Two days, two lenses, one camera - what comes out with the M11 when you just shoot and don't test it

[HansiMustermann]

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Warning! I put something like 35 pictures in this one post, and the story around it is very, very thin. The whole thing is an experiment, damn me for it, it's deserved.... 

The Leica M 11 has been around for quite a while now. We have discussed the sense and nonsense of the 60 MP sensor, unfamiliar switch-on noises, shared the phantom pain of the abolished base plate or rejoiced together over the easy-to-remove, much stronger battery.  Then we peeped pixels, searched for banding and compared the continuous shooting speed at different moon positions in the northern and southern hemisphere during an approaching north-west storm.  This is what we love.

(If you don't get the joke: Please do not complain to me, but to deepl, ok?)

I have very little idea about all the technical stuff, I know that the rangefinder is a masterpiece of precision mechanics and otherwise quite a few electronic components do their job. I have found all my M cameras to be quite reliable, and the M 11 did exactly what I expect of it during the two days of a city trip: it took photos.

Because I don't want to flood the M11 images thread with more of my bad photos, I'll show a few pictures here. They were not actually taken with a view to testing the camera, but I photographed with the M 11 as I had done with other cameras before: just going for it.

The setup was very simple, besides the M 11 I had a Summilux 1:1.4/35 mm Asph FLE and a Nokton 1:1.5/75 mm VM with me. This is very light equipment with many possibilities. I had bright sunshine, hazy weather, blue hour and cold evenings - the battery easily lasted the whole time and also allowed me to transfer the data to an iPad via WiFi connection.

The pictures shown here, however, I edited with Lightroom Classics on my desk at home (and on the Apple mini). I didn't pay any attention to purists, but edited the photos the way I like them. The raw material provided by the M 11 was convincing! The file format was large DNG.

I used everything from aperture 1.4 to aperture 16, exposure times from 1/16000 s to 20 seconds, ISO 64 to 6400.

The images on flickr are all in large resolution and most of them also without the ridiculous frames I always put on them.

So let’s start.

 

I already said that I needed almost all exposure times from 1/16000 to 20 seconds. Here 20 seconds: 

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Shots with 1/16000 s or even shorter than 1/4000 s are irritating because you simply don't hear anything. You press the shutter button into the void, so to speak. Sometimes a picture comes out anyway:

 

... and sometimes the bird is faster than the fastest camera shutter...   

 

Of course, one thing that's very important when you're traipsing around a city for days on end: don't forget to eat! The best time to visit the chestnut stand is during the day (but please, please don't wear a fur coat, and certainly not a blue one!): 

 

Frido is still there in the evening, but then only in black and white. 

 

Alternatively, this friendly looking gentleman would also be happy to sell you something. 

 

... .and you don't even have to starve under a motorway bridge!

 

There is, of course, something to drink at every kiosk.

 

At this point a photographic tip: always look at things from two sides, from the front

 

and from the back.

 

Now it's time for a bit of nature. A city by the lake has a lot of that to offer, but nature appears mainly in the form of one animal: the seagull. Here is the harmless version from a safe distance:

 

But the little animals can also do other things.

 

Then a short break. 

 

...   before it really goes round!

 

So always keep your eyes open

 

for a seagull flying in from somewhere.

 

You could spend hours with seagull photography, but during a city trip you always have to keep an eye on the time. (Yes, that red thing really is a clock!)

 

Otherwise you easily run the risk of missing the best light in the city, between sunset and night even the most boring facades become more plastic.

 

By the way, I don't think you have to be afraid of receding lines at all - if there are enough of them, it looks like art!

 

The philistines among us will, of course, align everything quite straight, whether the church including the bridge was shot with a 35 mm lens

 

or from the same location with 75 mm.

 

Of course, it is not so easy not to photograph all the time only facades and buildings, they stand in the cities now once everywhere around.   

 

 

At night they are also illuminated quite great, like here

 

...or here

 

or here

 

and if they are made of glass they shine even from the inside!

 

Of course, we're happy when a person gets lost in the scenery and take them right away on the 60 MP sensor - we can always cut them out later. 

 

Unfortunately, you have to walk a lot if you don't want to miss a photo opportunity with the great M11, but thank goodness you can take the train, one way

 

or the other.

 

And while we are sitting like this in the streetcar, we can once again remember the past day and the beautiful walk first to the lake and then by the lake. First:

 

... then...

 

In the morning of the exhausting day we still felt young and fresh. You can remember - young?

 

But in the evening we creep dog-tired through the dark streets back to the hotel and hope...

 

that at least someone still has a hug for us! 

 

You are still here? Admirable - thank you for that and a big hug!
 

Edited January 27, 2022 by HansiMustermann

[mespowood]

The narration reminds me of an episode of 'How To with John Wilson'

[Hanno]

Thank you! Very nice pictures and so nice and good to have the focus brought back to the joy and pleasure of making pictures vs dissecting the latest camera iteration. 

I think these pictures would benefit from going into the M11 images thread or at least perhaps worth posting in the images thread a link to this post 😃

[elmars]

Thank You. I like it. And: My first trip with the M11 was to Zurich. 

[saptarshi]

What a refreshingly lovely photo-narration. Thank you!

[Franka373]

Just wonderful.  Thank you. 

[HansiMustermann]

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Thank you all for clicks and warm words! 

[cheekz4dayz]

I loved this! Thanks for sharing 🙂

[Keith (M)]

Wow, I am utterly exhausted by my trip around Zurich!    A delightful and well narrated photo-journey, thanks for taking the time to assemble and post.

BTW, as a M240 owner all I can say is "Get thee behind me, Satan."  

[stuny]

A stunning set.  I'm most struck by the clarity and color.

[HansiMustermann]

Perhaps I will try a follow up - from Munich. 😉