Leica M9 and Summilux 35mm

[ALD]

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Well finally last Friday my steel grey M9 arrived it cost me $5200 with half case and the really great M9 book. It only had about 3500 actuations and is only 3 months old. So what to do next? Yes ROADTRIP!!!

 

So after mounting my brand new beautiful Summilux 35 and cleaning everything and putting on the B&W filter I packed the tent wife and kids into the Landcruiser and headed north to the warmer climate of mid-western Australia to camp at Lucky Bay and shoot some photos.

 

first impressions of the M9

 

Excellent and what a lens. I have heard it said that the M9 is a difficult camera to shoot with but it's not true I was using my panaleica LX5 before and after shooting with an M again I realised once more how crippling, destructive, confusing, frustrating, time wasting it is too take pictures on anything else except the M. No buttons, no menus, no dials with multiple choices depending what setting you are in, no endless menus to get what you want. What a relief photographic simplicity, complete control, I immediately went fully manual and listening to the camera began to change the way I see, it is this that makes the Leica shots different. And if you think about it, this is true automatic functioning in fully manual mode, its the camera telling you what to do so that what you have composed and are focussing on, works out and not just deciding everything for you with 40 focus points. The camera won't let you take any crappy old picture. It forces you to think about your aperture, then it pulls your attention to the shutter speed and the light asking you where do you want to focus? what are you actually trying to capture? It forces you to compose. this is why I disagree with many here who state that a M will not make you a better photographer. Of course it will

 

 

What a relief. Maybe I will post a few later when I get time

[chris_tribble]

Sounds like you're having fun.