Xahu34-Slideshow

[Conflow]

Xahu,

Hereunder is the 'Mediafire Link' which I promised you. Its a small 'Travelog around Bavaria'

Title: "Hol-2007"

I put it together to Test a new Camera which I bought from the Leica-Agents in Mainz.

Its a Panasonic DMC-F8z. with 12x.Leica Lens. 33mm~435mm Effective Zoom. ++More.

Whats special about this Camera is the new 'Venus II Processor' as used in the new Leica-M8

due for release later this year.

Some History

Leica ceased production in 1952 and was purchased by Matsushita Corp.the owners of Panasonic.

Leica Lens Technology has since been used in various Industrial Products made by Matsushita and

also incorporated into various Panasonic Cameras. Two years ago Leica went back into business

with one hell of a 'bang' with their world-famous Lenses and the new Venus II Processor and the M7.

Please excuse my slang....this is one hell of an animal of a Camera.

The Panasonic DMC-FZ8z was released at 'Digi-World Exhibition in 2007' and its generally known in

the Trade as the test forerunner for the Leica M8 ~so I went and bought one. To be honest I have

not yet explored all what this Camera can do, and its a lot !!

PhotoFlash was NOT used in any shot in the little demo "Hol-2007" ~ NOR a Tripod.

Just their new 'Gyro-stablizer' and their New Processor and that Lens....it does exactly what I want.

And they have a fabulous Website:- http://www.leica-camera.com/ (All images open with double-clk)

I have my eye on their new 'V-Lux-1' Compact which is a near look-alike to the Panasonic DMC-F8z.

Hope you enjoy the little Show, (Some shots were taken with my Pentax-Spotmatic for comparisons).

http://www.mediafire.com/?5yuy07euhhu

Brian.Conflow.

[xahu34]

Hello Brian,

thank you very much for the Bavarian slideshow, a reminiscence of a nice holiday. Although I have been living in the Munich region for more than 20 years, I must admit that you possibly may know lots of places which I have never seen so far. Maybe this will change once I will be retired.

I like a lot of your pictures, most of which were taken under extreme light conditions, and it seems to me that it had been difficult, if not impossible to prevent highlight clipping. The Panasonic DMC-FZ8 seems to be a good camera, and you have a complete equipment in a rather small box. Nevertheless I like my Canon cameras (G6 and 400D/Digital Rebel Xti plus several lenses). I myself prefer shooting raw, and I tend to underexpose my images. It typically takes me about 1 hour or more of photoshopping for 1 picture. Thus, preparing the images for a slideshow having the seize of yours will take weeks or more.

Your question for snow in Munich: It is too warm!

Cheers,

Xaver Huber

Munich

PS: This is just an Internet identity, but it rather precisely indicates information about my gender and the region where I live. Xaver Huber is a typical Bavarian name, whereas I come from some part of Germany lying more in the north.

[Conflow]

Xaver,

You are correct ~The Photos were deliberately shot in very extreme lighting conditions, NO Flash used.

In my work with Irish Railways and with County Councils and in Marine environments, I work on very wet

Machinery in damp,dark places. Most times its impossible to use Flash because of the 'bounce-back' from

wet surfaces. I needed a Camera which would do that job every time without fail ~You get one 'site visit'

and one 'chance' to take the Photos...the DMC-F8z does just that !

During my 'testing' I pushed this Camera to the limits of every 'bad-method' in the Book...all went O.K.

I was very,very, surprised with its performance, where others Cameras let me down time and time again.

By the way it does take RAW and other Formats....Hope you enjoyed the Leica Site.

Best regards,

Brian Kelly

Conflow Services.

Dublin.

[MarioG]

Hereunder is the 'Mediafire Link' which I promised you. Its a small 'Travelog around Bavaria'

Title: "Hol-2007"

Hi Cornflow, I just viewed the show and frankly I'm a little dissapointed. Please don't misinderstand, I'm not sure of your intention here.

If it's about the camera, well, I'm not overly impressed although you do have good equipment. In fact it's the eye behind it which counts and I'd say you do have an eye for taking photographs.

If it's about the slideshow, then as I know you've been here for quite a while I know you could have done much better. What was the the hurry? Your transition types were too many. Stick to two or three transitions and blend your photographs with feeling. There is no feeling in my opinion in this slideshow.

PTE is capable of so much you haven't taken advantage of. In short, do it again and I'd be happy to download it again.

I could have replied or not, saying how nice it is, but I think you're after an honest opinion and my opinion is you CAN do better much better. So get cracking my friend and impress us.

I wish to make it clear, I do not wish or have the right to put you down or insult you as it is not my intention and I'm anxious to see take two.

Constructively Yours

Mario

[Ken Cox]

Brian

great shots

ken

[Conflow]

Hereunder is the 'Mediafire Link' which I promised you. Its a small 'Travelog around Bavaria'

Title: "Hol-2007"

Hi Cornflow, I just viewed the show and frankly I'm a little dissapointed. Please don't misinderstand, I'm not sure of your intention here.

If it's about the camera, well, I'm not overly impressed although you do have good equipment. In fact it's the eye behind it which counts and I'd say you do have an eye for taking photographs.

If it's about the slideshow, then as I know you've been here for quite a while I know you could have done much better. What was the the hurry? Your transition types were too many. Stick to two or three transitions and blend your photographs with feeling. There is no feeling in my opinion in this slideshow.PTE is capable of so much you haven't taken advantage of. In short, do it again and I'd be happy to download it again.

I could have replied or not, saying how nice it is, but I think you're after an honest opinion and my opinion is you CAN do better much better. So get cracking my friend and impress us.

I wish to make it clear, I do not wish or have the right to put you down or insult you as it is not my intention and I'm anxious to see take two.

Constructively Yours

Mario

Mario,

Your interpretation of my 'Post and Camera Test' are completely out of context....I was not the least bit concerned

with 'Artistic Merit' within that PTE.Slideshow Presentation .......You may not be aware that the PTE.Program is used for

other Professional Purposes apart from beautiful Slideshows. I'm an Engineer,I have a difficult job to do which I had

described within my Post, and the little 'Test-Show' was all about a Camera which could 'pull-out' those Photographs

without Flash and no Tripod under extreme lighting conditions....A task most people would consider impossible given

the place, time, lighting, and weather conditions prevailing. (Test was limited to 28mB for download brevity).

No offence taken from your Post ~ I just wish you had read my Post in detail and had appreciated what I was doing

and why within the context of my specific Work requirements ~ and need for such a Camera. (See its Reviews)

Best Regards,

Brian.Conflow.

[MarioG]

Mario,

Your interpretation of my 'Post and Camera Test' are completely out of context....I was not the least bit concerned

with 'Artistic Merit' within that PTE.Slideshow Presentation .......You may not be aware that the PTE.Program is used for

other Professional Purposes apart from beautiful Slideshows. I'm an Engineer,I have a difficult job to do which I had

described within my Post, and the little 'Test-Show' was all about a Camera which could 'pull-out' those Photographs

without Flash and no Tripod under extreme lighting conditions....A task most people would consider impossible given

the place, time, lighting, and weather conditions prevailing. (Test was limited to 28mB for download brevity).

No offence taken from your Post ~ I just wish you had read my Post in detail and had appreciated what I was doing

and why within the context of my specific Work requirements ~ and need for such a Camera. (See its Reviews)

Best Regards,

Brian.Conflow.

Brian,

As suspected I am at fault here. Perhaps I should have read your post more than once and more carefully thereby gaining a better understanding of what you said.

I appreciate you not taking offence to my interpretation as none was intended.

In short, to you and others who may have been offended by my reply post I do sincerely apologise.

Mario

[Conflow]

Mario

We all get our wires crossed sometimes ~ me included ~ don't worry about it !

Best regards from Dublin.

Brian.Conflow.

[Henri.R]

Hi Brian, very nice slideshow and indeed, above all very informative concerning the equipment.

But, you said: "Leica ceased production in 1952 and was purchased by Matsushita Corp.the owners of Panasonic."

Do you really mean the German Leica was bought back in 1952 by a Japanese company? Nowadays it's normal that an Asian company incorporates a German company, but in the fifties?!

regards,

Henri.

[Conflow]

Henri,

Let me try and reply to this as best I can within the space limits here......

The Company was formed way back in 1848 and over a few years became Leitz.AG.

In 1914 it developed the '35mm Sprocket Drive Film Format' but production of the

Leica 35mm.Camera (B&W) was war-delayed until 1925. Yes its true !

Then AGFA developed the 'Pancromatic Colour Film' with Leica and the 1st.35mm Colour

Camera came out in 1933. This was sold in America & Germany and on the outbreak

of WW.II the U.S Leica Factory was seized and the technology was divided up amongst

American Manufacturers....now you know how the U.S. got Colour Photography.

During the war the USA was surprised with the technology of Japanese-Optics and the

output of their Camera Manufacturers and one way or another a 'Strategic-Partenership'

was formed between Matsushita-Minolta and Leica which by then had developed the

'Single-Lens Reflex' system but never commercialised it due to lack of assets.

Canon and Fuji realised the potential of this Patent and somehow got access to it and

started to manufacture their own range of Products. Leica-Matsushita then became involved

in Industrial Optics whilst still supporting Minolta.

Leica weren't happy with the quality of the Japanese Lens Manufacturing and with the

help of their partener Matsushita and the Sultan of Brueni they re-relocated this back

to Germany. Carl Zeiss always coveted the Company and had made many aggressive

bids for it, as had Deutsches Bank and others. From the 1970's to 1997 the Company

suffered many set-backs (reads like a Who's-Who) then a Management Buyout in 1998

with the help of Deutsches Bank put it back on the map with most of its Patents intact.

To this day they still enjoy the security of their old business partener Matsushita which

is reflected in the 'Panasonic-DMC Camera' range and their own M8, M7 and V-Lux Series.

These Cameras are superb and why wouldn't they be, coming from such a great Marque .

So...Canon, Fuji, Nikon and Minolta owe a great deal to this 160 year old Company which

is up running again with a great Product Line and some of the Worlds superb optics.

Henri, thats the concise History of Leica ~ but its really a story of implicit trust in quality.

Brian.Conflow.