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Leica Fotopark


DigitalHeMan

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Is this site maintained by Leica or a third party?

Anyone check out the print service that has been launched in conecction with the Park? I am wondering whether the prints are simply outsourced to Whitewall. Nothing wrong with them, I just think it would be easier to deal direct with Whitewall.

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Is this site maintained by Leica or a third party?

 

Anyone check out the print service that has been launched in conecction with the Park? I am wondering whether the prints are simply outsourced to Whitewall. Nothing wrong with them, I just think it would be easier to deal direct with Whitewall.

 

 

The site is maintained by Leica. And you're probably right ;)

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Hi all,

 

I shortly want to introduce myself as the Leica Fotopark’s Community Manager and give a short statement in this thread.

 

First of all we'd like to thank you for all the suggestions and input you are giving us! During the closed Beta test phase we already received hundred's of messages with valuable feedback and ideas. We are evaluating every single idea and we'll reply to it asap.

 

Of course, we rely on this feedback also in the future and we are looking forward to every message. Our aim is to build a living, creative community for our members together with our members.

 

If there are any issues or you have any ideas or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact me under service@leica-fotopark.com or leave your comment through the "Feedback" flag on the right site of the website.

 

Best regards,

Ansgar

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Hi Ansgar

 

Thank you for your message. I would be interested to hear how you see fotopark fitting into the wider ecosystem of sharing sites such as 500px and Flickr, and what Leica's intentions are to improve the site to be as easy to use and as functional as those aforementioned sites....

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@simon

We want to provide the photographers a platform on which they can show their work and be inspired by others. In addition, many pictures deserve more than just being shared on social networks or to be shown digitally only. To make this possible, we have integrated a Premium Print service in the Fotopark. Our goal is to become a system provider that offers solutions for the entire chain of the image from its creation to the storage, processing to print.

 

Our competitors are focused mostly on individual aspects, such as sharing or printing images. Our approach is to offer a comprehensive solution from A to Z, which also provides a safe environment for storing the image data.

 

@pico

I'll consult our tech guys regarding this and give a short feedback later.

 

Ansgar

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@simon

We want to provide the photographers a platform on which they can show their work and be inspired by others. In addition, many pictures deserve more than just being shared on social networks or to be shown digitally only. To make this possible, we have integrated a Premium Print service in the Fotopark. Our goal is to become a system provider that offers solutions for the entire chain of the image from its creation to the storage, processing to print.

 

Our competitors are focused mostly on individual aspects, such as sharing or printing images. Our approach is to offer a comprehensive solution from A to Z, which also provides a safe environment for storing the image data.

 

@pico

I'll consult our tech guys regarding this and give a short feedback later.

 

Ansgar

 

 

I received the nice looking email describing the "premium print service" but it didn't have enough information for me to determine whether there was really anything special about it that would cause me to want to change my current workflow. It also wasn't clear to me whether this service was simply an outsourcing to Whitewall, as with the Leica print service offered for a short time with the Monochrom. http://www.us.whitewall.com

 

It would be nice to have more detail regarding who exactly will be doing the printing (if not Leica, which third party outsourcing vendor), what printers will be used and, for B&W prints, whether there is anything special such as the manual silver gelatin process using Ilford baryta paper that is used by Whitewall (https://us.whitewall.com/photo-lab/photo-print/baryt-paper?linkId=TopNavigation#tjn=f&t=produkt-details). Even better, the site would offer the technique for B&Ws that involves first creating a large format negative from a digital file, then printing the negative manually using a traditional silver gelatin technique Platinum Palladium Printing with Leica M Monochrom on Vimeo. That would be really intriguing,

 

There just currently isn't enough info for me to decide whether the printing options are better than my current workflow.

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This Leica Park is more and more becoming a weird enterprise. They talk about competitors. So, it is not for Leica users but for all? Is this really a Leica enterprise? Or, is it a company that paid Leica to use their name?

 

What does Leica have for expertise on printing? etc etc etc. Can we have an official announcement from the Board of Leica?

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The Leica Fotopark offers high quality original photo prints (lightjet and lambda) on various papers.

Also exclusive B/W silver halide prints on Ilford Baryt paper are possible.

You have the option to order laminated prints under acrylic glass or or on aluminum DIBOND.

Further Finart Prints on different Hahnemühle fineart papers are available as well as several framing and mounting options.

 

Just try out the configuration tool to see which combinations are possible.

 

Through our global Leica galleries, we have a wealth of experience and know what it takes to include prints, framing and mounting systems. We also offer this quality to our Fotopark members by the decision to cooperate with WhiteWall to manufacture the prints.

 

@Jan: Leica Fotopark is open for all people who are interested in photography and appreciate the photography.

@pico: of course you can define different delivery addresses and they are handled with absolute discretion.

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I figured the printing was outsourced. It is curious to me why this isn't disclosed on the site, particularly given the sensitivities that people have regarding their professional prints. Without any disclosure, it is borderline misleading people into thinking that the prints are made by Leica itself. With only a fraction of the functionaiity of the Whitewall website, I really wonder why Leica would have thought that it would be better to print through the Fotopark. For full disclosure, I have not compared the prices, but would be surprised if prices are cheaper on the Fotopark price. It would be useful to know if I am wrong.

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I figured the printing was outsourced. It is curious to me why this isn't disclosed on the site, particularly given the sensitivities that people have regarding their professional prints.

 

Disclosing sources is not common business practice. Never has been, and typically will remain so due to competitive pressures. Leica, and Leitz before it, has outsourced numerous components and entire products. Many people are very sensitive about the origin of their cameras. Cameras or prints, as long as the quality is good I don't care who makes it.

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Disclosing sources is not common business practice. Never has been, and typically will remain so due to competitive pressures. Leica, and Leitz before it, has outsourced numerous components and entire products. Many people are very sensitive about the origin of their cameras. Cameras or prints, as long as the quality is good I don't care who makes it.

 

I hear you, but in this particular case I strongly disagree. This isn't a "component" of some kind that we are talking about. It is an end-to-end product. If I already use Whitewall and get a 16% discount on everything there b/c of my (direct) high volume use, and I change my workflow and use the Park's print feature thinking that I am getting prints made from the great optical specialists at Leica, and I pay more for this thinking that I am getting more b/c I haven't been told otherwise, I will be extremely upset to know that I have overpaid for the same exact product that I could source much cheaper directly.

 

I think the more appropriate analogy is the Dlux and Vlux cameras. Leica clearly discloses that these are essentially Panasonic products. I would imagine that there would be some serious issues if this disclosure was not made.

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I hear you, but in this particular case I strongly disagree. This isn't a "component" of some kind that we are talking about. It is an end-to-end product. If I already use Whitewall and get a 16% discount on everything there b/c of my (direct) high volume use, and I change my workflow and use the Park's print feature thinking that I am getting prints made from the great optical specialists at Leica, and I pay more for this thinking that I am getting more b/c I haven't been told otherwise, I will be extremely upset to know that I have overpaid for the same exact product that I could source much cheaper directly.

 

Many would equally argue that Leica's lenses are no place for compromise, yet many are made by other companies and in many cases have been available with the other maker's branding. Some people value the convenience of doing business with a single source having a long-standing reputation for highest quality over finding and verifying other quality sources for the sake of a lower unit cost. Your choice. I like having choices.

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yes, but in this case the Whitewall employees are in Germany and will stand behind their product and fix mistakes and provide very personal customer service and also have a wide range of expertise regarding their workflow and products used. I seriously doubt that Leica will be committed to providing this same customer service filter and will likely just be an inefficient middleman int he process, at least that would be my concern.

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yes, but in this case the Whitewall employees are in Germany and will stand behind their product and fix mistakes and provide very personal customer service and also have a wide range of expertise regarding their workflow and products used. I seriously doubt that Leica will be committed to providing this same customer service filter and will likely just be an inefficient middleman int he process, at least that would be my concern.

 

Might be best to see how it works out in practice. Like cameras or lenses where I don't presume to 'know' how a camera performs before it's been tested.

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How could it be a better product????

 

To me, it comes down to cost. If Leica can manage to secure a meaningful discount from Whitewall that can be passed to Park members, that will most certainly pique my interest and get me going.

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How could it be a better product????

 

To me, it comes down to cost. If Leica can manage to secure a meaningful discount from Whitewall that can be passed to Park members, that will most certainly pique my interest and get me going.

 

I made no claims regarding comparative quality. When I was using Nikon cameras I scoffed at the cost of a certain German brand and said "How could it be a better product????". Then I tried using a Leica.

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