Leica. The name conjures notions of luxury, history, quality, and precision. This especially applies to Leica’s M-mount lenses. While some of Leica’s latest camera bodies like the M11 have gathered praise, the lenses have set the industry gold standard.
Leica has announced a limited-edition matte black version of its Summicron-M 28mm f/2 ASPH lens that comes with an integrated lens hood. The company says that not only does it look good, but the paint is also designed to resist scratches.
Vintage lenses are more popular than ever, thanks in large part to the mirrorless revolution as well as affordable, high-quality cinema and hybrid video cameras. These lenses are regularly “cine modded” for video use due to their unique character and less clinical rendering, (sometimes) affordable prices compared to cine lenses, helicoid-driven focus with hard stops, and physical aperture rings (which are often de-clicked).
Leica has finally officially revealed the M11 Rangefinder, letting us finally put all the rumors of what we may or may not expect to rest. Now that it's here, what has five years of development given us?
Germany has a long history of producing some of the best cameras and lenses ever to appear in the history of photography, but German brand names can be a bit tricky to pronounce. In this 8.5-minute video, photographer Maximilian Heinrich of Analog Insights shares the native German speaker's pronunciation of some well-known brands.
Leica has added to its M-mount lens lineup with the announcement of the APO Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH lens, a "sibling" optic to the APO Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH, and promises to be able to resolve the high megapixel sensors of the present and future.
Leica has announced its latest L-mount prime: a 28mm f/2. This lens follows the company's existing focal lengths of 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, and 90mm lenses already available for L-mount, and promises top-tier optical performance and fast, reliable autofocus.
Canon uses a red ring on its L series lenses to signify quality. Leica just turned an entire lens red. It just unveiled a new limited edition version of the APO-Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 ASPH, the first ever Leica lens to come in a red finish.
Looking to make its medium format S-series lineup a bit more robust, Leica unveiled two new S-series camera bodies and a new S-series lens at Photokina this morning. The two cameras are the ‘entry-level’ CCD-sensor Leica S-E (Type 006) and the ‘top-end’ 4K-capable CMOS-sensor Leica S (Type 007), and they're joined by the Summicron-S 100mm f/2 lens.
Unlike many camera lens lines, Leica's lenses are group into categories under well known trademarked names. Mention the word Noctilux, and a Leica shooter will immediately know that you're referring to a f/1 lens that's geared towards shooting in low-light environments.
Photographer Thorsten Overgaard has been working on a definitions page that explains the origins of the various terms -- the explanations go beyond what the terms refer to, and include why they were given those names.
There's an old beat up Leica MP-36 being sold by a reputable seller on eBay (8533 feedback score with 99.4% positive) for the staggering price of $104,000. What's strange is that the details provided in the listing are quite sparse. The page includes a few photographs and the description,