Leaf Aptus

Mamiya Leaf has just announced the end of production of the Aptus-II product line. For me, this marks the end of an era and the end of a long and mostly beautiful relationship!

It was announced on Sept’ 7th 2004. Since then Leaf moved from Creo to Kodak and was then sold to Phase One. The Aptus went from 17MP to 80MP, from FW400 to FW800, from CFI/II to UDMA and from Leaf Capture V8 to LC10, LC11 & Capture One. It had a 3.5″ touch screen only rivalled by the latest smartphones and it used Bluetooth for image preview when BT was still in its infancy and used to connect headphones to mobile devices…

I’ve demoed hundreds if not thousands of units and was involved in thousands of sales. I’ve shot with every single model (all 13 of them) in every single mount (all 5 of them) on more than 60 different camera bodies. I’ve even serviced a few…taking them apart, changing some bits and putting them back together…

The Aptus has brought dinner to my family’s table even before we had children. We now have 3 with the oldest being 8 year old!
I’ve taken the Aptus (or Apti?) on business trips and on holidays to North & Central America, Africa, Scandinavia, Russia, Australia and Asia and took some of my most memorable images with them.

I cannot think of another modern days electronic device which has been in service for more than 3-4 years, let alone 9 years!!! just think about all those 35mm DSLRs that came and went during the last 9 years…Canon 1DsMkII? MkIII? Nikon D2X anyone???

This is not the end of the Aptus as thousands of them are being used daily by both amateur and professional photographers, creating art and making money!

I would like to use this opportunity and to wish all my friends, colleagues and customers (many whom are close friends) happy holidays and a healthy and successful new year!

One of my personal favourite images which I took on an early foggy morning in British Columbia, Canada in June 2006. Click on the image to see a larger version and read more HERE

Been a while since I last had time to post any new stuff…

The last several months were a bit manic, work and travel wise, with 4-5 trips every month on average. Mostly were to boring places but there were a few highlights, lead by St. Petersburg in Russia and a recent holiday trip to Israel.

We got to spend a couple of days in Jerusalem and walked through the old city from the whaling wall to the Christian and Armenian quarters. Loved the colours, sounds and smells of food and spices !!! My trusty Nikon was a joy to use in those narrow allies though there were times where I wish I had some more horsepower to record all those textures and colours:-)

(Click to open in a new large window and then click again to enlarge)

Then we took a drive down to the dead sea. I always find this place to be magical with its stunning vistas and beautiful combinations of land and water colours, especially at sunrise and dusk.

Salt crystals (millions of them) on the “sandy” beaches:

Evening haze makes the mountains and the air disolve into the salty water

As always in the desert you are amazed at the number of stars that can be seen!!!

My first real work trip this year was to Mexico thanks to Leaf and the new Aptus-II 12, to a little magical town called San Miguel Del Allende where I was hosted by my friends Teya and Michael Reichmann in their wonderful Casa Lula

I was there only for 3 days but this gave us an opportunity to walk around the town’s cobbled streets, squares and markets and to try some of the local kitchen (thank you Michael and Teya!) and to of course talk about and shoot the new camera!!!