I’d been waiting for leica to release the X1 digital compact camera for quite some time and finally I was able to pick it up from their Ginza store last Saturday.
Looking very much like a smaller version of the M8 and being described by some as a D-Lux 4 (which I had until it was stolen) on steroids. There have been various reviews some good some bad, mainly the bad ones were complaining about the price, but I can say that so far I’m pretty blown away by the crispness of the shots, the ease of use and the quality of images taken in low light. I was bitten by the Leica bug a couple of years ago with the D-Lux 3 and the X1 has only dragged me further down that path.
This first shot is insanely sharp when you enlarge the image. after seeing this I knew the camera was serious.
JB from Kinfolk shot in low light without flash http://www.wegotways.com/kinfolk/
Daisuke Gemma http://blog.honeyee.com/dgemma/ and DJ Alex from Tokyo http://alexfromtokyo.sakura.ne.jp/blog/
Tokyo music pioneer Kan Takagi http://blog.honeyee.com/ktakagi/ came out to meet with us for dinner as our old friend James Lavelle was in Tokyo to promote his upcoming new record.
It was great to see James. We met when he was just 18 years old and was working at Honest Jons records in London. I lived down the street and had lost a flatmate so needed a new one. James moved in and was just starting Mo Wax records. Pretty soon after I started working for him at the label along with Tim Goldsworthy. It was a great period and we had some amazing experiences during that time as the label grew. lots of traveling, learning how to run a label on the fly, staging art exhibitions…….etc. We’ve now known each other for nearly 20 years and had lost touch for the past 3 or 4, so it was fantastic to catch up and see James back with new material, lots of exciting projects and personally seeming really happy. Check out the new Unkle album coming soon.
