Leica M10 review and user report (at overgaard.dk)

[Overgaard]

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After five months using the Leica M10, 20,000+ pictures and through 12 countries I finally made my first part of the Leica M10 review. 

 

I go over the SD-cards, Lightroom profiles for M10, EVF use and design, and more in this article. 

 

Enjoy, next article and video coming up real soon :-)

 

http://www.overgaard.dk/Leica-M10-digital-rangefinder-camera-page-00-Expect-Simplicity.html

 

 

 

[Kwesi]

Great article as always, thanks!

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The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[alan c. davis]

Always enjoy your articles Thorsten. Many thanks once again.

[Orin]

Thorough and interesting!

[01af]

After reading that interesting article and looking at all those pictures, there's two things I'd like to mention:

 

(1) The M on the ISO dial does not stand for Manual (which wouldn't make any sense). Instead, it stands for Menu. Conceptually, it disables the ISO dial and throws you back to the ISO menu.

 

(2) While some of your Noctilux pictures are magic, many are not. You're just going overboard with all that excessive background blur. I feel a lot of pictures would have come out better when their backgrounds were somewhat less blurred. In a well-composed photograph, the surroundings provide context information about the main subject, so they should not get garbled beyond recognition into featureless fuzziness. And no, I am not advocating total sharpness from front to back. Generally, I like your 50 mm Summicron shots better.

[pedaes]

Although I got the e-mail link to the artical few days ago, can I still say thanks for posting here and for a great in depth review. Also Congratulations on your marriage!

[relms]

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Thorsten, thank you for writing the article.  Even though I have owned and used several M cameras extensively, I still found your coverage of the M10 interesting, informative, and persuasive.  Coincidentally, I learned this morning that my long-standing order for the M10 has been shipped to arrive tomorrow, and after reading your article yesterday I am more excited than ever to get my hands on it.

[Tailwagger]

Funny, I had the same somewhat initial ho-hum reaction last weekend. To be honest, it was a little depressing. There were various handling aspects from the 240 that I prefer, in particular the new dance necessary to delete is even more annoying than the old one and not that I use it all that often, but the inability to switch to C and back easily with a single operation is, for me, a significant loss. In the first few hours, it certainly leaves the impression that its pretty much a 240, only almost arbitrarily different and at a significant premium.  And with pretty marginal battery life to top it all off. 

 

Today, after being out with the M for a few hours, the camera is indeed growing on me. The VF is already yielding better results in terms of nailing focus wide open. The general speed improvement is there and the smaller size make the shape of the camera a little more lovable. I also see some positive differentiation in the rendering, particularly color, which, with the exception of some occasional quite weird yellow artifacts when using the LR M10 profile, is far easier to get a more natural look. I think in that regard the M10 is the least digital looking digital I've ever used.  Glad to hear that the journey to happiness has only just begun, looking forward to building a deeper bond over time. 

[gotium]

Well, I really enjoyed that

[Chuck Albertson]

Thorsten, many thanks.

 

What do you mean by "Adobe Lightroom 9.8, 9.9 and 9.10"?

[Overgaard]

Thorsten, many thanks.

 

What do you mean by "Adobe Lightroom 9.8, 9.9 and 9.10"?

 

 

That is the standalone versions. I think I got the 6 turned around to a 9. Sorry, just fixed that!

 

But it's the ones that used to come with the Leica cameras till April 2016. You can stil buy standalone versions on eBay, but basically the only way with Adobe from now on will be the Adobe Creative Cloud:

 

Here are the versions as stand alone software/cloud version:

 

6.8 / 2015.8 (minimum version necessary to use Adobe Standard profiles made for Leica M10. You can still use the Embedded "LEICA M10" version with any older version of Adobe Lightroom)

6.9 / 2015.9

6.10 / 2015/10

- - / 2015.10.1 (is the current version that includes camera raw 9.10.1 for Sony A9, etc.)

Edited June 22, 2017 by Overgaard

[01af]

That is the standalone versions.

 

Thorsten, it seems ... oops, nevermind.

Edited June 22, 2017 by 01af

[Overgaard]

Thorsten, it seems you're confusing Lightroom's version numbers with Camera Raw's.

 

 

That's the conclusion I came to as well :-)

 

Just corrected the headline in the article on this. 

[Chuck Albertson]

That is the standalone versions. I think I got the 6 turned around to a 9. Sorry, just fixed that!

 

But it's the ones that used to come with the Leica cameras till April 2016. You can stil buy standalone versions on eBay, but basically the only way with Adobe from now on will be the Adobe Creative Cloud:

 

Here are the versions as stand alone software/cloud version:

 

6.8 / 2015.8 (minimum version necessary to use Adobe Standard profiles made for Leica M10. You can still use the Embedded "LEICA M10" version with any older version of Adobe Lightroom)

6.9 / 2015.9

6.10 / 2015/10

- - / 2015.10.1 (is the current version that includes camera raw 9.10.1 for Sony A9, etc.)

OK. I have 6.10.1 installed, and I thought I had missed some significant updates! You could purchase the stand-alone version of LR from the Adobe site (I last did a few months ago), except that option seems to have disappeared quite recently (in the past couple of weeks). I think Amazon has full versions (not the upgrades) of the stand-alone version available.

[Jeff S]

 

I had a different experience coming from the M240, loving the improved VF from the moment I picked up a demo M10 at the local Leica store. And the first shoot after ownership revealed the other nice refinements, including the out-of-camera color. B/W conversions using LR 6.8, and then 6.9, provided files that quickly fit well into my overall editing and print workflow. Each picture demands its own careful rendering, so for me there isn't just one preset that suits.

 

Battery life has been the only downside, but that's not a practical issue for me given my conservative picture-taking needs. I haven't yet tested the weather sealing improvements, but hopefully those will prove as advertised.

 

The good news is that we've both come to the same conclusion: the M10 is a sweet machine.

 

While you're editing... discreet, not discrete.... and complement, not compliment.

 

Jeff

[4pipes]

Thanks Thorsten, after reading your article I ordered the M10. This will be my first Leica, albeit a little late in life!

[GRBrown]

While I found it interesting to learn about Thorsten Overgaard's views on the M10, I gave up reading Mr. Overgaard's review because of the continuing breaks in the text to promote his various products. Adblock Plus on the Firefox browser failed to block his ads.

[pico]

While I found it interesting to learn about Thorsten Overgaard's views on the M10, I gave up reading Mr. Overgaard's review because of the continuing breaks in the text to promote his various products. Adblock Plus on the Firefox browser failed to block his ads.

 

Adblock Plus is messing with the code. The ads run smoothly in the left column, and Mr. Overgaard's content flow very well in the right. IOW, it is your problem, not his.

 

Thorsten: Let's start with the bottom line: The Leica M10 is worth having. That is the short and sweet conclusion you might have come here to find out about. The Leica M10 is the most relevant digital Leica M of them all.

 

I deeply appreciate that approach. Problem or project statement, then conclusion and following with detailed article.

.

Edited June 25, 2017 by pico

[GRBrown]

Adblock Plus is messing with the code. The ads run smoothly in the left column, and Mr. Overgaard's content flow very well in the right. IOW, it is your problem, not his.

 

 

I deeply appreciate that approach. Problem or project statement, then conclusion and following with detailed article.

.

I tested in Safari without Adblock or other blockers. Ads appear in the left column next to the text and in the body of the review as well.

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[CRTZMO]

While I found it interesting to learn about Thorsten Overgaard's views on the M10, I gave up reading Mr. Overgaard's review because of the continuing breaks in the text to promote his various products. Adblock Plus on the Firefox browser failed to block his ads.

Is it not acceptable for the owner of a website to promote their own work? Given the time put into that review (extensive) and the cost (free), I don't understand the basis of your complaint.

 

 

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