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We've all heard of that college student who bought an M2 for 5$ in a thift shop. I've never got such a deal but I've managed to get Leica equipment for low prices in the past. Such as a very clean M2 that I got in an eBay auction for 600$CAD. The shutter speed had to be adjusted, and the vulcanite had to be replaced. Other than that, it is in excellent condition. I later got an M262, which I also bought on eBay, for about 3500$CAD. The sensor was filled with dust and oil spots, and the focusing mechanism had to be lubricated two days after I recieved it. (Those problems where not specified by the seller) It looked like new back then, but after about six months of use, I've got some paint removed on the corners and a cut in the faux leather. It has been faithfull ever since. Then, yesterday, I looked for a replacement for my 35mm ZM 2.8 on the internet and ended up looking for pre-ASPH summicrons. I then stumbled uppon a 35mm Summicron on keh.com for 1080$USD. No picture of the actual lens was shown and generic pictures of a Type 4 where shown instead. It was listed as "UG" (ugly). Giving this extremely low price and the 180 day warranty offered by keh, I jumped on it. (I'll keep you guys updated on this purchase.) What are the good deals you guys managed to get on Leica equipment?

Hi dear members, I am thinking about moving to one of the above options. Their price is identical at this point on the European market I am. apart from that, what would you suggest? Is there any extensive article on the colors of the cheap-entry level M262? Looking forward to the future which machine has more probabilities living longer from the spare part availability point of view? Is there anything I need to consider in particular? Any point of view is welcome. Thank you in advance.

This man seems to get out directly from his bed with his pyjamas

Hello. I'm interested in hearing from anyone whose made the move from an M9/M-E to a 262. How are you feeling about your decision? I've recently replaced the sensor in my M-E, which included a full CLA from Leica, NJ. It feels like a new camera, but I'm also reminded of the only gripe I've ever really had about it: Limited ISO performance. I max out at 1200, but even that can turn a Summer afternoon into a snowy day in B/W. I'd love to (when necessary) shoot between 1600 & 3200 without the resulting photograph becoming an exploration in Pointillism. In addition, weather sealing and the larger sensor seem like a plus. Let the CCD vs CMOS debate begin! So good people... What say you? Thanx!

Hi all! Apologies in advance for the length of this post! I was wondering if you all are able to give me some advice or words of wisdom on whether I should get a Rangefinder Leica. At the moment I’m currently using and enjoying my Leica CL & 23mm f2 Summicron. Purchased in Oct 2018. I absolutely love shooting with the CL and for me it was the upgrade I was always wanting. I even adapt some rare and unique vintage m42 lenses to it and get some amazing results. Now I’m no professional photographer, just a hobby shooter but the Leica CL I have had really developed my love and passion for photography. At the time of purchasing the CL I was using a Nikon D7500 which I still have (but never use) so for me, at the time the CL was the next step up, and I never thought of going for a rangefinder (couldn’t afford the m10 and lenses anyway lol). But now having visited the Sydney Leica store on many occasions to try out the M10 and the rangefinder systems, I’ve grown more interest for a Rangefinder. I’m interested in the M240, maybe the M262. I like the appeal of a brassing body though (a bit of individualism I’d say). But honestly I’m not sure which system to go for (and I don’t have the money for a new M10). What are the PROS and CONS for each system? What makes you want to stay with that system? (if you have one) what would you recommend I do or go for? Now I’ve done heaps of research and reviews on both systems but I really want to hear from everyday people who use them. Thanks!

Hi! I have been looking solutions for following problems and seen that in previous years many m240 users have had some of the similar problems but in recently no one haven't much complained about these problems any more. 1) Some photos show magenta cast when I zoom in the preview. Seems to happen only when I shoot DNG. 2) Camera will lock up regularly (sometimes after taking 30 photos and sometimes after 100 photos) and only way to recover is to do power off/on. I have pined down that about minute or so before the crash, the LCD will show hourglass every time the SD card led is blinking, so basically every time I take a photo. I also want to note that when auto power off is set for example to 2 minutes, then I can just wait 2 minutes and camera will power off, after which I press the shutter to wake the camera up and proceed to take more photos. So for some users some lockups may happen even without the user knowing it, because camera will recover from them with auto power off. I have M262 with the latest firmware 1.0.0.6. I use 32GB and 64GB sandisk 95mb/s cards which I always format with SD Card Formatter after the use. I have also tried 32GB and 16GB sandisk 45mb/s cards but the outcome is the same. Battery level seems not to have any effect on this. Fully charged battery have same chance for lockup as under 20% one. My workflow for taking pictures is most part following: 1) Take the photo 2) use 3 or 5 second auto review 3) sometimes zoom in to confirm the focus 4) never turn the camera off. My local Leica shop says that Leica has always had these problems and sending it to Germany will probably not fix these issues. So is it normal?

With my recent move to the Leica system that was a long time coming. Everyone here has been so gracious and willing to share thoughts as I started diving more seriously into the new world. Thank you so much! I wanted to share a couple of things I've observed in my still-limited shooting experience. This is all still very new to me with a couple hundred frames taken, and some thoughts will most certainly change. 1) First of all, in this very limited shooting I have a lot of junk images. Just terrible results in comparison to what I envisioned. The great thing about that though is really two-fold; (1) I can blame those bad frames on only one thing: me! The camera / lens combination cannot be blamed. I simply didn't use it right. And (2) is that this has almost been like my golf game. Mostly terrible, but just enough really good results to keep me coming back with a desire to improve. That one birdie on the back 9 that gives you the satisfaction strong enough to erase all of the sliced/hooked/shanked balls on the other 8 holes. 2) The LCD is good to have, but its not accurate enough for me to be useful when it comes to the image. More specifically, to the sharpness on the subject I am trying to highlight. As an example yesterday morning I was at a local hotel having breakfast. There was a nicely back-lit Bird of Paradise flower near me, but far from filling the frame from where eI sat. I spent some time to carefully compose with the flower dead-center of the image. Lens was wide open at 2.0. After the shot, I took a look on the screen, and zoomed in as tight as I could. I thought I missed the focus and it was an "oh well" moment. Fast forward to today when I get back home and ingest the images. Low and behold, the flower is sharp! I was very pleased with what I saw but it puts some doubt in my mind about the LCD. On other systems I use or have used, I feel I can rely on the detail enough to at least be close. In this case, the only thing I can think of is that maybe I zoomed in tighter than what I really should have. Does the magnification got beyond what the low-resolution preview file can support? More testing will help me figure that out. 3) In anything but perfect light, and to some degree even then I am not real impressed with the color on JPG files. Still a work in progress for me with this one as I spend more time with the various saturation/contrast settings. I find the DNG files to be far more pleasing in most cases, and certainly far more natural and accurate. I'm used to raw files being pretty flat overall but in this case I have frequently been super impressed with what I see in the DNG. A very slight adjustment is usually all it takes. Black point, white point, done. 4) Still going back and forth with the Thumbs Up lever support. I think I like it but don't feel an absolute must-have desire for it. 5) Metering = great for me. Refreshingly simple. 6) Related to the color comments in point 3, I think the JPG processing is somewhat unique and I think it can contribute to what might call the Leica-look in some cases. There is a vintage quality to it at times. 7) The 'richness' of the files combined with a fantastic transitioning of sharpness that results in a far more organic feel to the images. There is an unmistakable 'feel' to the images that I can't say I've ever experienced. Yes, its still digital and I'm not trying to say this is file and paper print but there is a wonderfully smooth look to everything. Less digital looking is a very ambiguous term but I don't know how else to say it. I came into this venture mostly thinking that was all just myth and wishful thinking. I am being proven wrong. 8) Dynamic range and accuracy. I have read countless positions debating DR in images. X-body has X more or less stops of range. Meh. I care much less about that argument than ever. This sensor has incredible range to me. Now, can I get more from the top of the line Sony or some other? Certainly. BUT, I will suggest that the way the ranges of light transition with the wonderful focus rendering produces some amazing results in less than favorable situations. I will followup later with a post showing an example of this from bright sky to black vehicles. I am completely happy with this. All of this said, I have realized more and more that I have made the right decision. Is is the right tool for every situation? No not even close in some cases. But for more of what I want to do this is a perfect fit. It clears my head. It gives me the freedom of overthinking what I should be doing with settings and obsessing with details. The M simple gets out of the way better than ANY digital system I have used. No question about that. ... and I love it. Two images below. Both have minimal touch in Lightroom. First is cropped to 16x9 which I really enjoy the look of at times. More to come I'm sure. Cheers

On the official site of Phase One, it has been announced that Capture one pro 11.1 has been released. This update comes with support for the Leica M262. Unfortunately, there is no support for this device yet. I wrote about this to Phase One support and they say they regret that there is really no M262 profile and that it will be shortly. I'm waiting for.

Hello everyone, I recently purchased a new M262 and on the first start up, I did not see a language selection page, the camera just went right into the menu. Is this normal for a M262? I use to own a X system, on the first start up the language selection page would come out, what I am asking is for a M262, is it normal for the camera to go into shooting mode on the first start up, but not have any set up page?

Dear Friends. I’m looking to buy a Leitz Summaron 3.5cm f3.5 with M3 Spectacles with a view to use with my 262. I’ve got my eye on one on the internet. Lens appears to be clean, no haze or fungus and has been recently serviced, at a cost of £400. I’d be very grateful if you could advise me if (i) it’s directly compatible with my 262 (without an adaptor) (ii) if the M3 Spectacles are removable (iii) if you know of any threads here I could pick up to follow Forum members’ experiences of using this lens with digital Ms. With thanks, Ronny

Hello, I know I am pushing my camera sensor and lens to the limit by almost shooting straight into the sun. I do this because I want to achieve a cinematic effect. On my last shoot however I noticed a very strange flare issue: in the attached two photos there is a clear band on the top of the photo that is not affected by the lens flare. Has anyone seen this behaviour before? What could be the reason. I would prefer to have the flair everywhere consistently. Is this a sensor defect? Or maybe due to the 50 mm hood I use on the lens (although I doubt this can explain the rectangular nature of the artefact). I look forward to hearing from you, regards, michel

Can anyone explain this totally bizarre problem which has now wasted me half an hour trying to resolve. Yesterday, I was out taking photos. When importing my files from the M262 memory card a SanDisk Extreme 32GB one of the pictures appearing in thumbnail and in the editing screen is an image I took last October! It should not be there! I have always had a habit of reformatting cards once everything has been downloaded thus this card will probably have been formatted around 10 times since it was bought last year when I bought the camera. What is even more bizarre if I use the windows file browser and view an enlarged icon of the image file or use FastStone Image viewer the file shows up on screen as the image it should be - the one I took yesterday. It will even open correctly into Photoshop Elements. I have removed the wrong image from the Lightroom catalog and resynced but the erroneous image keeps coming back. Does anyone have any idea what is going on here? Thank you John

Shot while in an Uber in Venice Beach, CA. M262 w/ 50mm Summilux ASPH. Please enjoy!

Meine M 262 geht beim einschalten, egal ob single modus oder Reihenaufnahme immer automatisch in den Selbstauslösemodus. Wenn ich dann dann von single in den selbstauslösemodus und dann wieder zurück auf Singlemodus schalte geht es meistens, manchmal geht funktioniert dann der singlemodus aber bei Reihenaufnahme geht dann gar nichts mehr. Ist hier jemand dieses Problem bekannt oder selber davon betroffen? Hab die M jetzt 3 Monate.

I am seeing a few posts by M262 / M-D owners stating that there is slightly improved image quality and even less banding at higher ISOs on the M262 series cameras. As the cameras are meant to have identical sensors, do we think this is just new owner's biased impressions (nothing wrong with that btw) is could there be something in this?

The only item that has attracted my attention in the launch of the new TL system is the EVF Visoflex Type 020 and I believe that the Leica M system deserves an updated version of its EVF with higher resolution, sensor for the eye (to switch it on/off), a tilt and swivel movement for more convenience....so Leica I hope this one is coming Your thoughts / input please...

Hi all, a brief announcement that I’ve just finished work on my second self-published book of photographs. Captured with the M Typ 262 and 28mm Elmarit-M (version IV) during a week’s travels through the North of Italy, the book presents 32 black and white photographs ranging in subject matter from people to places both natural and constructed. I’m really proud of how this project has turned out. The book is printed on thick 170gsm uncoated stock, with the covers being an even heavier 300gsm. The size is somewhere between compact to standard at A5 (210x148mm), which gives each print enough room to breathe without feeling cramped. Also exciting is that, working with a professional printer who works at reasonable prices, I’ve been able to price the book at just £15 + shipping. For those who are curious to know a little more, I’ve written a bit more on the back-story on my blog. You can also watch a trailer that I produced for the book here. Finally, if you’d like to pick up a copy, please slide on over to my online shop to do so. Thanks kindly for your interest, and happy shooting!

I like the concept of the M262 as a stripped down rangefinder for those who do not need or want live view and video. For those who have used the M262, three questions: 1) How does the range/viewfinder compare with the M9, M240, and film Ms for clarity and ease of focusing? 2) How does dynamic range compare vs M9 and 240? 3) How does white balance compare? Thank you in advance.

Sean Reid of reidreviews.com has posted a review of the M262 on his updated website (now HTML 5). "Today I published a review of the Leica M (Typ 262). Though this camera is a variation on the Leica M (Typ 246) it is different enough that it was worth reviewing on its own. As all our new reviews will be, this articles is available via all the RR Html5 viewers but not via our Flash viewer. It includes large picture versions for readers using devices with Retina/High Res. displays. I'm currently testing, or about to test, one Ricoh camera, two Fuji cameras, two Leica lenses, and more. So expect to see a lot of new articles coming online as we move from winter to spring."