Depression Baby Turns 77

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I Leica

Leica has teamed up with Phase One on their latest/greatest SLR, the S. The boys at Leica have been working on digital for a long time. The first digital point and shoots they came out with were not quite up to snuff for the Leica community and then the first version of the M8 digital rangefinder had significant problems with the sensor. They send out a filter to correct the problem of 'performance under certain conditions that does not meet the expectations in the Leica brand', a color cast problem. And finally a digital R body made possible by a removable back (Digital Modul R) with an image sensor. This last one allowed users to seamlessly switch between film and digital as the medium format backs do. That was 4 years ago.

With the announcement of the new S body a couple months ago I think they may be finally getting serious about digital. Leicas have always been (arguably) the finest 35mm camera in the world. The build quality of Leicas is amazing and the optics rock harder than any other 35mm system I have used. While they have been out or reach for many photographers because of the high price there have always been many well-funded pros that used the systems (in the 1980s they ran a promotion where you could buy a Leica 800mm lens for $16K and you would get a free VW Rabbit). They have now teamed up with Phase 1 to produce their new S. The press release says 'Our two companies are an outstanding match for each other due to the similarity of their corporate cultures, their extraordinary innovative strengths and their dedication to absolute quality'. If the propaganda is true, and they eventually can produce this thing, its going to be a pretty amazing system. Its 30 x 45 mm sensor is bigger than other 35mm-style SLRs full frame sensor and is a friggin massive 37.5 megapixels. As with every camera line there comes a time to abandon the old and redesign the new without the restrictions of the old so the R lenses wont fit on this body. They only have a few S lenses planned at the moment, but I'm sure there is more stuff on the drawing board in Wetzlar.

Links:

• Leica's S site
• Leica M8 fixes info
• DP Review of S
• Leica M8 on Amazon
• Phase 1 Homepage
• Lens Bokeh
• Leica Lenses on Canon DSLR
• Bokeh ratings
• Canon 85/1.8 Bokeh

Vanity Fair Hitchcock Ads

If you didn't catch these when they came out last February it is worth checking out. I forgot about these and came across them again today.

Read about it here....

Wait 60 seconds and say goodbye

"Our operations are strong and during this process Polaroid will ship products to our retail partners, work with our suppliers and contract manufacturers to fulfill retailer demand, honor customer warranties and employees are expected to receive their regular paychecks without interruption. We expect to continue our operations as normal during the reorganization and are planning for new product launches in 2009."

Apparently they have been another victim of the scams and deception that have defined Big Business in the U.S. in recent years:

"Polaroid's financial condition was compromised by the apparent fraudulent acts perpetrated by the founder of Petters Group Worldwide, Polaroid's parent company, and certain of his associates. Petters Group Worldwide has owned Polaroid since 2005 and an affiliated company, Petters Companies Inc., also has financial ties to Polaroid through Petters Group Worldwide."

We'll see, I doubt there will be any goverment bailout of the Instant Film Industry, maybe they need better lobbyists....

Link: Georges SX70 Page

Leibovitz shoots 'worst photograph ever'

Mike Johnston runs a photo blog called 'The Online Photographer and he has declared the above photo (shot for a Lavazza calendar)the worst photo ever made, saying in part:

'...heavyhanded overproduction; no trace of irony; a blatantly fake background that doesn't even try to match the studio-shot foreground; a baby butt, for that touch of smack-you-with-a-dead-fish cuteness; campy makeup, kitschy hair; and, to top it all off, a hilariously incongruous product placement like an embarrassing pimple.'

I've liked some of her work in the past and there has been some (a lot) that I thought was over rated, but this one just blows. It looks like she had a bunch of 8th graders shoot it and do all the post production work. Even the stuff I havent liked was well produced, I'm amazed she put her name on this. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and think that she just did it for the cash. Supposedly she was making excuses that Lavazza couldn't afford to shoot on location with her.

Link: Lavazza website

Fred Berger's 'Pulp Fetish'

The description on the Goliath site reads:

"Inspired by the pulp comic books of his youth, legendary photographer&provocateur Fred Berger has compiled a body of work which fetishizes this vintage all-American genre to the point of orgasmic overload. Tales of the Wild West, of close-quarter combat, of cops and gangsters, pirates, super heroes and super villains – this is the stuff of PULP FETISH."

Get it at Amazon.com or Goliath