I've been a fan of Leica, since I was a photography student. Some of the great heroes of photography used Leica - guys like Henri Cartier-Bresson, the Godfather of photojournalism and founder Magnum, typically shot using Leica. Whilst not everyone may have heard of Leica, it's likely that they'll have seen photographs shot on a Leica. Indelibly etched photos like Steve McCurrys "Afgan Girl" [see comments], or the death of Ghandi for instance. The horrific and world changing "Napalm Girl" and the portrait of Che Guevara, that adorns millions or tshirts and student bedroom walls the world over.
And what is it about Leica that makes it so good? From the company's perspective, I guess they've had a lot of good breaks. They innovated and filled a vacuum with something that the world needed. A top quality, reliable compact camera that combined precision engineering and incredible optics - built to withstand the rigors of war zones, crisis points, a world in turmoil. It's been said of a Leica that "you can bang nails in with them" and "you can use them as a hockey puck".
The model I've got - The Leica AF-C1 isn't one of the higher end professional units - who's price tag is often in the four figure neighborhood - mine is (or was - discontinued in the late 80s) a consumer 'auto focus point and shoot compact' dual lens. There's a 40mm 2.8 and an 80mm lense to switch between. It's been referred to as 'the ultimate street shooter' camera - a characteristic I'm hoping to exploit. The quality of the image it creates is really quite stunning - as Cindy Loughridge demos to great effect here.
So I spotted it - with two hours left to go, then intensively researched it - and really liked what I was looking at. There's a unit made by Minolta called the Freedom Tele Super which is almost identical apart from (according to Andy Grundberg of the New York Times) the casing and the lens - which I could have picked up for a fraction of the cost instead, but the Leica won. I can't wait to get it. Stay tooned for first results!
4 comments
I'm pretty sure that "Afghan Girl" was shot on a Nikon, Matt. Wikipedia agrees: "At the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in 1984, Gula's photograph was taken by National Geographic Society photographer Steve McCurry on Kodachrome color slide film, with a Nikon FM2 camera and Nikkor 105mm F2.5 lens" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_Girl Sorry to be a pedant!
Simon - you may well be right - I made a bit of an assumption after looking here on this Leica page : http://blog.leica-camera.com/photographers/interviews/steve-mccurry-in-the-middle-of-extremes/ where Steve said " Many of those iconic pictures we spoke about were taken with a Leica" (should have been "many of those iconic pictures we spoke about were taken with a Leica.. apart from the main iconic picture we spoke about and highlighted in the interview with a picture.) Blog updated!
Who cares, it's an amazing photo whatever it was taken with! He uses Canons and medium format, too. I've got a copy of the original National Geo with the Afghan Girl cover, I'd love to get it signed one day. Steve is probably my favourite living photographer. Looking forward to seeing your results...
[…] I’ve waxed lyrical about Leica before so I’ll spare you the rhetoric but suffice to say, I’m a big fan of the brand and it was that part of the story specifically that piqued my interest. Having an iconic designer, design a iconic Leica is an interesting idea, but it isn’t a new idea. This article on ViewBug talks about 10 such projects – where the end result was a classic Leica, re designed. In case you’re wondering, prices for these started out at anywhere from $3000 and went upwards of $50,000. Given their limited edition kudos, their price tag will undoubtedly have gone in a fairly sharp, upwardly direction. […]
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