Disqus - Latest Comments for SteveCaddy

Re: Leica M11-P camera is rumored/expected to be announced by the end of the year

Steve — Sun, 02 Jul 2023 21:05:44 -0000

I'm surprised to see people dying for an EVF M. I would love a Q. I went to my local Leica store to try one out with the intention of selling my M gear. I can easily rationalise why an EVF is good (and do), but it doesn't feel good to look through at all.

When I put the M to my eye that giant, clear window to the world, free of strobing or lag, with just the little red dot and arrows, makes the camera feel like it just disappears.

In a world where so many mirrorless cameras have EVFs by necessity, the M's magnificently bright, clear, optical finder is something that makes it super special.

Re: Voigtlander HELIAR Classic 50mm f/1.5 VM lens for Leica M-mount officially announced

Steve — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 22:19:52 -0000

Really like the dreamy, cinematic rendering.

Re: New photos of the upcoming Leica M10-R camera leaked online

Steve — Sat, 27 Jun 2020 02:30:40 -0000

I’m pretty sure the silver M-A has top plate script but the black one is bare.

Re: New York's AIDS Memorial Through the Lens of COVID-19 - Reading The Pictures

Steve — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 06:01:54 -0000

Michael Johnson sparked an interesting conversation from the same photo essay over at his blog, The Online Photographer a couple of days ago. As usual, the comments are even better than the original post, touching on how different photographers have portrayed the crisis differently even in their approach to the black and white medium.

Re: Who has the most beautiful shutter sound: Leica M9, M240, M10 (shutter sound comparison)

Steve — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 03:43:17 -0000

I always felt like the M9 sounded like a photocopier. Remember discreet mode, where you could hold the shutter button down to delay the re-cocking motor from running.

The M10 and 240 are both nice, the M10 lighter and snippier, the 240 heavier and lower.

Re: Leica S3 coming in March 2020 with a price tag of 18,600 EUR

Steve — Thu, 20 Feb 2020 06:11:37 -0000

Peter, I did take a couple of screenshots of that training video that was taken down in the end: https://share.icloud.com/ph...

There will be trade in deals for S owners and trade up deals for other medium format systems, as well as camera-and-lens bundles.

The target customers are professionals who already like the S system and conspicuous consumers who have to have the latest or "very best" thing (and likely to be also be SL2 and/or M owners already).

Re: What’s next for Leica?

Steve — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 05:06:49 -0000

Peter, I just noticed Leica uploaded a sales and marketing training video conference (public by accident?) detailing the S3 details, positioning and timing.

Availability is from March 2020.
German price is 18,600EUR.

https://vimeo.com/391428023

Re: Color photography with the Leica M10 Monochrom camera (M10M)

Steve — Sat, 01 Feb 2020 21:06:40 -0000

That was super interesting. Thanks for sharing. :-)

Re: Real world shooting with the new Leica M10 Monochrom camera

Steve — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 22:59:33 -0000

I hadn’t see Micalizzi or Garthwaite’s work until now. Thanks for introducing me!

Re: Leica camera announcement on January 17th (Leica M10 Monochrom?)

Steve — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 19:45:49 -0000

Don’t do it! The M-A is the most timeless camera in the whole line. It’s the forevercam!

Re: The upcoming Leica M10-P “Ghost” limited edition camera is beautiful

Steve — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 17:51:15 -0000

It's nice, but is there anything special other than the grey leatherette?

Re: Leica M-E Typ 240 and Leica M-A Typ 127 cameras now in stock in the US

Steve — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 08:45:58 -0000

I was told at Leica’s Melbourne store that there’s a six month wait on M-A and MP at the moment.

Re: Leica to eliminate 100 jobs in Germany, “Leica phone” mentioned again

Steve — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 06:50:02 -0000

I think entering the phone market would be extremely ill advised. The ecosystem play is a nice idea, and the storage / print concept was a decent one, but ecosystem plays are plays for scale and lock-in, and Leica isn’t playing the scale game.

Maybe, maybe they could do something amazing with a mail-in darkroom, storage, cataloging, scanning and printing service based around the renewal in film and the undying love people have for film M cameras, but it’s a tall order.

I expect Leica’s real strength is how beautiful and involving the M line is. The Q successfully carries this over to the autofocus realm. I have no idea whether the S and SL systems return their R&D and tooling investments.

Re: Leica M-E Typ 240 camera price: $3,995 / £3,500

Steve — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 18:05:15 -0000

Yes. Good points all round.

Re: Leica M-E Typ 240 camera price: $3,995 / £3,500

Steve — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 07:41:50 -0000

The M-P was top of the Typ 240 pile with the 2GB buffer at $7,495. This is essentially the same camera at close to half the price.

Repositioning the last gen. flagship as the new ‘entry level’ helps stretch out the spread in the product line. (The M-P 240 is only $500 cheaper than the M10.)

It’ll be interesting to see whether used M-Ps hold their price on aesthetic (as many older cameras do by the cult of black paint), or tumble on the grounds of comparative features-for-dollar.

Re: Leica M Monochrom “Drifter” by Kravitz Design limited edition camera officially announced

Steve — Fri, 24 May 2019 07:07:35 -0000

It’s also not at all dissimilar to (Oskar Barnack Award winner) Jan Grarup’s snakeskin Monochrom: https://www.instagram.com/p...

Re: Leica M Monochrom “Drifter” by Kravitz Design limited edition camera officially announced

Steve — Fri, 24 May 2019 06:10:46 -0000

The positioning is pretentious as hell, but it has been for years. With that out of the way, I actually find myself really liking this from a design point of view.

There are thoughtfully unique modifications like the lens hoods, there's unique use of materials in the exposed brass edges and the look is unique. I looks like it crawled out of the desert. It's not for everyone, but then, it's not for everyone!

What I don't get is complaints that special editions are irrelevant — as if irrelevant special editions are something new to the Leica brand. My personal read is that they're much more interesting than golden king's birthday or engraved anniversary editions.

The other thing I don't understand is complaints that special editions are a distraction from new product development. The system is very, very modular, so changes in finish and material ought to be very easily to achieve without disrupting production. I'd be very, very surprised if anyone from product, engineering or production needs to do much at all to reel off another special edition.

Re: Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f/1.2 Aspherical lens now in stock

Steve — Sun, 02 Dec 2018 21:43:02 -0000

Yes, but it's never bad to have options!

You can have Leica lenses in your favourite one or two focal lengths and cover or try others with cheaper brands, and as others have already said, different looks from different manufacturers are fun to try and may suit different people or projects.

Re: Leica M10-D camera without LCD screen officially announced

Steve — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 07:06:09 -0000

Who am I to judge? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Leica M10-D camera without LCD screen officially announced

Steve — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 05:44:25 -0000

This is where the disappointment comes from: the best of German design follows the philosophy that form follows function. Simple forms that suggest the function of the device with a minimum of adornment. The Leica M has been an icon of this philosophy for decades.

The body is ergonomic without elaborate shapes. Each control has a single function that can be intuited by its size, shape and position. The design is honest. Purposeful. Essential.

The reason the lever is offensive is that it’s a departure from the philosophy that was at the heart of Leica, and that Leica itself was at the heart of. The form of a lever suggests that it activates the thing it’s applying leverage to. On analogue models, it had an added benefit of enhancing the grip, but that was a benefit, not a purpose. Now we a form that suggests ‘lever’ but is not one. We have a thumb grip whose form does not suggest that it is a thumb grip.

This departure from the philosophy of purposeful honesty in design feels like a betrayal of one of the central values of Leica and of German design. As other commentators have pointed out, now that the design isn’t true to its purpose it puts the owner in an awkward position as well: when the form suggests an analogue lever it will provoke analogue questions, to which the owner will have to explain, that the design simply misleads. Which provoked another awkward question: why did you buy a product whose design misleads? Did _you_ buy this camera with the intent to mislead? So that people would think something about you that isn’t true? Are you the kind of person who buys such a thing? Worse, are you the kind of person who would pay an exorbitant amount to take on this misleading appearance?

It’s not just a departure now, but an antithesis. It removes the last line of defense that Leica die hards have always been able to fall back on: an authentically simple, direct, purposeful design, free from superficial ornamentation.

Re: New firmware updates released for the Leica M10, Q, CL, TL2, TL, T cameras

Steve — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 02:00:19 -0000

Fair enough.

I almost never use Live View, don't use the EVF shoot in single frame mode and tend to work in black and white (or use manual WB), so I haven't encountered these limitations much.

You can get a percentage battery read out with the INFO button (although perhaps not while in Live View mode?).

Re: New firmware updates released for the Leica M10, Q, CL, TL2, TL, T cameras

Steve — Sat, 30 Jun 2018 01:08:55 -0000

What were you hoping for? I have no complaints about the 240 firmware.

Re: The new Leica MP Terry OʼNeill limited edition set is now in stock

Steve — Fri, 18 May 2018 08:26:01 -0000

It’s the aperture numbers that are green. ;)

Re: Private: Facebook Needs a Contract with America

Steve — Tue, 27 Mar 2018 20:09:06 -0000

I think it _is_ much more powerful than other efforts to shape public attitudes for two reasons.

First because it's individually targeted – it's possible to tailor messages to make them more specific, more emotional and more effective; and this happens in a private sphere. With broadcast models (TV, cinema, newsprint), everyone sees (or can see) the same thing and public discourse is, well, public.

The second reason is because the audience's response is captured and measured, it's possible to tailor your message to your target groups (or individuals), _until_ you see the desired effect in their commenting or posting. To be fair, Facebook isn't at the helm, but the features of their platform have created the opportunity, and created it at a fantastic scale.

It's interesting that you point out that people have always been manipulated, and made some kind of peace with it. Do you think the rage now comes from how personal the manipulation is in the new social medium, how detailed it is, how difficult it is to see through, from the shock of people realising that they were being manipulated when they really thought they were debating with friends or countrymen: not that they were drifting apart, but being driven apart.

Like every violation of trust or innocence (naivety if you prefer), the obviousness of it in retrospect, only makes it worse.

The thread to democracy, in my view, comes from having moved to a world where news is conveyed in real time (stymieing deep cross checking, reflection and analysis) across the graph, without any of processes we associate with journalistic integrity. I'm the first to admit that any such integrity was imperfect, but efforts to fact check, cross reference, corroborate, background and provide the opportunity to respond, were there and could be called out when absent. Those were characteristics of the fourth estate that have been lost with real-time P2P news.

Re: Private: Facebook Needs a Contract with America

Steve — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 21:38:15 -0000

Good piece.

I like the idea of a contract with America (what about with other nations?). However, politically subversive _advertising_ is only part of the problem.

Subversive _organic_ content is easily injected and spreads like wildfire. The CA scandal and, in particular, the Russian Indictment highlights that as a real danger. And not only on Facebook, but on other platforms that are tuned to supply a content feed optimised for engagement — YouTube is a particularly stark example.