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Will this brand ever move into the present?


John Ricard

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19 hours ago, pgk said:

W A Poucher was an extraordinarily succesful landscape and mountain photographer with dozens of books to his name (put his name into an eBay search to find some). He revolutionised mountain climbing guide books too. He shot on Barnacks and perhaps Ms later on. And yet Leica rarely promote their cameras for this sort of usage. I find this odd myself. And its not disparaging those other photographers (although Jim Marshall is not a household name and C-B is probably only known by those interested in Magnum type photography now) but about broadening appeal and potetially additional sales.

My MP is de rigueur amongst my hillwalking 'raiment'.

It's long past time Leica released a sweet-smelling limited edition iiif in honour of the great man.

 

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I am 100% sure that the event referred to by the OP was designed to appeal to all those who first experienced sex, drugs and rock-and-roll in the 60s and 70s, emotionally associated with unfulfilled desire for a Leica (they couldn't afford one), but now, in Washington DC after half a century of making money, have more than enough small change to reawaken the heady feelings of adolescence. After buying a new Leica at this event they will leave the premises pondering a new sports car and an extra-marital affair.

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vor 1 Stunde schrieb frame-it:

depends on which part of the world you're in ;) in the last few weeks ive seen several young teenagers with leicas ranging from m10R's to Q2's and Mp3's with noctilux 1.2  etc etc etc, saw a young man in his late 20's buying an M10R this morning at one of the Leica shops.

... as I say before: L. is present and "sorry for take over this beautiful film title": L. is back to the future :) 

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1 hour ago, LocalHero1953 said:

I am 100% sure that the event referred to by the OP was designed to appeal to all those who first experienced sex, drugs and rock-and-roll in the 60s and 70s, emotionally associated with unfulfilled desire for a Leica (they couldn't afford one), but now, in Washington DC after half a century of making money, have more than enough small change to reawaken the heady feelings of adolescence. After buying a new Leica at this event they will leave the premises pondering a new sports car and an extra-marital affair.

...and the affair will be their financial damnation in a way that neither sports cars nor Leica cameras could ever aspire to.

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5 hours ago, stevieg said:

Interestingly, I have recently bought a number of Pouchers books with the view of a peri-retirement project of re-photographing some of his images.

I have a couple of his original prints from Cumbria (many are in the V&A - exRPS). My father met him in in the mountains of Snowdonia but couldn't remember his camera other than noting it was a Leica. Hs colour books didn't do him much good but his B&W were and are still a resorce of great images - I was only looking at his Arran images the other day and wondering whether to try to retake them.

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6 hours ago, stevieg said:

 

Interestingly, I have recently bought a number of Pouchers books with the view of a peri-retirement project of re-photographing some of his images. Not sure how far I'll get, but the majority of his photo's were taken with a IIIa along with 35, 50 and 90mm lenses, with the 50 being the most used. To be honest, it's mainly an excuse to get back out into the hills of Scotland and Cumbria with what is likely to be either an M10-R or the new M11 (with my trusty M240 as backup-it's been on the summit of Scafel Pike and Old Man of Storr in the winter and still going strong!!) The "M" is a very versatile camera and it's compactness and light weight combined with a few "m" lenses is substantially less than my GFX100s and lenses. (a few Kg lighter!!). I would welcome a more diverse marketing/appeal for the use of "M" cameras.

Poucher's books are still excellent guides whether out walking, researching routes or simply reading them for the pleasure of reliving the routes he describes in his own hemp, wool, tweed and hobnail style. 

I like your idea of recreating his images! 

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On 9/22/2021 at 8:02 AM, John Ricard said:

I fail to see how this obsession with Jim Marshall and the like helps brand the company as relevant in today's photographic world.

Who is relevant in today's photographic world? Do you have some suggestions for Leica?

Look at rock album sales for 2020 - it may explain which rock photographers still carry the most weight: https://wmmr.com/galleries/top-rock-albums-of-2020-billboard/

I notice even dpreview.com (digital photography review) has, in its current top dozen stories, articles on 1) the film camera Olympus wanted to build (but didn't) before the film OM cameras, and 2) a food photographer working with the collodion wet-plate process. Contemporary creative work in summed up in the Siena awards for "Best Drone Photography" (which is actually pretty nice work, but hardly Leica-relevant).

https://www.dpreview.com/

I doubt the Baby Boomers (21% of the population) are driving the nostalgia craze all by themselves. If it is a craze, and not simply responding to quality.

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On 9/22/2021 at 3:02 PM, John Ricard said:

I got an email from Leica yesterday that promoted an event at the Leica Store in Washington, DC USA with photographer Neal Preston.  I wasn't familiar with him but it turns out he'll be showing images and sharing stories of touring with, "rock and legends like Led Zeppelin, The Who and Queen".  Why does Leica feel the need to focus on the past so much?  Leica acts as if it was the only brand around in the 60's and 70's.  Nikon could easily boast of their legacy of photographing Woodstock, Apollo astronauts, presidents, etc, but instead they are focused on the present.  I fail to see how this obsession with Jim Marshall and the like helps brand the company as relevant in today's photographic world.

If you go to gigs you will notice that the paid photographers are using Nikon and Canon DSLR's mostly, quite a few in video mode too. Not many current band photographers are using Leica M's at gigs, and the features of the top end DSLR's obviously make them more suited to the job (fast AF, water or rather beer resistant etc).

Also the typical age of the Leica customer means that many will have an interest in the bands mentioned above.

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12 minutes ago, adan said:

I notice even dpreview.com (digital photography review) has, in its current top dozen stories, articles on 1) the film camera Olympus wanted to build (but didn't) before the film OM cameras, and 2) a food photographer working with the collodion wet-plate process. Contemporary creative work in summed up in the Siena awards for "Best Drone Photography" (which is actually pretty nice work, but hardly Leica-relevant)

I look forward to the next combination of old and new: wet plate drone photography.

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2 hours ago, adan said:

Who is relevant in today's photographic world? Do you have some suggestions for Leica?

Well, they could have rather ore of a spread of genres. Very few 'working' photographers use Leica so they will have to be a bit creative.

1 hour ago, LocalHero1953 said:

I look forward to the next combination of old and new: wet plate drone photography.

Not a chance - a drone falling out of the sky carry glass sounds like an modern H&S issue to me - they'll be grounded for sure.

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On 9/22/2021 at 7:02 AM, John Ricard said:

I got an email from Leica yesterday that promoted an event at the Leica Store in Washington, DC USA with photographer Neal Preston.  I wasn't familiar with him but it turns out he'll be showing images and sharing stories of touring with, "rock and legends like Led Zeppelin, The Who and Queen".  Why does Leica feel the need to focus on the past so much?  Leica acts as if it was the only brand around in the 60's and 70's.  Nikon could easily boast of their legacy of photographing Woodstock, Apollo astronauts, presidents, etc, but instead they are focused on the present.  I fail to see how this obsession with Jim Marshall and the like helps brand the company as relevant in today's photographic world.

Leica has exhibitions space and LFI magazine to promote known and less known photographers from present and past. Nikon used to have exhibition space, but I fail to see how they promote photographers today. Like most other manufacturers, Nikon uses photographers mainly to promote their products, not the photographers' work.

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I used Leica R's and then M6's for over 30 years in 27 countries because they were so dependable, excellent quality lenses (duh!), and never failed me-

I went with the M9 - went through 3 bodies- 2 had dirty sensors out of the box and the third self destructed on a shoot in Doha- just out of warranty- but of course Leica fixed it for free- wonderful service- but I lost my confidence and went on to Fuji- and loved it-

While I have no complaints about Fuji- the M10R is IT for me- has returned my love of the experience of photography and the new sensor is magic.  As soon as I got the camera in my hands, it felt like an old friend!

Can't thank Leica enough for creating the M10R- simply wonderful- 

Not a thing wrong Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Fuji et al- just so much is right about the M series!

 

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On 9/22/2021 at 3:02 PM, John Ricard said:

 I fail to see how this obsession with Jim Marshall and the like helps brand the company as relevant in today's photographic world.

I think the todays photographic world has now disappeared up it's own rear end, and rightly so, history is now on-topic again and nothing is off the cards. People are now desperate to re-connect with imagery rather than the next camera feature they 'needed' to make a better photo of a bowl of oranges than their last camera did. Why on earth do you think so many young kids buy film and Lomo cameras if they aren't ambivalent and sceptical about the latest camera from Leica, Nikon, etc.? It's a very good time to look back and reconnect with fine images made without the competitiveness of pixel counts and 'how big can I print' concerns and reassess what photography is about, just being modern, or being relevant?

Edited by 250swb
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On 9/22/2021 at 10:02 AM, John Ricard said:

I got an email from Leica yesterday that promoted an event at the Leica Store in Washington, DC USA with photographer Neal Preston.  I wasn't familiar with him but it turns out he'll be showing images and sharing stories of touring with, "rock and legends like Led Zeppelin, The Who and Queen".  Why does Leica feel the need to focus on the past so much?  Leica acts as if it was the only brand around in the 60's and 70's.  Nikon could easily boast of their legacy of photographing Woodstock, Apollo astronauts, presidents, etc, but instead they are focused on the present.  I fail to see how this obsession with Jim Marshall and the like helps brand the company as relevant in today's photographic world.

I don’t think its a secret Leica knows where the money is and technically, the company is very, very much in the present and IMO well prepared for the future. 

“How Leica, the 107-year-old camera company, has survived and thrived in a digital age”

https://luxurylondon.co.uk/culture/entertainment/how-leica-camera-has-survived-and-thrived-in-a-digital-age-jason-heward-interview

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On 9/24/2021 at 4:34 AM, frame-it said:

depends on which part of the world you're in ;) in the last few weeks ive seen several young teenagers with leicas ranging from m10R's to Q2's and Mp3's with noctilux 1.2  etc etc etc, saw a young man in his late 20's buying an M10R this morning at one of the Leica shops.

Definitely.  Where was this ?

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On 9/24/2021 at 1:34 PM, frame-it said:

[...] ive seen several young teenagers with leicas ranging from m10R's to Q2's and Mp3's with noctilux 1.2  etc etc etc, saw a young man in his late 20's buying an M10R this morning at one of the Leica shops.

 

Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse
— Willard Motley

 

😁

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