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The folks at Wetzlar Camera Auction have announced that their next auction will be coming up on October 7th, 2023. The company has also posted information on some of the items that will be there.
As usual, we’ve got the expected array of Leica and Leitz cameras and lenses, but there’s also a very interesting lens from Nikon in there, too.
There are some cameras out there that are purely for decoration. They exist for the prestige of ownership, never likely to create even a single photo. This is such a camera. It’s a special Leitz Auction edition of the Leica M6 (buy here) to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Leitz Photographica Auction.
You’re only able to buy them in person from one very specific Leica shop in Vienna, Austria. It comes with the Noctilux-M 50 f/1.2 ASPH lens (buy here), with both items sporting a glossy black finish. And if you want one, it’ll cost you €25,980.
A Leica M3 from 1959 has been sold at auction in Sweden. The auction was held by LP Fotos Auktioner in Stockholm, where the camera was listed with a SEK 110,000 (or around $10,460) asking price.
It seems that somebody wanted this camera really badly, however. The final hammer price was a whopping SEK 1,120,000, or around $106,485.
Don’t you just hate having to deal with plugging in charging cables? Don’t you wish you could just set your camera or device down and it just charges? This is the concept behind smartphone docks. Now, it’s coming to cameras.
Developed by Fatih Arslan, this 3D printable dock lets you set down your Leica M11 (buy here) and charge it straight on your desk. The dock naturally requires a cable, but its plug slots straight into your camera automatically as you rest your camera down.
Renowned French artist Marie-Laure de Decker, who transitioned from modelling to becoming a highly respected war photographer, sadly passed away at 75, according to a statement released by her family on Saturday. After a prolonged illness, De Decker left behind a remarkable legacy in photography.
De Decker was born during the era of French colonization in Algeria, and she initially embarked on a career as a model before venturing into the realm of photography. In the late 1960s, De Decker captured captivating images of artists Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp and writer Philippe Soupault, which would help make her name in the art world.
The L mount alliance, initially developed by Leica and launched with the trio containing Leica, Panasonic and Sigma, has just received its 6th and 7th members. The new members are the popular lens manufacturer Samyang and Japanese camera manufacturer Astrodesign.
I prefer writing about work to writing about tools. When I started writing my thoughts on photography it was centred around gear, including reviews of various cameras and lenses, which worked at the time to build up my writing portfolio within photographic circles. Gear talk is quick and easy to produce, and never really changes because it’s all basically fundamentally the same; light gathering capability via lens and film/sensor, lens “effect”, speed and accuracy of operation, mechanics, electronics, ergonomics, usability, and how all of that works together to give a particular user a particular experience.
Leica has registered an interesting-looking camera with the FCC. It looks like Leica’s planning to take away a little market share from Fujifilm. The new registration is for the catchily-named N5A8262, a digital instant hybrid camera along similar lines to the Fujifilm Instax Mini EVO Hybrid camera (buy here).
The FCC application doesn’t show much, but it does show a surprising amount. As well as the usual WiFi and Bluetooth declarations, the camera’s labels are also included. This includes diagrams for where the labels will be placed that offer some idea of the camera’s construction and appearance.
Leica has announced the new Leica Q3 (buy here), with some pretty massive upgrades over its predecessor, the Leica Q2 (buy here). For a start, the already high-resolution full-frame 47-megapixel CMOS sensor has been replaced by a 60-megapixel backside-illuminated (BSI) CMOS sensor. Perhaps the same sensor as that contained in the recently announced Leica M11 (buy here).
It’s also capable of shooting 8K video at up to 30 frames per second, 4K up to 60fps in ProRes HQ at 10-bit 4:2:2. It has phase-detect autofocus and contains Leica’s “triple-resolution technology”, first announced in the Leica M11, which lets it shoot 60-megapixel, 36-megapixel or 18-megapixel images in either DNG raw or JPG format.
While there are plenty of digital Leica cameras out in the world, that’s not enough for some people. For example, people like robotics engineer Michael Suguitan, who has used his considerable talents to stuff a Raspberry Pi and High-Quality Camera Module into a Leica M2. It’s called the Leica MPi, and the process is completely reversible, allowing it to turn back into a standard Leica M2 at a moment’s notice.
As an MPi, it has about a 5x crop factor, which limits Michael’s lens options somewhat unless he wants to shoot super telephoto. He has been using it with a Voigtlander 12mm f/5.6 lens in order to get a field of view equivalent to about 60mm on a full-frame sensor.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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