If your a big Leica fan the Leica Museum book by Lars Netopil is a must have addition to your library.
This set of books is different than most Leica reference books. It tells the history of Leica through photos of their cameras and is light on technical information. That is both good and bad. The quality of the photos are much better than most camera history books. And then there is the sheer volume of them. The Leica Museum book would make a great coffee table book. Great to pick up from time to time just to browse.
It’s nice that the books go beyond just a photo or two for each model. There are also lots of rare models and prototypes. These I find of particular interest. I enjoy seeing how designers go through various design choices to end with the models that we end up buying.
From the authors site.
The new Factory Museum at Leitz Park - including items from the Rolf Fricke Collection by Lars Netopil.
Lars Netopil has compiled an exhaustive volume to illustrate what future visitors to the Leica Museum can look forward to discovering. The Leica expert and historian, who also owns a Leica Store for vintage and contemporary cameras in Wetzlar’s Old Town, has published several books within his field in the past. For this endeavour, his well-established team has documented the treasures to be displayed at Leica’s factory museum. The book was designed by David Pitzer, the over 600, mostly large-format photographs were created by Wolfgang Sauer.
In 36 chapters, the essential exhibits from the inventory of the new Leica Factory Museum are described - from the UR-Leica to the red anodized Leica.
- 672 pages with over 600 large size colour images
- Text fully bi-lingual (english/german)
- 21x30 cm, 2 sub-volumes in one slipcase, hardcover in cloth with dust-jacket
There are only 2 negatives that I have to say about the books. First, from a commercial photographers view I wish the shadows had been filled in. Sometimes the light falls off to abruptly. Second, there are a lot of white marks on the pages from paper dust in the printing process. But don’t let these flaws keep you away from these 2 books. There is a lot of information packed into these 2 volumes.