Leica Getty Approves the Leica X1

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A thread caught my eye on the L.Camera site's X1 forum just now titled "X1 first compact approved by Getty" there's a bit of discussion about where the news sprang from - apparently Leica Rumors posted this Leica Rumors featuring this piece by Chris Cheesman from Amateur Photographer Leica X1: The ‘first compact approved by Getty’ news - Amateur Photographer - news, camera reviews, lens reviews, camera equipment guides, photography courses, competitions, photography forums which was published on Friday, August 6th, 2010.
The Leica X1 is the only digital compact camera approved for use by Getty Images, it has emerged.

The image library giant added the X1 to its 'Approved Camera list' last month, meaning that it meets image quality standards governing pictures sent in by Getty photographers, Amateur Photographer (AP) understands.

News of the achievement first appeared in a review of the 12-million-pixel camera by City AM journalist Juiliet Samuel.

'The image quality is top notch, which has gained the X1 the honour of being the only compact digital model approved for use by Getty Images,' she wrote in an article published on 22 July.

A Leica Camera Limited spokeswoman said today: 'The X1 is the first compact digital camera to be approved by Getty Images. It is on their website on the Approved Camera list.'

However, Getty Images remains tight-lipped over the news...

The L.Camera thread also very nicely has a link to Getty's approved camera's, if anyone is interested: gettyimages.com/contributors - Digital Camera Reviews

Kind of interesting news, I thought. I realize that Getty is a stock photography company and that some might think that selling one's photographs to them is akin to selling one's soul to the devil. I don't really have an opinion because I don't have any experience with stock photography. I first became aware of them when they forged some kind of relationship with Flickr...and then I started asking some questions over on mu-43.com and learned that as a company they've been around since Methuselah, well almost.;)

It would seem to me that their de facto endorsement (they do list the X1 on their site's list) speaks well of this camera's image quality and that's a nice bit of recognition, I think, even if you don't care about stock photography.

P.S. "Breaking news" update. I was just about to get offline and noticed the Leicarumor's site had an update with a link to a piece in the British Journal of Photography, published on August 6th, 2010 by Oliver Laurent: http://www.bjp-online.com/british-j.../1727025/getty-images-approves-compact-camera in which Getty does, indeed, confirmed their approval of the X1. Here is a bit of the text:
"We do support and approve a number of cameras for use by our contributing photographers and the Leica X1 is the first compact camera we have given this approval to," a spokeswoman tells BJP.

The addition has been hailed by Leica. It came after Samuel wrote that the camera's image quality "gained the X1 the honour of being the only compact digital model approved for use by Getty Images."

One certainly can understand Leica's being happy about this affirmation.
 
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