With 60 mp are you deliberately leaving lenses at home?

[dennersten]

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I am finding myself leaving the 90 and 135 at home more and more. And instead bringing my Leica M6. How about you? 

[LikameLeica]

So ironic that I am seeing this post, as I was looking at my Metadata in LR library and see the following stats for 2023.

Total Pictures 3499 

• Leica M11 3295 Pics
• Leica SL2 119 Pics
• Leica SL2-S 82 Pics

On the Leica M11 the 3295 Pics were taken with the following lenses.

• 21M Super Elmar 3.4 = 33
• 35M Summilux = 2655
• 50M Summilux = 288
• 90M Summicron = 319

I have clearly moved to the M11 with the 35 Summilux as my primary set-up.  I find that it is the most versatile lens, especially with the ability to crop materially with the 60MP sensor on the M11.  I have moved to a two lens travel set-up that includes the 35 summilux and the 50 summilux.  I will sometimes also take my 21 super elmar if I expect to do large amount of landscape.

I just recently took M11 + 35 Summilux and M6 + 28M for some street photography.  I am not a huge film shooter, but the freedom of going M11 with only the 35 summilux has me exploring the ability to carry these two cameras.  I am looking at selling my SL2 and maybe try and pick-up a used M11 Monochrome and then carry the M11 and M11M with a single lens attached to each.  I will keep my SL2-S system for specific use cases that will benefit from the weather sealing and longer reach of my SL lenses.  I still love traveling to certain destination with the SL2-S and 24-90 lens.

Sorry for the long winded answer/response.  Short answer to your question is YES :>)

[budjames]

My M11 and APO-Summicron 35mm lens is my complete travel kit and I travel often.

Regards,
Bud James

Please check out my fine art and travel photography at www.budjames.photography.

[maxpower]

I haven't thought about leaving a lens at home with my M11, I actually love the results of it combined with the 90mm APO (I don't have a 135mm or ever used one so can't comment on that). But, I rarely find myself in situations where I want more than 50mm so I don't always bring it with me unless I think I need it. But I'd do that regardless of pixels.

[lct]

Not sure to see the link with 60MP. Is it because the OP crops his pictures that he doesn't need telephotos any more? I  don't crop if i can avoid it personally so i keep the same pleasure in using 90mm and 135mm lenses as with my film Ms from the last century. What did change is i had no EVFs then so i did use my Elmarit 135/2.8 with goggles or the R version of the same lens instead of the 135/3.4 apo that did not exist then and the M11 made me rediscover the superb T-E 135/4 recently.

[Jewl]

That was definitely one selling argument of the M11 for me to not further buy tons of other longer lenses to stick mainly with 35mm! 

 

[lct]

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Could be a selling argument of Q cameras for me but what i like in M cameras is i can choose lenses with different features and characters, be they Leica or not. Matter of tastes as usual

[IMAGEPOWER]

None! I choose my lenses according to the requirements of my subjects. There's absolutely no difference whether the current body is the M11, M10-R, M10 Monochrom or M10-P. I use Leica M lenses from 21mm to 135mm and they all shine on the M11...

[rich_]

The model of digital M hasn't affected which lenses i carry with me. I'm limited by the viewfinder and requirements rather than any kind of sensor delta!

[jakontil]

I dont crop my images, unless for straightening purposes, the extra pixels though might be overkill for some, not my intention to crop my images, so i dont leave what im used to carry when traveling and usually i got a couple of the same focal length just for the looks  

[DadDadDaddyo]

Yeah, I'm with lct and jakontil on this. 

Those megapixels were hard-won.

And we like our Leica lenses in part for their performance in places outside of the center of their field of view; that performance was hard-won as well. 

I try to compose in the finder, to be aware of a tendency I've noticed in which folks use the viewfinder kind of like a gun sight. You can spot this in an instant: a head and shoulders shot with the face exactly centered in the frame....

Framing, exposure, perspective, sure, we can fix it on the computer. But I'd rather spend a moment, when available, to fix this upfront, to make the image I'm intending to make. Saves time and brings an additional element of craft and skill to the original image, its conception and its capture. 

There's a story about pianist Glenn Gould, who was something of a pathfinder in terms of taking advantage of audio editing capabilities to fix his recordings: grab a passage from this take, a few bars from that take, to assemble a final version as close to perfect as possible. 

In the story he and his producer are listening to one of these composite recordings and the producer says, "Man, that sounds great, Glenn. Don't you wish you could play like that?"

[acalmplace]

I do carry fewer lenses, or decide not to switch lenses at times because I know I have plenty of room to crop. To be clear, cropping is not the goal, but it makes the M11 a more flexible camera (for my use cases).

If I take a vertical crop of an horizontal frame, I get as many pixels as with my previous camera. That was one extra point for getting the M11 as I prefer (need to) to carry fewer things (that and no charger and no extra battery).

[IkarusJohn]

Not a cropper either.

Instead of the M11, I’ve gone for the X2D, with one lens - the XCD 38/2.5V.  The X2D has effectively the same sensor as the M11, but in medium format size (100MP BSI also with 3.76µ pixel pitch) and with IBIS, great colour, in camera USB-C charging, 1TB of internal storage and the best body form currently available.  So, with the same pixel pitch as the M11, I gain a bit with IBIS (I hope).  ,

As for one lens, the 38mm has the same field of view as 30mm in 135 format, which is useful.  I will just need to move my feet!  As time passes, I may add a wide (21mm), standard (55) or short tele (90) and telephoto (135 & tele-converter).  I will probably stick with the V lenses, but at this stage, I’m giving one focal length a try.

[SJH]

Yes with my M11 I’ve found that I need to take fewer lenses if I’m traveling light e.g. with the 1.3 and 1.8 crops the 21mm SEM becomes a c27mm and c38mm  and the 60mb can easily cope. Depending where I am I’ll now take say the 21 and a 50 APO or my 35 APO and 75. The 35 & 75 combo easily gives me 35, c46, c63, 75, c97 and c135 - all with plenty of headroom on the 60mb sensor. 

Now don’t get me wrong if I carry the 35 & 75 I’m not changing back and forth crop wise so it’s more a great thing to fall back on and means I don’t need to say bring a third lens with me. If you’re out hiking say and take the new Visoflex then it also means you can go ‘very long’ if you need to - say c240 with the 135 if you need to.

[LanceR]

The way I would describe  it for me personally is that I have always travelled with one camera and one lens, it is just now I find more flexibility.

I completely agree with lenses having different character and matching the lens for the subject.  I currently have four M system lenses.

My personal exception is travel.  I was originally attracted to the M system because of the size and rangefinder shooting experience.  When I travel, I like to be as lightweight and discrete as possible.

I recently acquired the Voitlander 35mm APO Lanther and I am traveling with it and my M11 as I write.  Would I prefer the the Leica 35mm APO, sure, but it is not available and the cost is significant. 

Most photos I compose as I expect to use them, but some I compose with the intent of cropping, given the "fixed" 35mm focal length.  With the edge to edge sharpness of the Lanther, combined with the outstanding 60mp sensor in the M11, the results are amazingly flexible for me.  Candidly, I have been surprised at the detail captured in some of the crops from the above combination.

Photography for me is a hobby so I do not seek commercialization or awards for my photos.  As a result, the 60mp is honestly overkill for me personally, so cropping still yields resolutions that are way more than adequate for how I use my photos.

 

 

[ianforber]

I can’t remember a picture that I hadn’t cropped, often very significantly and one of the reasons I bought the M11 was to enhance the cropability. I only have 2 lenses though (35 mm and 50mm) and only ever carry one with me so I suspect I’m not the best comparator here. My intention was always to buy the 90mm f4 Elmar and take that with one of the other lenses (most likely the 35mm) as a travel companion but I’m wondering now whether to just take the 50mm and compromise on wide and tele lengths. Choices, choices…

[dennersten]

Interesting, it's both camps here. I have trimmed down my equipment to 35-70. And feel it heavenly that I can relax and trust that I can crop if needed. 

[jto555]

To answer the OP's question.

 

No!

[LikameLeica]

On 8/13/2023 at 4:27 PM, LanceR said:

The way I would describe  it for me personally is that I have always travelled with one camera and one lens, it is just now I find more flexibility.

I completely agree with lenses having different character and matching the lens for the subject.  I currently have four M system lenses.

My personal exception is travel.  I was originally attracted to the M system because of the size and rangefinder shooting experience.  When I travel, I like to be as lightweight and discrete as possible.

I recently acquired the Voitlander 35mm APO Lanther and I am traveling with it and my M11 as I write.  Would I prefer the the Leica 35mm APO, sure, but it is not available and the cost is significant. 

Most photos I compose as I expect to use them, but some I compose with the intent of cropping, given the "fixed" 35mm focal length.  With the edge to edge sharpness of the Lanther, combined with the outstanding 60mp sensor in the M11, the results are amazingly flexible for me.  Candidly, I have been surprised at the detail captured in some of the crops from the above combination.

Photography for me is a hobby so I do not seek commercialization or awards for my photos.  As a result, the 60mp is honestly overkill for me personally, so cropping still yields resolutions that are way more than adequate for how I use my photos.

Couldn't agree more with this response and the benefit of having both the ability to travel lightweight when desired, but also have the flexibility to change out and use a different focal length lens when wanting the different look and experience with different focal lengths.  Cropping to me is one of the benefits of having 60mp and I find myself often taking pictures with my 35M with the intent to crop in post edit, while still maintaining plenty of resolution.  There are other times that I take the picture with the intent of using the entire frame without a crop.  No shame for me in using post editing techniques (including cropping) as part of my artistic efforts.  If I was required to make a decision on one lens with the M11, it would be the 35 Summilux due to the complete flexibility it provides (wide enough focal length, incredible image quality, low light capability, light weight, and ability to crop with the 60MP resolution).  This means I can crop to equivalent of 90 focal length and still get almost the same resolution at the 24MP on Leica SL2-S.

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[ianforber]

20 minutes ago, Multicoated said:

Me too! We should hang out. 

I know which lens to use depending on where I’m going. If there’s plenty of room then 50mm it is. Most of the time. If it’s intimate/family/not enough room/going to photograph big things like architecture as part of the pictures then I take the 35mm. 

Pretty simple.

I’m at 40MP. I only crop to straighten or slightly to fix something, but I never shoot anything with the intention of cropping later. I shoot it right from the start. 

I usually shoot with the expectation of cropping rather than the intention, but my expectations always come true! For example, I was in Covent Garden in London yesterday and saw several things that I thought might make a good picture, but with masses of tourists around I shot expecting to crop. I haven’t process the images yet and it’s possible that an image will work better without being cropped once I see it on screen. I doubt it though!