Press Release: Leica, The Adventure Begins

February 15, 2011 press release 10

Press Release

The Adventure Begins.

Leica Explorers set out in the footsteps of the great explorers

Solms, Germany (February 15, 2011) – Traveling Magellan’s route in South America, exploring Australia’s Great Barrier Reef with James Cook’s log book in your backpack or following in the footsteps of Amundsen in the icy wastes of the Antarctic – the ultimate voyager’s dream will soon become reality for ten adventurous globetrotters through the Leica Explorer contest. They submitted their applications to become traveling Leica ambassadors in October 2010 and were selected from almost 1,000 applicants from 145 different countries. The Leica Explorers have now set out on their travels fully equipped with gear by The North Face, 2,000 euros (approximately US $2,700) for expenses along the way and a Leica V-Lux 2 to document their journey. These globetrotters will be keeping us up to date on their adventures with an exclusive travel diary of pictures and reports at www.leica-explorer.com.

The Leica V-LUX 2 digital compact camera is the ideal traveling companion for our adventurers. It is light, has a fast lens and is particularly versatile. With a range of focal lengths from 25 to 600 millimeters, it is a true alternative to SLR cameras and guarantees that visitors to the Explorer Blogs can enjoy fascinating insights into the countries traveled by our explorers in breath-taking quality.

The winners and their routes in detail: Marcus Werner from Berlin will be following in the footsteps of Ferdinand Magellan on his journey to South America. Sebastian Wolf from Magdeburg will be picking up the trail of Leif Eriksson in North America. In India, our Canadian explorer Hubert Hayaud and his partner Mayra Roffe will be taking the routes explored by Ibn Battuta. Lebanese explorer Roy Samaha is on the trail of James Bruce in Egypt. Daisuke Takahashi from Japan will be following James Cook’s route to Australia. American explorer Christopher Butler will be following Marco Polo on the way to China. Annie Atkins, our Irish explorer, will be traveling to Tibet to travel the routes of Nain Singh. Saulius Damulevicius from Lithuania will follow Roald Amundsen to the Antarctic and French adventurer Alary Romain takes up the trail of William Adams in Japan. Our Dutch discoverer MayLee Weernik has already completed her adventurous journey. She explored the routes taken by David Livingston in Africa.

About Leica Camera AG:

Leica Camera AG is an internationally operating premium manufacturer of cameras and sport optics products. The Leica legend is founded on the lenses of the long-established company. Together with innovative technologies, they provide for better images in all concerns of vision and perception. Leica Camera AG has its headquarters in Solms, in the state of Hesse in Germany, and a second production site in Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal. The company is internationally represented by its branch offices in England, France, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland and the USA. New, innovative products have pushed the company’s recent positive development: In the financial year 2009/2010, a total of 1,083 employees achieved revenues of 158.2 million euros (approximately US $213.3 million).

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10 Comments

  1. Just a thought. Isn’t it funny how obsessed we photographers have all become with AF speed.?? We used to focus by hand with manual film cameras and nobody complained about whether Bob could focus his Nikon camera faster than Ted could focus his Canon. Not even an issue when we bought cameras back then. Now, if it’s not the fastest we’re not satisfied! You know however fast that Fuji X100 focuses you’ll want to drop it as soon as possible when the improved faster focussing Fuji X200 comes out with even faster focussing and a wider/ faster/( pick anything you like,) lens!

  2. I’ve used Fuji cameras before and in fact lots of Japanese brands ( I live here in Japan ) none of the lenses have come close to Leica optics- with the exception of those on the Contax cameras, in real life shooting situations. We all get excited by new toys. Why do you think the Leicas are so valued here in Japan? For collectors?
    The Japanese KNOW that Leicas are the best. Japanese cameras are good but they are a mass produced product( as you say Ashwin ) built to be produced in higher volumes. Same difference in quality between a custom built bicycle and mass produced bikes. They both can be good but the quality difference is there
    when you ride the bike.
    I wouldn’t get quite so excited about the Fuji just yet. It’s lens will no doubt be sharp ( most are these days ). but that’s not the whole story. I really doubt you’ll get that lovely Leica 3-D effect, Bokeh and color quality from the Fuji lens. i do think the viewfinder is interesting, but that’s just because it’s a new concept.
    Fuji’s got a lot riding on this product? Not really, they are not doing any more than Konica did with the Hexar, Ricoh with it’s GR-1, Olympus with it’s EP1.. and so on. concept cameras are just a corporate fashion here in Japan right now.Japanese companies are proudly competitive and they all want to be Ichiban and better than the next company.It’s as much about marketing products as it is about photography.
    Different philosophy at Leica. So why the Pana Leica cameras you may ask.? Because Leica has been under pressure to make more affordable products and truth is, they don’t want to do that. Leica wants to make M’s and S1’s not throw away digicams. They didn’t want the CL really.I think the X1 was more determined by what the market wanted rather than what Leica really wanted to make.
    Fuji X100 will probably be overshadowed by any of the other Japanese products within a few months of being on the market. Yes, I’m being unfair since I haven’t tried it yet. i don’t mind at all if the Fuji turns out to prove me wrong and be something really amazing. But really, every new camera these days is hyped up and just as quickly forgotten.

  3. TO the Vlux – they sure are pushing a very mediocre (even by superzoom standards) camera, pretty damn hard. It must, like the other panny partnerships, be a real cash cow for them. Have a look at the dpreview of the panasonic.. :/

  4. We will wait and see for the X1 update
    In my post I can’t find anything about a M9 killer. I even didn’t think/write about a M9. What I mean with ‘hello X100’ is maybe it is good replacement for a X1 but not for a M9!
    I,m with you, we do have to wait for the X100 testreports, specs on paper could be far different from reality….
    I understand that you like Leica stuff al ot…. 🙂
    Tim.

  5. Mmmm, X1 software update…. The most ridiculous story I’ve ever read! These stories about the X1 update are only rumors to keep the ‘train rolling’… There will never ever be an update! Hardware limitations. I can hardly believe they need > 14 months to write an update, again ridiculous Leica!!! Leica is too busy with titanium and tiroler leather stuff and all kind of other collector items to be stored in the museum in the future :). Hello Fuji x100 !

    • First of all….you’re just wrong! There will be a software update any moment now that SIGNIFICANTLY improves AF. I agree with you that it’s ridiculous having taken this long to come out with it but it will be here soon nonetheless….fact!

      Secondly, I will probably get an X100 when it comes out just because unlike most people, I like to know (based on actual experience) what I’m talking about. But if you think for one moment that the X100 is going to be some kind of M9 killer (collector or non-collector editions) then you’ve got another think coming. There is a reason why one costs north of 7k and the other 1k

      `6

      • Well, I hope the x1 update comes.. but I have grown impatient tbh. At least we can all agree it’s ridiculous to take so long. I really don’t know why they haven’t rolled out incremental updates (as a technology guy as well, this really makes more sense)… I also wonder if they are waiting for the x100 to street before the update for one of two reasons

        a) they don’t want fuji to take ideas
        b) they want to examine fuji and take ideas

        I’m not sure anyone thinks the x100 is an m9 killer, I think the frustrations come from the fact that leica are a small company – and the supposition that if they are spending money on developing special editions for the few, they are taking away limited fiscal resources from larger scale projects. How true that is, I don’t know.. I do know that for those who had been considering an m8 and 35mm lens, the x100 as a new camera is an intriguing alternative.. but yah, I’m pretty sure everyone would rather have the m9.

      • Alas, too late for me. Just sold my X1, and looking forward to the X100. I agree completely that while it may bear a resemblance to M cameras, that’s where comparisons will stop. It’ll be produced in higher volumes (I suspect that Fuji’s production facilities outstrip Leicas by an order or magnitude), so collectibility factor should drop. Second, the fixed lens will keep it from pitting against the M9, though I have my fingers crossed that it will give the IQ of the X1 a run for the money, and most importantly, that AF is far more responsive.

        Second, Fuji’s got a lot of eggs in this basket, based on their promotional campaign. I suspect that they plan to be a winner, as this is new territory (other than the X1 and Sigma large sensor compacts) that they can dominate with the right entry into this market

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