Leica Akadamie

[colin <colinmi@fast.net>]

Frank Filippone wrote:
> 
> Colin... How about a few words on the Leica Academy?
> Was it a hands on or a classroom program?
> Local or did you get to travel to take Pix?
> Would you do it again?
> 
> Thank You
> Frank Filippone
> red735i@worldnet.att.net

Frank,

As the Leica specialist at the dealer where I work I was chosen with
about a dozen others from across the US to attend the Akademie.  It
lasted a few days and was a combination of classroom and hands-on
training.  One day was for M-cameras, one for R's, and one for
binoculars and projectors.  It went pretty quick, but we got a lot of
valuable information.  There was a tour of the factory, and a couple
trips to Wetzlar from Solms.  The instructor's English was very good,
though grinding through a formidable amount of technical information put
a bit of a strain on it.  This was one of the few Akademie sessions done
in English.

One of the fellows in the group was a fairly new dealer and not what one
would call an 'afficionado'. (A fine fellow otherwise.)  The first day
of class he had his Olympus IS-3 sitting on the table in front of him. 
It was just like being in junior high school again.  As the instructor
entered we were snickering quietly.  We all expected him to get a crack
on the head with a ruler and sent to the vice principal's office. 
Instead the instructor spotted the camera, picked it up, wiggled the
front of the lens back and forth a millimeter or two, set it back down
gently and said "Interesting."  The point was as well made as a Leica. 

We were treated very well by our hosts.  A nice little hotel in the nice
little town of Braunfels with beer and Schapps flowing freely and good
cigars.  One particularly festive evening we had a terrific feast in a
castle where we were first greeted with 50 Summicron sized Schnapps soon
followed by 400 2.8 APO-Telyt sized beers.  Three things learned that
evening: 1. A U-Boat is what you have when you drop the whole shot glass
of Schnapps into your beer.  2. You can dip your finger in Schapps and
light it and extinguish it in your mouth.  (I learned this directly from
Herr Osterloh.)  3. It's still possible to focus an M6 rangefinder with
precision the next morning even if your head feels as bad as mine did.

I would go again tomorrow.  Leica sales really did increase after I got
back.  (I hope someone from Leica is reading this.)

Colin