The Leica booth at PMA!

[RdEoSg]

Well. I spent a while at the booth yesterday oogling the goodies! I know they didn't announce too much new, but for me it was fun to finally get to shoot the M8. I had never even seen one so this was a treat! I won't review it or anything since a lot of you have used it or own them but I enjoyed myself anyways!

They had the funny finder thing for the 16-21 tri-elmar on it with the lens so I fiddled with that for a bit. Sure is a bulky thing. I also got to use the 21 and noctilux for the first time. I had never seen either of those either so I threw the 21 on my M6 and took a few photos. Stupid me I only took photos with the noctilux on the M8 and didn't put my card in so I don't have any photos with it. If anyone one wants to loan me theirs for a while I won't object! 😉

One of the salesmen at the booth had fun looking at my camera since it's a rare version of the M6 I guess. I wanted to trade it for an M8 but he didn't think that would work out to well for him with his bosses. 😛

They also had a funny 16-21 cut in half thing that I looked at. He said they weren't going to be selling any of them though, they were just to demonstrate to people how it works on the inside.

I had a good time at the booth anyways. It was kinda funny actually, the whole time I was at PMA looking at the different booths people kept commenting on my M6 and wondering why I was looking at their cameras! Even on the monorail I was waiting to get to the show and I hear behind me. "Oh, look He has a Leica!!!" They seemed to be computer nerd guys though so I dunno!

Of course after I got home it suddenly dawned on me that I never bothered to have my 3200 rolls hand inspected at the airport. Crap! I only shot one roll. Not sure what the chances are for it now that it has gone through the carry on scanner twice. 🙁

I think that was about it for rangefinder PMA stuff. I never noticed a Voigtlander booth. There may have been one there, but unfortunatly I wasn't feeling well for most of the day so I didn't spend a lot of time looking up and down each aisle. I just went to the major ones I was looking at for the store I work at and then Leica for myself!

I did put in my two cents at the Canon booth to convince them to go retro with a digital rangefinder that takes M lenses. They laughed and said its a great idea but they didn't see the biggies back in Japan jumping at the idea.. Ah well, I tried!

 

[RdEoSg]

This is the Leica booth, The nice salesman that helped me and liked my camera, and a close up of the cut in half Tri-elmar lens.

Sorry they aren't more interested but I really did feel like crap and was just trying to snap a few shots for all of you and then get the heck out of that place.

 

[mbisc]

Any word at the booth about a successor for the C-LUX 1? I have been wanting to buy one for months now, but they have been sold out since X'Mas with the comment that it's sold out pending a successor model 😕

 

[mr_phillip]

The C-Lux 2 was Leica's only big announcement: http://www.leica-camera.co.uk/photography/new_products/

 

[RdEoSg]

I think he answered your question. To be honest I wasn't paying too much attention to the point and shoots. My main goal was to play with the M8. Of course after I left I noticed the C-lux2 in the brochure I picked up. I'm upset I didn't play with it while I was there. It looks kind of intriguing!

 

[steamer]

Just curious, beside the red dot, why the c-lux2 over the Panasonic version. BTW the new summilux 4/3 lens looks pretty cool.

 

[mbisc]

Thanks -- I looked at the Leica UK website, and I guess it's finally out. From the details, it looks like it is the counterpart to Panansonic's FX-30 -- correct?

I'm a Zeiss man, so the "red dot" does squat for me 😀 😀 , but what I have heard is that the firmware -- and specifically the color management -- is a lot nicer (i.e. more vibrant) than the original Panasonic version. Also, the Leicas come with a simplified version of Photoshop...

 

[RF-Addict]

Chris, how was attendance at the Leica booth? It looks from your picture that not too many people were crowding that booth. Typically there are mob scenes around the popular booths and one can easily judge what's hot and what's not.

 

[steamer]

T

I'm a Zeiss man, so the "red dot" does squat for me 😀 😀 ....

Me too, but I own a little of everything and my digicam is a Lumix DMC-FZ5 and the Vario-Elmarit is a fine lens and except for the autofocus I really have no complaints. I have heard the latest panasonic cameras have a problem with the noise reduction being a bit too strong, but I have no personal experience with that.

 

[mbisc]

Me too, but I own a little of everything and my digicam is a Lumix DMC-FZ5 and the Vario-Elmarit is a fine lens and except for the autofocus I really have no complaints.

Oh no, a kindred soul -- now we'll both get kicked off this thread 😀

Seriously, though, since the Zeiss/Sony offerings in digital aren't that great (no small cameras in the wide wide-angle area -- which is usually the strength of Zeiss optics) -- plus I got lots of SD memory from my old digicam -- I am looking at the Leicas/Panasonics for a good, small digicam with a decent wide-angle lens (28mm-equivalent)...

 

[RdEoSg]

It had steady people showing up at the booth. Certainly not the same as Canon or Nikon, but I was never alone standing there and I did have to wait a few minutes to make my way to the center of the counter. They had tables on either side of the counter where they were sitting with the big buyers like Samy's and so forth.

Leica had the coolness factor I think. Lots of people commenting on the one around my neck and lots of people stopping by just because of the name Leica it seemed. I don't think a single person that stopped by while I was there was familier with the system. They all wanted to know how a rangefinder worked and so forth. Several kept getting the film and digital M's mixed up and didn't know which was which.

I guess that is good if they are picking up new people that have never used it before!