phone. A phone best suited for people who love photography.

T929 Leica proudly boasts off its 8 MP camera with auto focus, anti-shake technology and has an added interesting feature, the face and smile detection with enhanced image capturing capabilities. The phone also supports a video recording feature along with its most talked camera feature. It records 30 frames per second with 720 x 480 resolution pixels. T929 Leica is equipped with powerful accelerometer sensor feature.

The Samsung T929 comes with a touch screen keyboard with TouchWiz technology. The phone features 3G with HSDPA support. It also offers FM Radio for entertainment. The demanding functionality TV out is also been offered by the Leica. It’s the best phone for multi tasking. This highly hype phone unfortunately has one draw back, it does not support Wi-Fi.

As for now there is no word on the availability and pricing for Samsung T929 phone.

Tags: /leica /samsung /t-mobile /cell /cameraphone /omg 8 megapixels /did i say it's branded as a leica?

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September222008

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Ars Technica :: Leica makes medium-format/35mm digital hybrid with S-system »

Leica S2 camera Protoype

At Photokina today, Leica announced development of a radical new digital SLR system it calls the S-system. The company’s concept marries a larger digital sensor and a 35mm-style SLR body to make “a camera that would give the quality of medium format and the handling and flexibility of 35mm,” according to Leica UK’s David Bell.

UK-based Professional Photographer says the body is somewhere between a Canon EOS 5D and EOS 1D in size. But the camera features a Kodak-developed, 37 megapixel sensor that measures 30 x 45mm. A standard 35mm frame measures 24 x 36mm, while many digital SLRs use a APS-C size of approximately 16 x 24mm. The larger size is comparable to some digital backs designed for medium-format camera bodies

Tags: /leica /digital /medium-format/35mm /camera

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July72008

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Leica Faces Extinction As Digitals Snap Up Business »

Yesterday the German firm insisted that its products still had appeal, despite ferocious competition from cheaper Japanese and Chinese rivals. “We can’t be a market leader. But we are optimistic we can still be a successful niche player,” Mr Furchheim told the Guardian, speaking from the factory in Solms, near Frankfurt, where most Leicas are still made.

He added: “If someone just wants to show a young boy throwing a stone in Ramallah they will use a digital camera. If they want to shoot a whole story, explaining what is happening there and why the boy is doing it, they will use a Leica. It’s a more intimate tool. With a Leica you can develop your own style, your own handwriting. The fact that we have been linked to reportage across the world is our great strength.”

Tags: /leica /recapitalization /digital point-and-shoot /photojournalism /professional /amateur

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