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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 771.31
EAN: 9780393059212
Edition: 1st English Language Ed
ISBN: 0393059219
Label: W.W. Norton & Co.
Manufacturer: W.W. Norton & Co.
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 160
Publication Date: May 17, 2004
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
Studio: W.W. Norton & Co.
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The fascinating history of a twentieth-century icon—the first handheld camera—and the people who use it.
The Leica is both a product of the twentieth century's inventive spirit and the means by which that spirit could be documented for posterity. As the first handheld camera, the Leica made possible a new kind of documentary photography, and included among its devoted fans are many of the century's greatest photographers. Its combined qualities of precision and compactness made it an essential tool for photographers everywhere, and today more than ever the Leica is prized by collectors.
Leica is a social history of the people behind the camera—its ingenious inventor, Oskar Barnack, and the great photographers who found it indispensable, including Rodchenko, Kertész, Cartier-Bresson, Capa, and many others. This completely new volume is richly illustrated with details that will satisfy even the most avid collector: diagrams, patent drawings, advertising posters, and biographies of some of its famous users. It belongs on the bookshelf of everyone who loves photography. 120 color illustrations and photographs.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
What it is: It's a great coffee table book overviewing Leica cameras and hisotry. The book is a mix of Leica history, famous Leica cameras, famous photographer who used Leicas, and famous pictures taken with a Leica. There are lots of large picture of both the cameras and pictures taken with a Leica. It's nicely laid out and makes a pleasant, comfortable read.
What it is not: A detailed guide about every make and variation Leicas. It doesn't discuss lenses beyond the earlier lenses. It won't have every Leica photographer or famous photo either.
If you are buying this expecting an easy reading, coffeetable type book, you will be happy. If you are expecting a reference guide, you will not.
Rating:  -
Not a very detailed book but a nice overview of Leica's history, with excellent photos of some beautiful classic cameras. But probably not worth the price.
Rating: -
I first saw this book in a Cambridge, UK library. I fell in love at first sight with it. The images it contain reflect all of our 20th century history through the view provided by the magnificent Leica lenses and shutters. The quality of the book is very good in terms of content and materials. The book contains a two page geneological tree of the Leica family at the end of it, so one can consume hours deepening into the Leica relatives and the evolution of a once in a lifetime photographic equipment experience.
Rating: -
This is a fun book for the Leica enthusiast. Unlike many of the Leica books I have seen this one is comprehensive in covering not only the cameras but the company and some of the famouse photos taken with a Leica. A good balance of text, photos, diagrams and history. A contemporay layout in graphic design makes this my favorite Leica book for an evening peruse.
Rating: -
A cofee table sized book, very well organized and laid out, stating very little new for old Leica fans but giving in not too many pages a brilliant summary of the relevance of the Leica as a photographer's tool from its inception to the 21st century dawn, stressing the points where the Leica was unique in any way. The book is finelly printed and bound and has a dynamic layout chock-full of good reproductions of the pictures that made history along the century. A bargain at the current price, IMHO.
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