Photokina. Panasonic&Apple split what's left of Leica: glass and name.

nugat

Warsaw, Poland
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Cologne, 8.09.2010

PHOTOKINA 2010

" iLEICA"-- A revolution in image acquisition announced!

Apple, the new owner of once famous German camera manufacturer brand "Leica", just showed another revolutionary device at this year's world's biggest photofest, Photokina.
"iLeicaTen System" is truly a breakthrough image acqusition device, a cross between a photo and film camera that is bound to revolutionize the whole industry, just like the iPod did in the area of experiencing recorded music.
iLeica consists of three elements that together make acquiring moving or static pictures a wholly new experience. The heart of the system is iPodTen, the latest entertainment supercomputer with a new touch sensitive 5 inch OLED screen and not much else on the outside. The screen can also be beamed directly to the eye's retina via iScreen, a retinal scanner/projector. The projector the size of a fingernail, attaches easily to one's glasses to project directly into the eye a virtual screen looking like a 60inch HD display hanging in the air some 6 feet before the viewer. The third and indispensible element of the system is the actual iLeicaTen, matchbox size lens and sensor in one, which sends the pictures wirelessly to the iPod, operated by the other hand or the eye movements. The sensor being a 60 megapixel (3x20MP) superFoveon, offers unmatched quality both in photocamera and movies mode. The noisefree sensitivity extends all the way to that of a naked eye-- a candle is enough to light a fairly large room for those late night romantic sessions.
What is left from Leica, the original German photo equipment manufacturer's expertise, actually resides in front of the sensor: the 14x exquisite optical zoom. This part is manufactured for Apple by Panasonic which bought the optical part of the bankrupt German engineering icon.
The fall of Leica and it's rebirth as a brand name for another revolutionary device from Apple can be studied as a classical case of "old business" falling due to its own arrogance and inabilty to compete in the post-mechanical world of silicon and marketing.
Leica was one of the last big names of the second wave industrialism to disappear as a separate business entity. It was also just lucky to get it's debts paid and famous brand name saved. The nail to its coffin was the ill fated transformation into digital products company. In 2006 Leica finally caught up with the market and introduced a digital M8 camera. It was a bizzarre attempt at squeezing already dated digital technology into the shell of camera model created before World War 2. Absurdly high price did not justify the average performance. Good traditional looks were obscured by awful ergonomics, not fitting the digital functions. But the death knell came from marketing, or rather lack thereof. Leica M8 was released as an extremely buggy, untested device. For two years it was basically beta-tested by the hapless purchasers. As reportage camera it miserably failed in Iraqi wars, as wedding registration device it scared customers with loud noises and purple blacks in the pictures. But worst of all, when time was high for a new redeeming model, in 2008 it was re-released as M8.2, most bugs removed. Beta testing finished. In 2009 Leica filed for bankruptcy. From the ruins of what became known in business schools as the "big beta-test fraud", only the brand was saved: "Leica Optical" went to Panasonic for a penny, Apple got the use of "iLeica" name, in exchange for big lens orders with Panasonic.
iLeica will be pre-manufactured in 1 million sets just in time for Christmas. MSRP will be below 999$ for the system.
Kodak, recently purchased by the Russian gas and oil giant Gasprom.... __________________
 
...a cross between a photo and film camera...

Ahahaha, by 2010 it's going to be photo cameras and film cameras. So digital cameras are the ones for taking photos, hence photo cameras, and film cameras are the ones for.....
 
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Ahahaha, by 2010 it's going to be photo cameras and film cameras. So digital cameras are the ones for taking photos, hence pgoto cameras, and film cameras are the ones for.....

"film" like "moving pictures" for some....
Filmmakers do not manufacture negative or reversal photographic materials, they make "movies", also on video, at least on this side of the pond. Howdya say in 'straya?
 
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OHHH, I see. Movie cameras and still cameras. Just when I read it it seemed like it meant cameras for taking photos and film cameras. I thought it was funny.
 
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