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Farewell Leica...

JoelM

Well-known member
Well, I'm not a Leica Ambassador, but after 40 years, I sold all my Leica equipment, except one lens. THAT was a very hard decision.

Good luck with your future endeavors. I look forward to reading more on your site.

Thanks,

Joel
 

JohnBrew

Active member
Well, that didn't last very long!

(I meant the Certified by Leica part...)

No offense intended, Vieri, you know me better than that :). Sorry to hear about your woes with Leica of Italy. Circumstances change, it’s the way of the world.
 
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pegelli

Well-known member
Good luck Vieri, hope you enjoy your newfound freedom and keep making and posting those fantastic landscapes :thumbup:
 

vieri

Well-known member
Well, I'm not a Leica Ambassador, but after 40 years, I sold all my Leica equipment, except one lens. THAT was a very hard decision.

Good luck with your future endeavors. I look forward to reading more on your site.

Thanks,

Joel
Hey Joel,

Thank you for your good wishes! Yes, THAT must not have been easy at all! :) Which lens did you keep? I decided to keep an M2, 28mm Elmarit IV, 50mm Summilux ASPH and 90mm Elmarit-M.

Well, that didn't last very long!
No, I have been an Ambassador just close to three years :)

Good luck Vieri, hope you enjoy your newfound freedom and keep making and posting those fantastic landscapes :thumbup:
Thank you very much indeed! :) Looking forward to keep posting here on GetDPI no matter what gear I am using :)

Best regards,

Vieri
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
Leica is great but not everything!

I am sure you will find (or have already found) a new way of continuing your excellent work!

As a side note - over the last years I got pretty fed up myself with a lot of different vendors "Ambassadors/Visionaries" programs and how they are run and marketed!
 
V

Vivek

Guest
Vieri, no matter what gear you use, you will always do well!

All the best!
 

vieri

Well-known member
Leica is great but not everything!

I am sure you will find (or have already found) a new way of continuing your excellent work!

As a side note - over the last years I got pretty fed up myself with a lot of different vendors "Ambassadors/Visionaries" programs and how they are run and marketed!
Thank you for your comment, Leica is great indeed and I still love it and use it :) About the future, I am going with the X1d (see GEAR & EQUIPMENT for a full list of my updated gear). About the Ambassador programs, I think they could be a wonderful way to connect manufacturer and users, but I must agree with you - they aren't always run in the best possible way, so to speak... ;)

Vieri, no matter what gear you use, you will always do well!

All the best!
Thank you very much indeed Vivek, that is truly much appreciated! :)

Best regards,

Vieri
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Vieri,

Whatever you do next, and whatever equipment you use, it will make no difference to the excellence of your intent or to your photographs. Business is business, and it is separate from art and vision. When crux points in business come, as they do, I've always chosen to go with the latter and work the business to find its own way. I suspect the same is true for you.

Your work shows passion and dedication to the art. The tricky part, always, is finding a way to make a living at it without destroying the art. Good luck in your endeavors!

G


It was a truly difficult decision to make, but I am very happy I did it: I resigned from being a Leica Ambassador and Certified by Leica photographer. Read all about it in this article:

https://vieribottazzini.com/2019/01/a-new-chapter-ahead-farewell-leica.html

Of course, I will keep following and posting in the forum: not being an Ambassador anymore doesn't make my love for Leica disappear, on the contrary :)

Best regards,

​​​​​​​Vieri
 

Leigh

New member
Looking forward to keep posting here on GetDPI no matter what gear I am using :)
Hi Vieri,

As I'm sure you know, great photos are taken by great photographers like yourself, NOT by any particular brand of equipment.

I hope you continue to post regardless of your choice of gear. Thank you.

- Leigh
 

PeterA

Well-known member
It was a truly difficult decision to make, but I am very happy I did it: I resigned from being a Leica Ambassador and Certified by Leica photographer. Read all about it in this article:

https://vieribottazzini.com/2019/01/a-new-chapter-ahead-farewell-leica.html

Of course, I will keep following and posting in the forum: not being an Ambassador anymore doesn't make my love for Leica disappear, on the contrary :)

Best regards,

​​​​​​​Vieri

Good luck Vieri - Leica's loss.:cool:
 

vieri

Well-known member
Vieri,

Whatever you do next, and whatever equipment you use, it will make no difference to the excellence of your intent or to your photographs. Business is business, and it is separate from art and vision. When crux points in business come, as they do, I've always chosen to go with the latter and work the business to find its own way. I suspect the same is true for you.

Your work shows passion and dedication to the art. The tricky part, always, is finding a way to make a living at it without destroying the art. Good luck in your endeavors!

G
Hello Godfrey,

thank you very much indeed for your kind comment about my work, that is truly much appreciated. I completely agree with you: for me, what counts is art and vision, or intent to do so, at least :) Tools are tools and business is business, and both are important in that:

1. Tools enable you to realise your vision;
2. Business enables you to make a living and, therefore, realise your vision;

In my specific situation, my business relationship with Leica Italy run its course: time to go solo again. The Leica SL is a great tool, but after the latest FW updates (electronic shutter) and, most importantly, after the release of the 21mm, the X1D became a better proposition for me than the SL.

Hi Vieri,

As I'm sure you know, great photos are taken by great photographers like yourself, NOT by any particular brand of equipment.

I hope you continue to post regardless of your choice of gear. Thank you.

- Leigh
Hello Leigh,

thank you very much for your kind words, much appreciated, I am humbled :) I will most definitely post here for a long time, since I still have a huge archive of SL images, and will certainly post in the MF side of GetDPI as well, both my S 007 images and, in time, my X1D images too.

Good luck Vieri - Leica's loss.:cool:
Thank you very much Peter, much appreciated! :)

........ looking forward to your "Hello" to the MF discussions......��
:D Actually, I have been posting there as well for quite some time, from my Pentax 645Z and Leica S007 days... ;)

May I ask you, since you are a 2x3 ratio shooter why didn't you go for the s008?
Hello daf,

I didn't know there was such a thing as a "2x3 ratio shooter" but, if there is, I certainly am not one... I never believed that we should abide to whatever format camera manufacturer push on us, and I crop my images 1:1, 3:2, 4:3, 5:4, 16:9 and 2:1 (sometimes even 3:1) according to the subject matter. In horizontal, probably 16:9 is my most used ratio, followed by 3:2, while in vertical it is 4:3, then 5:4, then 3:2. Of course, I do quite a bit of 1:1 too, but I wouldn't know if I'd have to put it in the vertical or horizontal column :D

Here is a little breakup of resolution vs ratio in MP, comparing the Leica SL and the Hasselblad X1D:

3:2: 24 (SL), 45,6 (X1D)
4:3: 21,3 (SL), 51,2 (X1D)
5:4: 20 (SL), 48,5 (X1D)
16:9: 20,2 (SL), 38,4 (X1D)
2:1: 18 (SL), 34,2 (X1D)
3:1: 12 (SL), 22,8(X1D)
1:1: 16 (SL), 38,4 (X1D)

The reasons not to go with the S3, besides its non-existent status at the moment, not even as a definite spec sheet, are many.

1. Long exposures (probably) limited to 1 or 2 minutes (not sure which), or perhaps 30min, but very likely with LENR - Hasselblad X1D, 1h without LENR.
2. No EVF on the S3, and I love to work with EVF for landscape: no need to take down ND filters to compose, recompose and focus, and I don't like to use the back LCD (glasses, so I'd need to constantly change glasses while EVF with diopter fixes that).
3. S3 is bigger and heavier than the X1D.
4. WA limited to 19.2mm FOV equivalent with S3 versus 16.5mm FOV equivalent on the X1D.
5. WA difficult to filter using 100mm filters with S3, 95mm filter thread on the 24mm but X1D's 21mm is 77mm.
6. Impossibility to adapt other brand's lenses on the S3 to go wider than Leica's own 24mm S (of course you can adapt longer lenses than the S's current offer), vs the X1D universality: I am currently using the Voigtlander 15mm on my X1D, with some vignetting, and the Canon 17mm TS is in the cards for me at some point (great lens, no vignetting over the frame, 13.5mm FOV equivalent).
7. Finally, the price of admission is (apparently) going to be crazy in today's market where Fuji sells MF for 4.500 euro and Hassy for 6.000, but that is just a side consideration: if it would meet my requirements, I'd go for it no matter the cost. I always did, and very likely always will do :)

Hope this helps, best regards

Vieri
 
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cly

Member
Hello Vieri,

if I may ask - what made you go with the X1d instead of GFX with the focal plane shutter and hence easier usage of third party lenses?

Chris
 

vieri

Well-known member
Hello Vieri,

if I may ask - what made you go with the X1d instead of GFX with the focal plane shutter and hence easier usage of third party lenses?

Chris
Hello Chris,

you can use third party lenses with the X1D thanks to its electronic shutter. While it has some rolling shutter effect at higher shutter speed, for my work that is a non-issue. I am using the Voigtlander 15mm and enjoying it very much so far. Besides that, of course the Fuji GFX is a great camera / system, and I thought about it a lot before going for the Hasselblad X1D. Since I love ultra-wide angles, I preferred the 21mm solution offered by Hasselblad against the 23mm Fuji; since I do a lot of long exposures, I preferred the X1D's implementation of long exposures to that of the GFX. More, I preferred the more "essential" and simpler user interface of the X1D. Finally, I preferred the compactness of XCD lenses and the better built of the X1D. Of course, I'd have preferred the Fuji's price point... :D In the end, I decided to go for the X1D, but if there weren't a X1D, I would have gone with the Fuji for sure. Hope this makes sense

Best regards,

Vieri
 

erlingmm

Active member
I guess only a dedicated landscape photographer can live with the power up time of the X1D. Was it 17 seconds at launch? What is it now?
 

jdphoto

Well-known member
Vieri,
I look forward to your new photographs and appreciate the dignity and sophistication you've added to GetDpi. It's one thing for a photographer to impress, but more significant to inspire. Thank you!
 

DB5

Member
Excellent.

The sooner anyone ditches their ambassadorship the better. They usually suit one side - the manufacturer. I think the whole ambassador side of business is a joke, marketing gimmickry and not a good thing for a photographer to do if they value their own work.

To be frank, nobody cares what cameras we use in the end. When you tie your work to a commercial entity, you give it and part of yourself way. I think it cheapens the work to be honest and the only person that benefits is the brand.
 

Shashin

Well-known member
Excellent.

The sooner anyone ditches their ambassadorship the better. They usually suit one side - the manufacturer.
I sort of agree, but it is not so black and white. A certain amount of exposure comes from being a brand ambassador--no pun intended. If brand did not matter than it would not be such a big influence in camera sales. Whether the partnership has equal reciprocity is a question, but to say it has no value or it cheapens the photographer's work, that would probably not be born out by experience (unless of course you were the ambassador for the Hasselblad Lunar, which even Hasselblad cannot live down). I certainly do not see Vieri's role as a Leica ambassador as a negative, the company does support talented photographers (and it is nice to see cameras companies support their users), and so give some level of respect. Vieri's talent simply reinforces Leica's stated commitment to high-quality photography.

Now, if you want to talk about the commercialization of the arts, the economics of the gig economy, and Neoliberal economics, that is a whole different can of worms that will probably get someone banned (but that won't be me (The mods like me too much :toocool: :angel: :ROTFL:).
 
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