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Why would anyone want a Leica with no screen?


dant

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Yeah, especially considering the superb and always spot-on metering of the M240 in Classic mode, especially during night time or dusk :confused:

 

 

 

Why would anyone need a screen indeed! (heavy on the irony here).

 

 

A meter? You can always use the best meter ever made, the human eye...

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I never use the screen except for menus, and for the most part I set them once to my preference and forget them except ISO, and even that I only rarely change from native. All my older wide angle lenses are DIY coded so I have no need for the manual lens setting menu. If the camera had an ISO dial, and all the other settings were accessible via some sort of tether (preferably bluetooth to a smartphone app), I could live happily without the screen. But then again I can live just as happily with the screen and ignore it. The flap of my case covers it from sight as a matter of fact.

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I love my screen. I'm not afraid to say I use it regularly. I would not buy a digital camera without one.

 

That's not to say I can't see why others might like a screenless camera and if the market is there, why not? I remember some of the internet chatter around a black and white only camera. Who in their right mind would buy one of those??

 

Gordon

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A meter? You can always use the best meter ever made, the human eye...

 

True, if you want to. Back when I used 400 speed film mostly for everything that was very easy and straight forward. Today with the possibility of changing ISO on the fly however, it just takes a little too much time to adjust everything to capture the moment that lasts for 1-2 seconds at tops. A display won't help you in such a scenario, of course, but at least you can verify if the exposure was decent or not, and if not, if you should try to re-take it with more optimal settings.

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On the rumor mill they talked about a new digital Leica with no screen.

 

Why would it appeal to you?

 

Screen is a wonderful tool compared to how we had to do it in the old film days.

 

It wouldn't appeal to me.

 

I wouldn't mind it if you could turn it inside out to protect the LCD when being transported like you can with my Sony A99 … but that'd probably add to much thickness to the camera which is already getting a bit chubby.

 

- Marc

Edited by fotografz
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A screen is an unnecessary distraction from the subject.

 

It's a good thing that the screen is generally used after the image is made, at some point when attention to the subject is no longer desired. And the preview can be turned off, so that it's no more a distraction than anything else in the world.

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I'd love to go that old school and not have the screen. Unfortunately for me, it's just not practical. Or maybe it's a drug I hold onto. I did fine in film without a screen but that seemed more flexible for some reason.

 

 

Film does have more latitude for exposure than digital, but is becoming less and less true as sensors are getting better. A Monochrom using the newer M240 type sensor might just do it...

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They would want a Leica without a screen so once and for all they could finally prove to anyone, willing to listen, that they never ever need to 'chimp' because they are so precise that every photo they capture will be perfect.

 

I would buy a screen-less M Monochrom in an instant.

 

It would be more compact (and if only missing the LCD screen bezel and accompanying control cluster).

It would finally have a proper ISO dial as film M bodies with meters do.

 

It would finally bring back a proper battery meter/ frame counter where it would be useful.

 

It would not tease to distract myself with fiddling with the camera.

 

It would do away entirely with the terrible mess, digital camera menus are.

 

It would do away with the unneeded bulk of functions and choices I never once used.

 

A LCD-less monochrome digital Leica M was what I really wanted from the moment I had my first digital M.

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