Three weeks with my M

[Ahumador]

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500 shots and three weeks after opening the box later, I would like to share my impressions with you. I have always used SLR´s and DSLRs. My most used digital camera has been my trusty Canon EOS 5D, bought just upon release, as I was missing FF (had previously used the 10D, a very nice camera, but I wanted FF), together with the 35mm F2 and the wonderful 85mm F1.8. I have more lenses, including an L zoom (24/105 f4), but I am a prime man. When the LUMIX GF 1 was released, some years later, I bought it together wit a 20mm f 1.7 ASPH prime, wanting to replicate, in a much lighter pack, my 5d and 35mm F2 kit, the one I used most. It was a disappointment: low light capabilitites were not near my 5D and auto focusing was much behind my Canon, even though it was a much modern camera. Then, some time later, the Fuji X100 arrived, and I bought it in the belief that its APS C sensor and its technological evolution (I think it was released 6 years after my 5D) would make up in terms of IQ and AF. But it was not the case, specially when just released. I learnt photography in 1986, when I started college, and I learnt with a cheap reflex: a russian ZENITH with a MF 50mm 2.0. Since then, I have always been intrigued by range finders, but I was always set back by Leica prices: at first because there was no way I coul afford them and, when I could, because the princely sums they were priced at, seemed hard to justify. But I had missed MF, I had missed the aperture ring in the lens (although I had it, for the first time after many years, with the X100), and I had missed the general handling of a manual system. I was almost sold on the M9 when it was launched, but life was very hectic at that time, and let the opportunity go. After the launch of the M240, I thought there was a FF "mature" RF system, and things had calmed down, although not by very much. I began to talk about the M to my wife last autumn, but everything got together at the beginning of april and permission to go ahead was issued. I ordered the camera thinking that it would take a few months to be delivered, together with a 35 and 75 new Summicrons. To my surprise, I had them at home the next day.

I am in love again with photography. I always was, but this system has taken me back to my beginnings, and, I think, the best way for me to enjoy photography. I have gone back to hyperfocal street photography, I have to think much more about what I want to do and the results I intend. Many things are more difficult than with the 5D, but many things can be done in a much easier way. And the ones which are more difficult are much more satisfying when the results come out right. I understand this is not for everyone, but it is for me. I don´t want to say that those who choose a different path are wrong, but this is my path, the one that has been waiting for me the whole time. As an Apple ad used to say, I have no longer as much control, but I have taken command. I want to send a very felt thank you to all of you since, as a long time lurker, you have steered me to this path, one that had me full of doubts, and, even, fear. Thank you again.

Ricardo.

[kape06111]

Hi, now go out and enjoy this beautiful camera.

 

I got mine this week. It is really an amazing tool. I'm in Sevilla.

 

Cheers

[Ahumador]

Some snaps in a popular festival here. The light is very harsh (this is not the best time of the year to tahe photos here).

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