PSA: EVERY single Leica lens is IN STOCK now plus new RAW software to try out, Photo Ninja!
The guys at “The Pro Shop”
What a difference from a year ago. I remember when the Leica 35 and 50 Summilux were in such short supply there was a 6 month to a year wait for one. The 50 Noctilux had a year wait and even lenses like the 50 Summicron were hard to come by. What a difference a year makes. Now that everyone is waiting for the all new “M” Leica sales have seemed to dry up..for now. This is good and bad. It is good because now anyone who has been wanting a lens for their Leica can get whichever one they want. 35 Lux? No problem. 50 Lux ASPH? No problem. 75 Cron? No problem. Noctilux? Easy.
I have a feeling Leica stock will be good for the next couple of months and when the new M hits and if it is all it is cracked up to be then we will see the lens rush once again. Then again, it could be that many are happy with their M9’s and M9-P or even classic M8, but I doubt it. In today’s digital world I know there are a ton of M9 users just holding on and waiting to see what the new M can do. I am in that bunch because it just night be “the” definitive digital M without limitations and an end to focus issues.
So for anyone planning on the new M, the lenses are available now for the taking. They may not be in 2-3 months so if you have been wanting that special lens now is the time. In fact, here is an email I received from site sponsor “The Pro Shop”.
“Steve, Just a short note to let you know that as of today, we now have in stock every lens that Leica currently makes for the M body. That’s right, all 23 M lenses in Leica’s catalogue are IN STOCK and for sale at The Pro Shop. We also have 8 different Zeiss M mount lenses in stock. And, last but not least, the new S body just arrived. The Pro Shop for Photographers, the first Leica Boutique in the US is your GO TO place for everything Leica. We don’t disappoint, we deliver.
Art NeJame”
So looks like they have it all, even the reduced price “S” 🙂 The pro shop also sells Canon and Nikon as well and from what I understand, they usually have full stock.
You can check out their website HERE or call them at 561-253-2606
You can also shop with other site sponsors that specialize in Leica: Ken Hansen (khpny19@aol.com) who has new and USED Leica, PopFlash.com who also has some great deals and we can not forget Dale Photo who is also a Leica specialist. For Leica buyers, now is a time when you can get whatever you want. How about a Noctilux for that special stocking suffer, lol. (yes, that was a joke).
NEW Raw Software that looks promising
Just yesterday I downloaded some new RAW software and it looks promising. After a glowing endorsement from a reader I decided to try the demo and thought I would give a heads up in case anyone wants to try it out. The demo is FREE and you can download it HERE. Let me know what you think! So far I like it but have not logged in enough conversions just yet to really judge it.
Lightzone. One of you commented on it and the guy that coded it just allowed it to go open source. They have to remove the serial activation and it should be good to go. Plus they have all the RAW updates for most of the new cams, including my A77. The site used to be called Lightzombie, but now it’s renamed to LightZoneProject.
http://lightzoneproject.org/
Shame no XPRO-1 or XE-1 support 🙁
Steve,
I’ve been using Photo Ninja for months now. I was a beta tester. The results I get with this program completely blow any other raw processor out of the ballpark. The noise reducer itself is the finest on the market. I took an image from my Fuji X100 and blew it up to 6 feet long. Not one piece of grain in the picture and sharp as a tack. The results with the Olympus OMD are mouthwatering.
But the intelligence of the program make the tweaks faster than any other I’ve used.
I will do the raw conversion and tweaks with Photo Ninja and then if I need to finish using NIK in Lightroom or Photoshop.
Play with it. It restores blown highlights like nothing else I’ve seen.
Could it be because interest has shifted away from Leica and to the RX1 and rumored upcoming FF NEX and FF Fuji’s? I find it hard to believe but it makes me wonder.
nah… it’s just one shop that happens to have everything… here all the stores that carry Leica are pretty much swept clean… only the newly opened Leica Boutique in Vienna has most of the lenses (question is: how long).
Incorrect, others have quite a bit of stock as well. Ken Hansen, PopFlash, Dale. Little Mom and Pop shops never have any stock, or very little as they can not afford to do so. Leica lens availability is as high as it has been in 3+ years right now.
I’m talking about the big shops and the Leica boutiques here in Austria, not the US though 😉
anyway: Merry Christmas!
I’ll take one of everything…
I recently heard about a rumor that there will be a FF NEX next year. Even Fuji is getting its FF mirrorless system. Hope since then, Leica lenses will be on stock all the time.
I received my 75 cron a few weeks ago after 18 months of waiting, but in the meantime it has been back to Leica in Solms because of serious focussing issues. Not a good first impression. But it’s on my M9 now and I can finally enjoy it!
Warm xmas wishes to you all!
Robert
Interesting to hear this. I didn’t think you would have to return anything with the Leica label on it. You know, because of the superior build quality and excellent quality control. Something you’d expect from the extraordinary high prices of that stuff.
Hi Steve, Since three weeks I also started to use PhotoNinja. I saw it somewhere on a forum passing by. At this moment it became my main raw editor. It doesn’t have all the whistles & bells like Aperture or Lightroom 4. How much I like and use(d) these two software programs, I also got some frustrating to import/export each single or batch of images. That works fine for certain photo assignments, but is a bit irritating if you just have to work on a few raw images somewhere stored on you hard-disk.
I had always a very weak spot for Lightzone(light craft), what doesn’t exist anymore, but I still got it running on my Macs. PhotoNinja works different, but in my opinion it has in common that it works more from a photographers view of point instead of some Adobe software. It is amazing what PhotoNinja does in automatic smart-lightning on a lot of images. I had a lot of sailing championship images and this smart-lightning does the job for most of these.
I had some more trouble and time needed to find decent settings for concert images, but it does this well to.
So my conclusion so far…. For assignments where I have load and loads of images of the same shooting I still like Lightroom 4 or Aperture. For most shootings where less images are involved I really prefer PhotoNinja! Easy browsing on your hard-disk browsing in maps, which are loading quick! is a pleasure.
Mostly I use now PhotoNinja as raw editor and Snapseed(yes) for some small tweaks. Works fine for this moment. Small complainant = I doesn’t seem to be able to write info in the metadata, or am I overlooking this future?
Greetings form Breskens (NL), Ronald
Still waiting for the 35mm FLE and a Monochrom here in Canada. Going on two months…