Tag Archives: Leica
Leica, Panasonic, Sigma L-Mount Alliance
Leica launched the L-mount with their Leica T (APS-C) mirrorless, interchangeable lens camera in 2014. It was the 100th anniversary of Oskar Barnack’s Ur-Leica. A year later, the Leica SL (Typ 601) arrived: Leica Format (36x24mm), mirrorless, autofocus, with the same mount, now renamed “L-mount.” The L-mount has a Flange Focal Depth of 20mm. The mount’s inside diameter is 51mm…. read more…
Tags: Leica, Panasonic, Sigma L-Mount Alliance
LEICA Portugal Factory Tour (PDF)
This is the story of a city, a river, a region, wine, craftsmanship, transportation, lenses and cameras. They are all connected. Porto is the second largest city in Portugal, a 3-hour drive north of Lisbon. Seventy miles upstream by boat or car, vineyards cling to the terraced hills of the Douro Valley. For centuries, boats called barcos rabelos carried the wine… read more…
Leica Lens Service Training
Oli Laperal, Jr. writes about his lens service course at CW Sonderoptic: “Having attended lens service training at Angenieux, ARRI, Cooke, and ZEISS, learning more about the Leica CW Sonderoptic cine lenses was most welcome. When Osamu Tsukada, Asia Regional Sales Manager of CW Sonderoptic invited me to attend a lens technical service training seminar in Wetzlar, Germany, I did not hesitate…” read more…
Tags: CW Sonderoptic, Leica, Lens Service
Oskar Barnack Photography Award 2016
The 2016 Leica Oskar Barnack Awards returned to Berlin. The award ceremony took place in an event space that was once a church. Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, majority owner of Leica, explained the background of the award, named after Leica Camera inventor Oskar Barnack. The Leica Oskar Barnack Award for 2016 went to Scarlett Coten for her series of images ‘Mectoub’. The French photographer… read more…
Tags: Berlin, Brl, Leica, Oskar Barnack Award
Leica Cine MacroLux and Summicron-C
Here’s an interesting use for Macro close-up attachments to reduce depth of field. Most of the time, Macros (Proxars) are used for extreme close-ups at minimum distance. Here’s a user story about working with Leica Summicron-C lenses and Leica Cine Macrolux. read more…
Leica M 0.8 Full Frame Lenses
From Leica: another decisive moment. Leica Summilux-C and Summicron-C lenses were the result of repeated requests from cinematographers for legendary Leica optics in dedicated Super35 format cine lenses. Now CW Sonderoptic, sister company to Leica Camera, is bringing the iconic characteristics of Leica M Full Frame lenses back to the cinema world with new Leica M 0.8 lenses. read more…
Leica Cine MacroLux +1 (x3)
Leica Cine MacroLux +1 is no ordinary Diopter, as we saw at NAB. You could do the almost unthinkable: stack 3 of them together (to achieve +3) and still maintain great image quality. Thee MacroLux is a spherical doublet that exhibits no spherical aberrations, no color fringing, and almost no light loss. Its coatings are color matched to the rest… read more…
Tags: CW Sonderoptic, Leica, MacroLux, NAB, NAB 2016
Rainer Hercher joins CW Sonderoptic – Leica
Rainer Hercher has been named General Sales Director of CW Sonderoptic for their line of cine products — including Leica Summilux-C and Leica Summicron-C lenses. Rainer said, “The Leica brand has a rich history of creating fantastic image-making tools, but the cinema side of the business from CW Sonderoptic is relatively new. I look forward to introducing these products to more cinematographers and directors in the global market.” read more…
Leica M PL Mount
The Leica M PL Mount lets you attach PL mount cine lenses onto Leica M (Typ 240) and M Monochrom (Type 246) rangefinder cameras. Of course, you’ll want to use Leica Summilux-C and Summicron-C primes, but the adapter will work with almost any other PL cine lens. read more…
Tags: Adapters, FDTimes, Leica, PL to M Mount Adapter
Leica’s new M Monochrom (246)
Leica’s new M Monochrom (Typ 246) was introduced in May. We spoke with Jesko von Oeynhausen, the Leica M Monochrom Product Manager. “The sensor for the Leica M (Typ 240 and 246) was designed and constructed specifically for photography with Leica M-Lenses. Thanks to the use of only one cover glass instead of three, the number of air-to-glass surfaces is reduced from six to only two. This means that less light is absorbed, fewer reflections occur, and more light can reach the sensor. On top of this, the cover glass used for the sensor in M-Cameras is also multi-coated to reduce reflections…” read more…
Tags: Cameras, FDTimes, Leica, M Monochrom
Andreas Kaufmann, Leica Camera
Interview with Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of Leica Camera, on the Leica Summilux-C cine lenses and the Academy Scientific and Engineering Award. Leica Summilux-C lenses got a Sci-Tech Oscar on Saturday. As the lenses were developed, I had interviewed most of the cast of characters involved in developing them. But we had never really discussed the point of view of Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of Leica Camera. Here is his interesting narrative on how these lenses came about.
Tags: Andreas Kaufmann, CW Sonderoptic, Leica, Summilux-C
Leica Summilux-C Sci-Tech Oscar
Feb 8. Beverly Wilshire Hotel. An Academy Scientific and Engineering Award was presented to Iain Neil for the optical design and André de Winter for the mechanical design of the Leica Summilux-C lenses. (In photo above, L-R: Erik Feichtinger, Managing Director, CW Sonderoptic; Christian Skrein, Member of the Board: André de Winter, Mechanical Designer; Iain Neil, Optical Designer, Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of Leica Camera and CW Sonderoptic; Gerhard Baier, Managing Director, CW Sonderoptic. read more…
Tags: Leica, Sci-Tech, Summilux-C
Sci-Tech Awards Announced
Congratulations to Leica and Tiffen. They will receive a Sci-Tech Awards from the Motion Picture Academy (aka Scientific and Technical Oscars) on Saturday, February 7, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. Here is the official AMPAS announcement: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 21 scientific and technical achievements represented by 58 individual award recipients will be honored at its annual Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation on Saturday, February 7, at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills. read more…
Leica Cine Camera 1911
Leica Camera. Wetzlar, Gemany. We’re back at Leica’s new headquarters, investigating a mystery. Last month several jaws dropped at the sight of a 1911 hand-cranked 35mm cine camera, built by Oskar Barnack, on display in the lobby. Why did this camera not go into production? Instead, another Barnack project, the Liliput 35mm still camera, was developed and became the legendary Leica. Experts are weighing… read more…
Leica and CW Sonderoptic Report (PDF)
Special Report for Photokina 2014. Revised and updated through September 2014: all about Leica, CW Sonderoptic Leica Cine Lenses, Summilux-C, Summicron-C, Still Moving Pictures (stills shot by cinematographers with Leica cameras), Oskar Barnack’s motion picture camera, history, tour of the factory, and a look at the new Leica Headquarters in Wetzlar. 96 pages. Copyright 2014 Film and Digital Times. Text and photos not to be used without permission. Best viewed in Adobe Acrobat with View-Page Display set to Two Page View, and Show Cover Page in Two Page View. read more…
Tags: CW Sonderoptic, Leica, Summicron-C, Summilux-C
Leica-T Camera
One hundred years after the introduction of the Ur-Leica, Leica Camera launches their new Leica T-System today. Designed in collaboration with Audi Design, the Leica T-System is an APS-C format mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses. I was fortunate to try it briefly at NAB. It was almost as if the spirit of Oskar Barnack was smiling down on this latest, essentially elegant Leica camera, with intuitive… read more…
Tags: Leica, Leica T camera
Half a Summilux-C at Westlicht
Not yet a Leica Summilux-C cine lens owner? Now you can get a cherished Summilux-C 100 mm T1.4 lens at a drastically reduced price. Well…er…half a Summilux-C lens. Place your bid at Westlicht Photographica Auctions for this cutaway model. Looking for a new look more outrageous than irreversibly sandblasting precious coatings off the fronts of your pristine lenses (may void warranty)? If… read more…
Tags: HAsselblad, Leica, NASA, Summilux-C, Westlicht
Leica Summicron-C Lens Update
Leica Summicron-C lenses are here. Just as Leica still camera lenses come as f/2 Summicron and f/1.4 Summilux models, there are now two lines of Leica Cine lenses. The two product lines offer a choice of aperture, performance, and price. The new Summicron-C lenses are T2.0. Leica Summilux-C lenses are T1.4. .The Summicron-C lenses are about 30% shorter and 20%… read more…
Tags: CW Sonderoptic, Leica, Summicron-C
Leica M (RED) Auctioned at $1.5 M
The winning bid was $1,500,000 for the Jony Ive and Marc Newson designed one-of-a-kind Leica M Digital Rangefinder Camera with Leica APO-Summicron–M 50mm f/2 ASPH lens at the (RED) Auction at Sotheby’s New York. Some updates to previous post, learned at a preview this afternoon: The body was manufactured by Apple in Cupertino. The team from Leica provided specs and internal configurations–to make… read more…
Tags: (RED) Auction, Leica, Sothebys
Leica X2 Gagosian Edition
Camera Style. Leica Camera and Gagosian Gallery introduce the new limited edition Leica X2 Gagosian Edition. The all-metal body sports expressionist black paint splotches on the camera’s white leather trim. Larry Gagosian (classmate of Howard Preston at UCLA) established his gallery in 1980 in Los Angeles. Since then, Gagosian Galleries have presented works of the world’s leading contemporary artists in their 12 galleries worldwide. Larry… read more…
