September 15, 2006

Today is the day that many photographers have been waiting for a long time – the formal announcement of the Leica M8. Sean Reid has been testing the new Leica for some days, and shares with us a brief preview of what we can expect. His more in-depth review is to be found on his subscription web site, ReidReviews, linked from our preview page.

As a 40 year M Leica I was as eager as anyone to both read Sean’s comprehensive review, which just went online this morning, as well as to have a look at and test the M8 myself. I’ll be doing the former on the floor of Photokina in a bit more than a week, and filing a report here then. I also expect to receive my own review sample as soon as production units are available. In the meantime Sean’s preview here, linked to the full report on his site, is now online.

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The medium format segment gets a refresh today with three new models from Leaf; the Aptus S-Series, which will includes the Aptus 75S, Aptus 65S, and Aptus 54S. These backs are claimed to offer shooting speeds of up to 0.8 seconds per frame — or as many as 75 frames per minute — with unlimited burst depth. Ultra-fast cards such as the Sandisk CompactFlash Extreme IV are needed to achieve these speeds. The S series incorporate Firewire 800, a first in any medium format back or camera, for faster tethered shooting.

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Now Available – Adobe Lightroom Beta 3 Video Training DVD
with Michael Reichmann and Jeff Schewe

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