Another M10R review

[Jeff S]

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I can’t fault her personal perspective on cost/value, especially in these times.  As a substantive gear review, though, my expectations were low from the outset, where the number one listed and bolded camera quality is “luscious bokeh”.  Good to know.  Did she even mention the specific lens (other than writing that combined cost was $12k)?  This could have been written just as an editorial piece, without the gear review, as the cost was known before delivery.
 

Jeff

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

[onasj]

The Wired "review" is really an editorial on the morality of expensive purchases during a historic pandemic when many households are struggling to make ends meet.  I don't object to the premise of the editorial, but I find it wholly inappropriate to strongly color the "Review: Leica M10-R Digital Rangefinder" of a camera based on this thesis.  Most people who read a camera REVIEW expect to read conclusions based on how the camera performs, not how it comports with the author's feelings about economics during a pandemic.  It's an interesting editorial, worth reading, but should be labeled as an editorial, not as a camera review.

[ravinj]

5 hours ago, horosu said:

This is a very down-to-earth review that reflects the realities that some of us here tend to push aside and keep on living as if everything is a bad dream that should go away any time now. Well, it isn't going anywhere.

Same could be said of a lot of things. So how about the rich New Yorkers snapping up houses in Hamptons. Or, private day care camps costing $70k for their kids. That is a solid down payment for a house. At least Leica pricing is transparent - you know what you will pay for. The real outrage is the the medical insurance scam in the USA, where a covid-19 test can have a 10x differential depending on who and where you go to. 

[ravinj]

6 minutes ago, onasj said:

The Wired "review" is really an editorial on the morality of expensive purchases during a historic pandemic when many households are struggling to make ends meet.  I don't object to the premise of the editorial, but I find it wholly inappropriate to strongly color the "Review: Leica M10-R Digital Rangefinder" of a camera based on this thesis.  Most people who read a camera REVIEW expect to read conclusions based on how the camera performs, not how it comports with the author's feelings about economics during a pandemic.  It's an interesting editorial, worth reading, but should be labeled as an editorial, not as a camera review.

Agree. Suddenly there is a moral hazard in buying Leica cameras.

[Erato]

1 hour ago, Dr No said:

It smacks of 'i love this camera but here is our advertiser sales pitch instead' with an added virtue signalling slap about morals because they can't afford it.

Some people might lol and mocking on me for paid additional $100 for Leica Summilux-M 35 f/1.4 ASPH. “Leitz Wetzlar” but if they know enough about optimization, they would understand why it's an outstanding pair for M10-P.

Edited July 25, 2020 by Erato

[scott kirkpatrick]

Hey, the reviewer lives in Portland Oregon.  Her reluctance to launch out with a shiny new M10-R and APO 50 into the middle between the Portland police and the Federales in tear gas season is entirely justified.  If you have to do that, by all means drag along an X-Pro2, or just bring your phone and some traffic cones to pop over the tear gas cannisters.

[analog-digital]

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Actually, it's easy. You can take good pictures with any camera. It is also a fact that Leica's Lamera's are completely overrated and overpaid. Yes, I also have analog and digital Leica's. But not necessarily for your quality reasons, but I find them visually simply stylish.

The digital M Leica's are simply no longer state of the art. Not bad because of that. But others simply offer more. Much more for your money.

So leave the miserable comparisons. If I want a Fuji, I buy one and anyone who wants a Leica also buys it. Better enjoy the end result ...

[LBJ2]

2 hours ago, TomB_tx said:

I blew my budget when I was finishing college by buying the new Leica M4 and (over a year) 90 TE, and 50 & 35 Summicrons. However, I used those 3 lenses and the M4 (with M6 added in '85) as my main camera outfit for over 40 years. When I bought it I was ridiculed by friends for getting such a backwards camera compared to the latest Japanese SLRs. They looked at the feature list - I looked at the results, and valued a well thought out solid camera that performed well.

In this digital age most people still shop by feature lists: the longer the list the better it must be. If it doesn't have IBIS, it must not be serious.

I know no digital camera is going to last 40-50 years - pity. I'm still very happy with my M9. I splurged again for the M10 - but that's my last Leica.

Cool story! Personally I lean heavily toward progress in my photography tools/gear, but even then not all progress is equal and some progress is much more important than others. But I very much liked reading your words as I experienced something similar when I first started using my first Leica camera the M10, compared to my Sony kit ( which I also love). 

[analog-digital]

vor 3 Stunden schrieb TomB_tx:

I know no digital camera is going to last 40-50 years - pity. I'm still very happy with my M9. I splurged again for the M10 - but that's my last Leica.

Comparing digital with analog is nonsensical. These are two different types of photography. Mostly. And for most of them.

Why is it your last Leica (digital?)

[TomB_tx]

24 minutes ago, analog-digital said:

Comparing digital with analog is nonsensical. These are two different types of photography. Mostly. And for most of them.

Why is it your last Leica (digital?)

I shoot digital exactly as I do film, and - as an old Kodachrome user - do as little post processing as possible: the capture of the image is my focus. I’ve worked for decades analyzing data and programming on computers, and don’t care to do more than is necessary now.

The M10 does everything I need and want in a rangefinder camera, and that won’t change no matter what new features and models are introduced. I use it the same way I’ve used Ms for 50 years, and I’m too old to change.

Edited July 25, 2020 by TomB_tx

[analog-digital]

vor 36 Minuten schrieb TomB_tx:

and I’m too old to change.

Come on you are securely NOT 100+

[Tailwagger]

I suppose this is the problem with having a legendary reputation, a significant asking price and having been forced into a business model that depends on higher end buyers. The gist of the criticism is not new nor original, merely that the pandemic is now thrown into the mix instead of any of the other myriad social ills that might have been. I find the writer's PoV abysmally shallow.  A Leica is more symbol than camera. An object of desire for the wealthy with the not so subtle implication that the company and owners of its products represent a conspiratorial gaggle of self absorbed robber barons who care more for their claret and beef Wellington than their fellow man.  Quite a conclusion after suggesting there is real value in the camera having written...

Quote

'...the “Leica look.” Somewhere between the moment when photons hit the sensor and when the onboard processor converts them into a picture, the M10-R works its magic. There’s a hyper-realness...

1.  First, there is no politics here, there is only survival.  Leica is a business.  And in case she hadn't noticed a pretty poor one from a get rich standpoint. They develop cameras years in advance for release on a schedule. They are no more prescient than anyone else about when a pandemic or any other global disaster might arrive nor what its effects might be. The M10-R appears now, because now is its time. Publish or perish, as simple as that.
2. Lords and ladies, I beseech you. Pray, spend your $$$ to buy stuff that results in my out of work roommates getting a job... Who the hell does she think builds these cameras? Elves? Alien robots? Newsflash.. the folks designing and assembling these cameras are just as human and just as affected as anyone else. Buying the efforts of their labor keeps them fed just like anyone else working for a living. Or did I somehow miss somewhere that Leica is cruel to its workforce, chaining them to their work tables, exploiting them to become one of the most profitable companies on the planet.
3. It's far more socially responsible to buy an $1800 naked, no lens Fuji APS-C.  I wonder if she bothered to calculate that the cost of that camera is 31 eight hour working days at US minimum wage. Over a month and a half, before taxes.  News for ya dear... if you're sporting anything other than a cheap ass cell phone, when the revolution comes no one with a pitchfork is going to read the label and think, Fuji... one of us, Leica... kill the bastard.
4. One of the few advantages of having accumulated a bit of wealth, over a lifetime of working, is that you don't actually have to decide between doing both. You can help others while at the same time continuing to support craftsmanship and artistry.

Perhaps if Leica sold their stuff on Etsy instead of Leica Boutiques, we would no longer have to suffer these asterisks as they'd be perceived as artisan, rather than an accessory for a Birkin bag.  

 

Edited July 26, 2020 by Tailwagger

[scott kirkpatrick]

Hey, nothing wrong with Beef Wellington.

And the S3, M10M and M10R were all held up for almost a year while they got everything right.

Edited July 26, 2020 by scott kirkpatrick

[John Miranda]

I think the author is confused, and meant to write a piece on buying luxury items during a pandemic, which could apply to any item from a Mercedes to a Rolex.  That is the article she should have written if that is the conversation she wanted.  She convolved it with a specific camera.

[T25UFO]

So many comments about a review . . . which unfortunately the reviewer is unlikely to read.  Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

[Tom Johnston]

Leica cameras, new and used, have always cost a lot, and part of the reason many of us started out with used screw mount bodies, graduated to an M2, M3, M4...or finally made the leap to buying a new M6 when they were $1,750 (if my memory servers). Remember when the price jumped to $2,350 for the M7 thinking that was get to be over the top.

 I’m currently using an M10, and amazed by it on so many levels; there is a lot of sophistication packed into that body, and I love the sound of the shutter every time, though when I was shooting at a Stand with Portland rally over the weekend I wasn’t even aware of any shutter sound.

When I bought my M10 I said to my wife that it’d probably be the last (new) Leica I buy...to which she said with a chuckle, “you never know.”

[colint544]

The only way to make a Leica good value is to shoot it a lot, and for years and years and years. The price per picture comes down with every 'keeper' you get. 

I enjoyed the article, and thanks for posting it. I think the author is a very good writer.