Show Review by: Michael Gazzola

Images captured on Olympus E-520

Leica, who are distributed by Adeal in Australia were again at the Imaging Technology Show with their photographic line on display. I was given a run down on the stand and products by Carl Jones who is the product manager, discussing many interesting points about the Leica brand.

It was great to speak with someone who lives and breathes the brand he promotes.  Passion in the

industry can't be underestimated and Carl's knowledge of the products and history of the company is very thorough.

We began speaking about the M8 which is the flagship of the Leica brand - and recently reviewed here. He mentioned straight up (because he knew it was coming) that there were no plans to replace the M8 model and no plans for a full frame sensor, but did say that, in his own opinion, he one day expected Leica would release a full frame sensor - and he did emphasise that it was only a guess.

Mr Jones also mentioned that he had recently been to the factory in Germany where all the Leica's are assembled and noted just how surprisingly small the environment was for each model line. He also stated (for those unaware) that every single Leica on the market is assembled in Germany and by hand - explaining the beautiful craftsmanship and extremely high standards of their products, along with the price tag.

On the topic of the Digilux3 Mr Jones stated that at this time Leica have not yet committed to updating the four thirds system which leads me to believe the Digilux3 may be retired in 12 months or so...

Four lenses announced back in August last year and made available this year in January have all come in under the AUD2,300 mark which is a first and that's despite them being made / assembled in Germany. The reduced cost comes at the expense of less glass along with the speed of the lens being f2.5 rather than f1.4 or f2.4

The stand for Leica was bigger this year than previously with the aim of the attendance to the show being all about branding the Leica name further and putting their products in front of people not yet familiar with this level of quality. The stand looked sharp and represented well what Leica appears to be about.

It was interesting to note that when you looked at the product being pushed it revolved around 3 cameras, the M8, V-LUX5 and C-LUX2. Which is basically one for the top end, one in the mid range and one for entry level. It makes sense in short, and does completely fit with Leica's philosophy to either do it extremely well or don't do it all. So one great camera for each sector of the market appears to be their entire line, which is quite remarkable for a company as large as Leica relying on pretty much just 3 different digital cameras heading into the future.