Gearing up for the sharpest shots.A LEADER in the camera manufacturing business for more than a century, Leica Camera recently held a red carpet party to introduce its new authorised distributor in Thailand, A-List Corporate Ltd.
The brand was founded back in 1914 when German optical engineer Oskar Barnack, who worked as a manager in the Research and Development division at Ernst Leitz Optische Wreke, invented the first prototype of a 35mm camera and named it Ur-Leica.
Designed to capture landscape and outdoor settings, his camera featured a collapsible lens, focal plane shutter, coupled film winding and shutter cocking to prevent double exposures, and was the first camera to use 35mm film.
The camera went through several iterations over the next decade and in 1925, Barnack's boss, Ernst Leitz II, launched the first full metal compact camera with a 50mm f/3.5 lens at the Leipzig Spring Fair. The name, which uses the first three l etters of Leitz's name and the first two of "camera" has since become synonymous with top-quality photographs and Leica cameras remain hot favourites with veteran street photographers.
Today, Leica has more than 60 outlets and distributors in Europe, American and Asia."We are always looking to expand our luxury lifestyle portfolio and Leica was an obvious choice as it is very popular with professional photographers, travellers and collectors all around the world," says Patra Limsukhawat, public relations manager of A-List Corporate, which also distributes such major fashion brands as Jimmy Choo, Valentino and Boudoir by Disaya.
"Leica's designs look simple and classic but the cameras are made with a passion for the best. And as the new official distributor, we are also making the cameras more affordable by lowering the prices about 20 per cent."
The Leica store, which is on the second floor of Gaysorn shopping mall, devotes some of its space to an art gallery, where Leica-equipped photographers from around the world are invited their works on different themes.
Leica products can be divided into five categories. The Leica C ("typ" for prototype 112) is the latest in series of compact camera and is easy to use, even for beginners. It features a large sensor, fast autofocus, 3-inch touch screen, wi-fi connectivity, full HD function and a burst rate of ten frames per second, along with a 7x zoom lens.
Very popular with young travellers, the Leica X-U (typ 113) model boasts 15-metre water resistance, 1.2-metre impact resistance and exclusive full-HD video mode that can help you capture impressive moments regardless of whether you are underwater or above ground.
The Leica Q (typ 116) model is a high-end digital fixed-lens compact camera with a 24MP full-frame sensor and a 28mm f1.7 lens and built-in viewfinder.
Among the mirrorless cameras is the Leica T (typ 701) model with attached adapter for a variety of lens. Designed by Audi Design, it has an aluminium body and comes with 3.7" LCD touch screen, 16 gigabytes of internal memory and Wi-Fi connectivity.
The newest full-frame Leica SL (typ 601) model wa s launched last year and features a 4.4 million pixel viewfinder, high ISO performance up to 50000 and a shutter speed of 1/8000 second to capture fastest and consecutive exposures at 11 frames per second.
It comes with 24 MP CMOS sensor and 4K video functions at a rate of 30 frames per second to ensure dynamic range, excellent contrast rendition and exceptional sharpness.
Useful for golfers, the Leica Pinmaster II Pro rangefinder offers the latest technology Angle Compensated Distance, which helps you to calculate the angle and range accurately on field.
The store also has a collector's corner with several rare second-hand lenses. These include the Summicron 1.2/35, known as Eight Elements, which was produced in Canada to pair with the Leica M Monochrome camera, a Summicron 1.2/35, aka the King of Bokeh, and a silver Elmarit-M 1:2.8/21 ASPH.
"We also have a Leica pop-up store at Siam Discovery that runs until October. We are planning on opening a second bran ch soon," Patra says.
POINT AND SHOOT
Leica Store is on the second floor of Gaysorn shopping mall. It's open daily from 10am to 8pm. Find out more at www.Leica-Camera.com.
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