Leica image quality

[jpreisch]

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I love Leica cameras.  I started with a M4, progressed to digital with the Digilux 2, followed by the M8, X-Vario, Q, M240, Several iterations of the D-lux, and still have a type 109. Finally, I am shooting with a CL.  You can see all the results of my efforts if you look at the 706 Leica Images that I have posted.  My question to all of you Leica owners is what format, camera type, and system do you like the best and use and why. 

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[ramarren]

Basically, what I like to use has come down to various Leica gear (mostly the digital CL, various Hasselblad gear (still film, but a 907x approaches), a couple of Polaroid SX-70s, and my iPhone 11 Pro. 

Why? Because they produce photos I like and I like using them. Not much more to it than that. 

G

[jaapv]

I'm with Godfrey there. Although I have been using M cameras since 1976 and R cameras besides during the nineties decade, I have settled on the CL and APS system, I expect for my final run. It comes closest to the style and feel of shooting I experienced when starting out with my M3. I still have and use an M6, M9 and MM1 (and LTM cameras too), but to me the digital CL is the true carrier of Barnack's original concept.

[Marac]

Had so many different systems, started out with film (like most) using TLR and Contax 35mm bodies. Digital started with Canon/Nikon/Contax U4R/Sony F505 stuff like that. Traded a load of Canon gear for a Pentax 645D and some lenses, Sold that got M9, blah blah blah.

Current line up is Sony DSC-R1 fixed Zeiss 24-120mm lens APSC / Mamiya ZD medium format digital DSLR with 35/55/80/120/150 lenses / Leica CL with 11-23/35/55-135 lenses.

and a box of junk to go with it all.

[DirkS]

90 % Leica CL, 5 % Leica C-Lux, 5 % Nikon P1000 (because of its optical 24-3.000 mm zoom!)

Edited February 19, 2020 by DirkS

[jankap]

50% A6500 with M- lenses, 30% A6500+Metabones lens booster with R-lenses and 20% Lytro Illum.

Edited February 19, 2020 by jankap

[scott kirkpatrick]

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Some of my shooting is done to see how digital cameras are engineered (I'm always up for a beta test), and that fraction changes.  Currently the SL2 gets some attention of that sort.  Otherwise I'm shooting 67% L-mount, 33% M10 or M10-D (with wide angles, primarily).

[Per P.]

I have hedged my bets with both the M10 and the SL. And a CL with my girlfriend. I also have many more lenses than really required. And ditto bags.

If I had to pick only one it would be the SL. But if I was rational I would sell everything and replace with a CL, the TL zooms, and two or three TL primes.

[huwm]

I have a CL, the TL zooms and three TL primes plus TL2 back up body but in fact I usually carry one zoom and one prime

I've acquired some 'antique glass' and adaptors which i love playing around with also

I just enjoy photography more using this kit

I came via Olympus film SLRs (1st love OM1) a Canon digital SLR then finally an Olympus digital m43 system which was brilliant but....

[tommonego@gmail.com]

Started out with a 1960s Nikkormat, switched to Leica in college, where I also used 2 1/4 twin lens Rollei, regular and wide, 4x5, and 8x10. Stayed with the Leica and large format professionally. Also had a Canon FD, 2 F1s and several lenses. Got into digital with Nikon in the early 2000s, still have a D300 and several lenses. 

Bought a CL in 2018 and have been happy with that camera, as happens with Leica users I have an M8 for infrared and an M3 I inherited. I have been playing with adapting lenses to the CL, a couple of my FD lenses, macros mostly, and one Nikon (Tokina 11-16 f2.8) so I have a wide angle. Hardly use the Nikon, other lenses I have with the Nikon are early autofocus lenses that are terrible to manual focus. One set of fun lenses I have adapted is Scheider Retina lenses a 28mm, works well on the M3 sans rangefinder, a 50mm Xenon, and a 135mm Tele Xenar, these belonged to my father it is interesting to use them again.

Edited February 20, 2020 by tommonego@gmail.com

[Bill W]

I have owned way more gear than I will admit. My first digital was a Leica made by Panasonic. Cannot remember what it was called but it was like a little box. I was a long time R shooter and moved into digital with a Nikon system and kept using various models till I sold my D600. I have been through the S and SL but the weight was a factor as I grew older and body parts started hurting. I bought into the CL and have wight primes and zooms plus two bodies. My medium format is the Hasselblad X1D and I recently got the Nikon Z7. I guess I did don't learn by my old mistakes but I am a mirrorless kind of guy and they all are considerable lighter in weight. Oh I forgot to mention I still have the M10 and 8 lens for it. I guess I did admit to owning a lot of gear. What can I say, I like to try out new gear. 

[pebbles]

Having had so many 35mm cameras from my first Corfield Periflex through  Leica 1A, II, III, and 111A. M6,M9,M10 I have now settled with the CL. It is closest to my Leica III which I had longer then any other Leica and I keep it for the day when the CL gives up its electronic wizardry.

[gteague]

i've owned and used literally hundreds of cameras beginning with my grandmother's folding kodak 120 around 1963 or so. first camera i bought was a $10 pawn shop argus c3 'brick' with a cracked inner lens element. in high school i worked part time at a camera store and using my discount i bought my first new camera, a 35mm rangefinder, the yashica lynx 1.4 and for years and years my favorite things to shoot were candid, available light portraits along with found items and landscape.

that lynx has the softest lens in the world, but i loved the form factor and how it worked. my eyes have always been horrible and i just couldn't use ground glass cameras until they started putting focus aids in there. ironically enough, in high school i shot for the newsletter and the yearbook and the only two cameras the high school owned were a nikkormat and a yashica tlr 120 (not the better 'mat')--you try shooting friday night west texas football with a tlr and a honeywell 'potato masher flash with a 5 lb battery on your belt!

other favorite cameras were a canon a-1, a minox b, a fuji 670, and a minolta cl which i didn't have long because the contax t* came along with one of the first autofocus systems and i've been married to autofocus ever since because of my eyes. as i've outlined elsewhere, i had a brief flirtation with some leica 'm' cameras and the rangefinders just didn't work--not even leitz could fix them.

next breakthrough camera was the nikon 8008 and nikon's af and hp (high eyepoint) system which finally let me use slr's. i had a titanium nikon fm and finally the f3 when i worked at the newspaper and had access to all  their nikon accessories for it.

when digital came along i got a canon d30 (30d?) which was primitive in today's terms, but i have a photo shoot at a wildlife preserve using the then new canon 70-200/2.8L lens which are some of the absolute best images i've ever taken with any camera despite the low resolution sensor. from then to now i've owned dozens of digital cameras, but i literally can't bond with the user interfaces  of brands like fuji, sony, and especially, olympus. i particularly hated a fuji x10 (10x?) which was derided as the 'orb-o-matic' for putting ufo's into every image which has a bright light source and i vowed never to ever consider a fuji again which is likely why i have a cl and not a 100f/t/v.

anyway, the panasonic interface fits me to a 't' and i find their cameras the best ration between power, flexibility, and ease of use and i still have 3 panasonic models, the gx85, the gh5, and now the s1. oh, i forgot, someone closed out the last stock of their lx100's and i got a really cute one silver and brown dirt cheap. i understand it's the basis for one of the leica consumer models and i love the top dial configuration. but despite my failure with leica 'm' cameras, i've always loved the brand and i have over a half-dozen lumix leica lenses for my gh5 and gx85 and two l-mount leica certified lumix lenses for the s1. and btw, of all the cameras i've ever owned and used, the s1 is, by leaps and bounds, the most easily configurable and easiest to handle camera ever. before i got it, the gh5 hand than honor and i was aghast at the size of the s1, but now i wince when i go back to a smaller body like the gh5 or the gx85 and with the cl i'm having to get grip surfaces on front and back just to be able to handle it.

after i got the s1, i got the sigma fp for my backup, compact carry everywhere camera. and it's some brilliant and unique engineering and design. but it seemed much more attuned to the video shooter rather than the stills shooter and i'm sure not much of a video guy. at any rate, i returned to consideration of the cl as it uses the l-mount lenses and i had only dropped it from contention because it's apc. but i found one in mint condition on ebay for a price so low it made me suspicious and then made the guy an even lower offer which he took and now i have a wetzlar german leica once again and this time one that focuses!

/guy

 

Edited March 2, 2020 by gteague

[Le Chef]

I started out borrowing my father's Braun Paxette rangefinder and getting the odd roll of film developed. I eventually got an Olympus OM1 and then an OM2 with the standard 50mm lens. Foolishly, I now think, I ended up going through a Canon AE-1 then A-1 and then 2 x full-blown F1 "electronic" versions with a bag full of lenses and motor drives. i ditched the lot when I realized a) a bag of lenses always meant I had the wrong lens on the camera b) I was never going to be a sports photographer like Chris Smith. I discovered Leica through a colleague whose grandfather was James Jarché and various books about HCB and other Leica users. It look a long time to get to a Leica CL and a few lenses, but even now I wonder whether life might be simpler and more enjoyable with a Q2 or an M10 with just a 35mm lens...

[Jake]

Wow. It's interesting to see what people started using and continued using through their life. Many are the same as me. Yashica mat 120 (I can relate to the ground glass thing), the contax T2 t*, olympus OM2. . .Others included a canon canonet and a rollieflex TLR. 

It appears I haven't gone through gear like most here, though. I think I've spent more money in the last ten years on gear than I have in my entire lifetime. I always salivated at leicas, hasselblads, mamiyas, etc, but could either never really afford them as a teenager or couldn't justify the expenditure (I probably wouldn't have used them enough because "job" made me very busy). So I'm really an outsider in world of leica as the CL is the only one I've ever owned. Although sometimes I wish I'd just bit the bullet and bought a leica film rangefinder the minute I could afford it(I bought a few expensive guitars and equipment instead). 

Portability has become huge for me which is why I no longer use my nikon DSLR much. The contax T2 is still in circulation - which is an upgrade to the olympus XA's I used - and also very pocketable. But the CL is a great camera and I use it the most. Just a few things I wish it had, but so far haven't missed them like IS, weatherproofing, better battery life, and expanded connectivity. The interface is intuitive, the EVF is big and bright, it's compact, the image quality is outstanding, and the lenses are exceptional.

[jaapv]

My father gave me an unbranded box camera when I was seven, I progressed to Agfa Click and Agfa Clack, then I commandeered my fathers Agfa Silette Prontor SVS. My first real camera was an Exa 2 with Zeiss lens, then I bought an Olympus OM2. After that - well, far too many cameras, including an Asahi Pentax with Super-Takumar lenses, a jewel-like Pentax 110 mini-SLR set,  - oh- there was a Lubitel 4x4 TLR as well, a bunch of Praktikas, etc., a few Minoltas, some more Olympus, XA and OM40, I'm sure I am forgetting a few... Then I walked past a shop that had a nice M3 with 35/2.8 Summaron, and that was it - Apart from a foray into 645 with Mamiya, it was a series of  M cameras and virtually all Rs. Then, as Leica didn't "do" digital, Canon 10D, 1D and Rebel (hanging on to my M6), and back to Leica with Digilux2, DMR and M8. And the rest...

[gteague]

several people have mentioned the om and when i worked at the newspaper and they were converting over to all nikon gear, one of the photogs sold me his om1 and several lenses and accessories. for some reason i didn't keep it long, but i remember to this day that the metering system was like nothing i've experienced before or since. you could literally go out into a cow pasture by moonlight, open the shutter, and the meter would produce a usable image, sometimes staying open for what seemed like 15-30 minutes. phenomenal!

[Viv]

In chronological order, my father's Kodak Brownie box camera, Canon AE-1, Canon A-1, Minolta SLR, Bronica ETSRi, then the move to digital with Nikon D70, Nikon D200, Nikon D700, Fuji X Pro-1, Fuji XT-1, Leica M9, Leica Q, Leica CL.

Currently, the Leica CL, with a Fuji XT-3 on the way to replace the XT-1. #1 Daughter has the Q.

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Look here: Leica L-Mount

[Archiver]

Dad taught me the basics of photography with his Minolta SR-T Super and Pentax ME in the early 80s, both of which I still use, on occasion. My first digital camera was the Canon S45 in 2002, which brought me fully into the digital realm, and what followed was a slew of digital compacts, then Canon DSLR's, film compacts and the Zeiss Ikon rangefinder. Then I moved to the Leica M9 and loved it more than anything else. I now shoot with the M9 and small mirrorless cameras, as I enjoy the small size and light weight relative to a Canon 5D Mark II.

Eventually, I think I will move to the L mount system for work, most likely the Panasonic S1H or whatever is current at the time. I've been itching to get into the Leica CL system, but I can't justify the cost for something I can't use as a primary work camera; I shoot documentary films and corporate video, and also provide high quality stills when requested. The M9 was my last major 'personal work' camera, although I subsequently bought a M7, a Fuji X100 and Ricoh GXR. Everything else since then has been purchased for work. But the M9 remains my favourite camera for its image quality, beautiful lenses, unique rendering and feel in the hand.

[david strachan]

I love Leica too.  But collected hundreds of cameras and worked all the camera images through dark room and looked at lenses also.  I just see the whole thing as fun and history.  I've been reading photography for over 30 years and one thing for sure...and had fun working all formats.

The hype exceeds the fact.  Nikon vs Canon...advertising changed over time...so did the aficionados.

Early Leica cameras were good no doubt...so were early other cameras...particularly Canon, for example.

Nowadays there's really not much in it,  if anything.  Modern lenses are generally close to perfect with all the major brands, they have to keep up, or loose market share.

So is Leica the best?  For me yes, for fun and want  to photograph.  Hopeless for party quick moving people stuff, hopeless for flash work (most of time), tele-nature no, and pretty useless for close-up.

But it's always my cameras for choice and I try any work around to make my Leicas work. I just like the feel of the cameras...crafted machines.  And generally the system works.

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