By Heinz Richter There certainly are a large number of well-known photographers that rely on Leica cameras.  But like so often in life, there are a large number of unknown heroes that use Leica equipment very much to their advantage also. My article about the Leica Digilux 2 (Leica's First Mirrorless Camera) from April 10 created a lot more interest than I expected.  After all, it is a relatively old camera that does not measure up to what Leica has to offer now. Yet the camera is capable to produce high quality photographs, even by today’s standards.   ..read more

My Leica III with 50mm f/2 Summar By Heinz Richter I often get asked what kind of camera or cameras I am using.  That made me think of all the cameras that helped me pave my way as a professional photographer. As I have often mentioned, my career as a photographer started when my dad gave me a Leica for my 5th birthday.  That Leica III with 50mm f/2 Summar is still one of my prized possessions and it will remain so. Eventually I (my dad, really) added a 135mm f/4.5 Steinheil Culminar and I was happily burning film. My Leica III with 50mm f/2 Summar ..read more

© Thomas Hoepker / Magnum Photos By José Manuel Serrano Esparza August of 1966. Twenty years before entering Magnum Agency, the German photographer Thomas Hoepker is in Chicago (United States) to photograph Muhammad Ali, boxing world heavy weight champion, in an assignment for Stern magazine. Hoepker had got his first pictures of him six years before during the 1960 Olympic Games, when his name was Cassius Clay and being only eighteen years old took his starting steps on the international stage, becoming an instant sensation in the light heavyweight category after defeati ..read more

Marlies Amling By Heinz Richter A while ago I received a phone call from Claire Yaffa.  She needed my mailing address because she decided to send me three of her books.  That made think how lucky I am to know her.  As Leica owners, we are indeed lucky.  Our cameras are used and have been used by almost every photographer of note. Today’s photography is unthinkable without the contributions of the Leica and its users. But only a relatively small number of photographers have received international acclaim.  It is safe to say that a la ..read more

By Patrick Ludolph I think that one should invest in decent lenses, because the picture quality of a photo often depends on this. I also know that many like experimenting with old lenses, especially because they often have their very own charm. They are not always the sharpest, but often have their very own individual bokeh. In the past, I was less interested in old glass. I always thought that I could try to take the picture of my life and then end up with just mud with beautiful bokeh. If only there wasn’t the problem that I like to experiment and play around.  So it happened ..read more

  Photo: Leica Store Miami By Heinz Richter For many years owners of Leica R cameras and especially the Leica R lenses have felt neglected by Leica.  Ever since the Leica R9 was discontinued, they have asked for a digital alternative to use their lenses with. The digital back for the R8 and R9 cameras never got any nominal traction, mainly because it was not really able to compete with the digital offerings from Canon and Nikon. An adapter to use Leica R lenses on the Leica M cameras has been available for a long time.  But that was never a viable solution since live ..read more

By David Farkas, Leica Store Miami Ayear ago, Leica announced the highly anticipated M11 Monochrom. Now in its fourth generation, the purpose-built black and white digital camera from Leica is based off the exceptional M11 digital rangefinder platform. Under the hood, the 60-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor delivers 14-bit images with 15-stops of dynamic range, with no interpolation or per-pixel gain, due to the omission of the Bayer color filter array. Thanks to its dual-gain architecture, the sensitivity range goes all the way from a true base ISO of 125 all the way up to an eye-water ..read more

By Heinz Richter In the 1930s Leica used a very distinctive style of advertising.  Fortunately, some of these ads have been preserved and I am the lucky owner of a few. It is also no secret that the Leica was copied quite blatantly by several other camera manufacturers, including FED and ZORKY in Russia.  In several instances they didn’t even use their own company names.  Instead they literally made fake Leicas, including the Leica script, Leica names on the lenses and fake serial numbers. But they didn’t stop there.  They also copied the Leica ads of the time ..read more

   Constantine Manos By Heinz Richter "The flow of people in a setting, their changing relationships to each other and their environment, and their constantly changing expressions and movements - all combine to create dynamic situations that provide the photographer with limitless choices of when to push the button. By choosing a precise intersection between subject and time, he may transform the ordinary into the extraordinary and the real into the surreal" - Constantine Manos Constantine Manos was born in 1934 in Columbia, South Carolina to Greek immigrant parents.   ..read more

Leica Digilux 2 with custom grey leather covering By Heinz Richter With the introduction of the Leica SL, Leica entered the mirrorless digital camera age with a vengeance. But it is not the first mirrorless digital camera with an electronic viewfinder from Leica. For that we have to go back over 20 years to 2004, when Leica introduced the Leica Digilux 2.  It pointed solidly into the future, what digital cameras eventually would become.  No mirror to flip up for each picture taken, no complicated view finder relying on that mirror combined with prisms.  Just an electron ..read more