A cinematic homage and Sony bricks – the photo news of the week 39/2024

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Apple is often admired for the art of omission. The results may be nice to look at, but in practice they can be extremely annoying. Just think of the first 12-inch Macbook, which had exactly one USB-C port as its only connection. Great engineering feat to enable charging and everything else, but real road warriors were lugging around a whole handful of adapters.

M11-D without display

Fortunately, Leica is not quite so radical with its new M11-D, although it is "Made for iPhone and iPad". This seal of quality, which Apple itself awards, is only given to products from other manufacturers if they work particularly well with the design wonders from Cupertino. The rangefinder Leica has all the usual connections, especially wireless ones, but what has always been one of the most important arguments in favor of a digital camera is missing – the display. Of course, you can still view your pictures immediately using the app, and this actually works better with the current Leicas than with many other manufacturers.

With Leica's prices, it is safe to assume that the screen was not omitted for cost reasons, but that the philosophy of the camera was simply implemented consistently. It offers almost everything that the other M11 models already do, including authentication via CAI, but is intended to convey a more analog feeling. Consequently, there is also a large sensitivity dial on the back, where you would expect to find the display. And the red Leica dot is also missing, as it was on the M11-P. Fans would say it's all about concentrating on the essentials, just like Apple.

"The photographer" was a project of the heart

You also have to know what you want when, like Kate Winslet, you work on a movie for ten years and produce it yourself, i.e. share the financial risk. As Winslet has said in numerous interviews, "The Photographer" was a project of the heart, literally a "labor of love". The Oscar winner originally only knew the photographer Lee Miller as a Vogue cover model and lover of the artist Man Ray. And according to Winslet, she wanted to free the historical personality from these "terrible labels". Find out more about the film and the problem of a biopic itself in our detailed review.

From the columnist's point of view, it is a tribute, not only to Lee Miller as a person, but also to all strong women who assert themselves – not only because they break up male-dominated job descriptions. But also because they reject other social conventions. After watching the movie, you can more than imagine how difficult this was in the first half of the 20th century.

Sony's update for A7r V is tricky

Back to the present: Sony is still really struggling with firmware updates for its top cameras. Last week, the A7r V was hit, which was supposed to receive new functions with version 3.0 of its software. However, some cameras became completely inoperable after the update and could no longer be switched on, as was the case with the A7S III at the beginning of this year. Sony now has a comprehensive guide with many steps on its download page. Only a specialist workshop can help with a camera that is already "broken". According to the pun, it is only as useful as a brick after the faulty update.

The identical error pattern on several Sony cameras indicates that the underlying cause, the "root cause", has still not been found. It would be desirable if Sony were to make an honest statement about this as soon as this is the case. Not only to regain the trust of its customers, but also so that other companies can learn from it. Until then, the only recommendation that remains is to only install firmware updates immediately, especially for Sony cameras, if they affect a safety-critical function. This is somewhat different for cameras that do not offer emergency firmware than for many other digital devices. Perhaps the industry should also think about this, as better PC mainboards have been able to repair some failed updates by booting from a USB stick for decades.

Our recommendation for a long watch, this time exceptionally at the start of the week, is – also exceptionally – rather short, but definitely worth watching. In just seven and a half minutes, the 3Sat magazine Kulturzeit has summarized both the genesis of the film "The Photographer" and the historical development of the person portrayed, Lee Miller.

(nie)