Someone please convince me to buy the M!

[Son of Helm]

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Hello!

 

 

 

 

 

What made you go for the M and how do you think today about your decision?

 

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To me it is all about Leica glass. Way back in the 70' I learned about the almost flare free characteritics of these lenses, which yiels High contrast shadows and clean colors even in scenic backlighted motifs. So I bought an M6, and then M9, and now M. This allows mé to use R lenses for close up and tele fotos, notably my 3.4 180.

It is small and less intrusive than an SLR, at 2-3 M you Can shoot first and ask later in street fotos.

Enjoy.

[arthury]

Very true, thank you! We still need to get used to each other, my new Leica and me. I see her beauty and optical capabilities. But she also feels unexpectedly heavy in my hand, and slippery. Guess that's the price to pay when it comes to design vs. ergonomics. Ordered a thumbs-up to compensate.

 

Focussing steady objects is a breeze, but living beings, boy, that's tough. At least at f1.4. I'm spoiled by my Nikon in this regard - point at the eye, press thumb button, reframe, take a couple of shots in quick succession, repeat. Almost one movement. Everything nice and in focus, even at f1.4. No way to do this with the M, at least for me. And now. We'll see how it works out!

 

Congrats.

If you want to shoot moving people, learn to use zone focusing.

 

An Introduction to Zone Focusing for your Leica, Rangefinder, or DSLR — Eric Kim Street Photography

[mikeyjive]

I find that, when closer to the subjects at wide apertures, it helps to move myself a bit to get them in focus rather than chasing with the focus ring.

[lecycliste]

I started shooting with my grandfather's M3, a 50mm f/1.5 Summarit and a 135mm f/4.5 Hektor back in 1969. It was small, light and unobtrusive. Picture quality was pretty good, but additional lenses were too expensive for what they offered.

 

So I bought into Canon's FD system, then into Nikon F, and finally Canon EOS when I began shooting pro bike races and wildlife in 2003.

 

I used an M6 TTL, M7 and finally an M8. Picked up lenses from 15mm to 135mm when I was a Silicon Valley design engineer and could afford them.

 

I started selling equipment when I realized I could get great results with less expense from other equipment. Leica Ms don't do sports or wildlife very well, and the gear I had with me most often was dSLR anyway.

 

Kept all the lenses and the M8, even after the camera developed red lines from failed pixels. Leica digital M cameras lack ultrasonic sensor cleaning, and M8-M9 have bluish AWB and terrible noise performance above ISO 640. The M240 is stratospherically priced for its capabilities.

 

Still, the lenses draw like nothing else. So I picked up a Fuji X-E2 and M-mount adapter. There are a few issues with the crop sensor and wides, and the EVF has less dynamic range than old Ektachrome slide film. But the auto white balance produces great color, the sensor auto-cleans, and manual focusing is adequate. And it's $6000 cheaper than an M240.

 

Austin-based commercial photographer and author Kirk Tuck once told me I could shoot salable pictures with a $99 Yashica MAT124 TLR camera. He's right.

 

Sean Reid uses Leica M cameras, Fuji X-PRO1 and lenses from Leica, Zeiss and Cosina / Voigtlander to shoot weddings and events. He gets great, salable pictures with that setup.

 

If you want to sample Leica gear, you can do it almost risk-free. The lenses hold their value, even if the cameras don't. But there are other options out there to do the same job for less cash.

 

 

Mark Bohrer, MSEE

documentary narration & scoring

[jaapv]

Except if one prefers rangefinders cameras…. And blueish AWB? Yes, rangefinder cameras are not the best for wildlife and sports. Nothing new there. Reason many of us have alternative systems to cover that aspect. Still, the M is in the daily bag….

[algrove]

Just back from a long trip with my M's and MM. During the trip I was in a workshop where all participants were asked to show 6-8 prints of no less than 10x15 in size. I print 13x19 for these exercises.

 

Well, after reviewing all the prints where I was the only one with Leica glass (one guy had a newish Hasselblad) it was mentioned by many how sharp my images were when compared to the other prints. The discussion invariably got around to sharpening methods etc.

 

Then someone asked what lenses I used since he assumed I used a Canikon. When I said Leica, the group went quiet and the leader mentioned that my prints were so darn sharpen due to the Leica glass.

 

Case over.