I love my M10 in 2023

[JoshuaR]

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For as long as I’ve been into digital photography I’ve always owned the newest cameras. When the Fuji X100F came out, I upgraded, and then I upgraded to the X100V when it arrived. Same with the X-Pro series (I went from 2 to 3) and the Ricoh GR series (I owned the original GR Digital, and then the GR, GR II, and GR III).

Owning the M10, it’s the first time I’ve had a camera that’s not one but two generations behind what’s current (three generations, if you count the M10-P). If Leica updated its cameras with the same frequency as Fuji, then perhaps the M10 would be six generations behind, since it came out in 2017 and it’s now 2023. From time to time, I get unnerved by the existence of the M10-P, M10-R, and M11, and I go through a cycle of upgrade research. Surely my camera is old and I would benefit from one of the newer models! (The quiet shutter of the M10-P and -R is particularly appealing.)

But I’m an hobbyist with straightforward needs, and I always come back to the fact that when I look at my M10 pictures I’m not just pleased but wowed. I don’t doubt at all that the newer cameras offer valuable features, but the truth is that the M10 pictures themselves continue to amaze me. Meanwhile, the experience of using the M10 is exactly concordat with the experience of using my MP. And the price of my M10 was so low—I got mine a few years ago for less than $4k—that upgrading it at this point almost involves paying for the camera a second time. I always end up concluding that I’d be better off buying a new lens—I just bought a used 21 SEM instead of upgrading—or going on a trip with my family.

Really, I just want to say, Way to go, Leica. I think their overall strategy with the M cameras—keeping them simple, not adding unnecessary features, and just incrementally improving the technology while keeping the core experience consistent over time—has really paid off. (At least it’s paid off for me; I’m not sure about them. I’ve never bought anything new from Leica.) My M10 will continue to age and eventually it will fail, but using it, I sense no obsolescence at all.

Edited August 16, 2023 by JoshuaRothman

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[Almizilero]

I only got my M10 in 2023, but yeah, it's a lovely camera! When I bought it I checked the used prices and differences of the M10, M10-P, M10-R and M11 and came to the conclusion that the M10 offered me the best value for money. Yes, the newer cameras have some great features (and I would love to have the quiet shutter) but I don't need/want the increased pixel count of the M10-R or the M11 and the extra cost of the M10-P over the M10 is just not worth it for my needs.

[Darrell]

Every time I see a new improved Leica come out I get anxious, but then I go back and look at the images from my M10 and realize that for the first time in my life I have a camera that is NOT becoming obsolete. The M10 is still amazing after all these years.

[fotografr]

Blasphemers! Are you trying to make Leica AG go broke? 

[timo01]

love my m10 too! (despite defective thumbwheel)

My first Leica was the M8, then the Q2 and for over a year now the M10! Best camera I’ve ever had

[fotografr]

1 hour ago, timo01 said:

love my m10 too! (despite defective thumbwheel)

My first Leica was the M8, then the Q2 and for over a year now the M10! Best camera I’ve ever had

Oskar just rolled over in his grave. Don't you guys know this forum is for pixel peepers who simply must have the latest and greatest? 

(PS--Very nice Instagram photos. How is it possible to do such high quality work with out-of-date equipment?)

 

Edited August 16, 2023 by fotografr

[RexGig0]

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The M10 is a love-able camera! 🙂 enjoy! 

I remain content with the M10, in 2023. I did buy mine new, in April 2018, when the local Leica dealer had just finally finished fulfilling their waiting list for new M10 cameras, which had been introduced over a year earlier, in January 2017. I had decided to buy a pre-owned, well-preserved Summilux-M 50mm ASPH, after trying it on pre-owned and demonstrator M9 and M Type 246 cameras. When I told the employee that I would buy the lens, I did not yet know which M camera I would buy, and did not yet know that I would be buying an M camera that same day. When I was told that it had just finally become possible to buy a new M10, without waiting, and was offered the opportunity to try my Summilux on an M10, it was natural to accept the opportunity, especially because the M10 offered a better shooting experience for people, like me, who wear eyeglasses.

So, it quickly became apparent that the M10 offered a much better viewfinder experience than previous digital M cameras. Pre-owned M10 cameras were still quite rare birds, themselves. The dealer, Houston Camera exchange, had just two new M10 cameras available, with no predictable way to know when more would be delivered. I “crunched” the numbers, and decided to scuttle plans for a long-term goal to buy a “super telephoto” lens, which freed my budget to add a new M10. Coincidentally, a shoulder injury, the previous year, had caused me to postpone buying the “super telephoto” lens. (600mm f/4 and 400mm f/2.8 SLR/DSLR lenses are brutally heavy.)

Notably, 2018 was a uniquely good year, financially, thanks to a one-time, modest post-retirement windfall. That M10 may well be the only Leica M camera that I buy new. (2018 was also the year that my wife and I upgraded/refreshed our DSLR cameras, as we shifted to photographing wildlife and birds. Our careers had been in public service, during which our photography had been evidentiary/forensic/documentary, at crime and death scenes. In retirement, we needed a change!)

In 2016, when Canon EOS EF was my primary camera system, I had learned that I did not “need” the 50MP of the Canon 5Ds R*. I have actually shot most of my bird and wildlife images with 12MP, 16MP, and 20MP cameras. Our 16MP and 20MP Nikon D4s and D5 cameras still seem ample for that task. This has helped to resist any urge to “upgrade” to the 40MP and 60MP Leica cameras. (My wife is the much more-senior photographer, the mentor who guided my early path into using SLR cameras. Her only system is Nikon, so, I continue to use DSLRs, for some types of shooting.)

The quieter shutter, first available in the M10-P, would be a nice to use, but, the original M10 shutter is already noticeably quiet and unobtrusive.

I am not saying that I will never buy an M10-P, M10-R, M10 Monochrom, M11, or other future M camera. There is simply no rush, in my personal case.

*I only photographed one crime scene, with the 50MP 5Ds R. Its huge files were a serious challenge for my employer’s computer system. I then continued using my 7D Mark II cameras, while on duty, until I retired. (Photographing crime scenes, and crime victims, as part of my job, does not mean that I am any kind of expert in other areas and genres of photography, and it certainly does not qualify me as creative or artistic.)

[grahamc]

I was just thinking the same yesterday about my M10 (D).  I love it ! 

The images are really pleasing to me I'm not sure what I'd gain with an 'upgrade', especially for the style of photos I'm taking.  Although I've never shot 10R or 11 so can't know for sure 

Edited August 17, 2023 by grahamc

[RexGig0]

Buying pre-owned, as mentioned in the original post, is quite sensible. As mentioned in my earlier reply post, I started Leica M photography with a pre-owned Summilux-M 50mm ASPH. I saw it as “starting at the top,” and still do. After five years of accumulating several more pre-owned Leica M lenses, last month I finally allowed myself to buy my first new Leica M lens, the Steel Rim Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 “Re-Issue,” which is relatively “inexpensive,” for a “fast” M lens. I will probably be selling at least two items, from another hobby/pastime that I am down-sizing, plus a lens or two, to help settle my budget. This lens may well be the only Leica M lens that I ever buy new.

Before I added the Leica M system, it was normal for my wife and I to buy pre-owned SLR and DSLR cameras, and especially to buy pre-owned SLR/DSLR lenses. I actually favored buying pre-owned lenses, regardless of the lower cost, because I could make sure that everything worked well, including auto-focus accuracy and compatibility with my cameras. 

I would also take favored lenses with me, when trying a prospective pre-owned camera. (Lenses are more-permanent than camera bodies.) Obviously, we were not doing this at a department or electronics store, but at true camera stores, which cater to serious photographers. Sadly, one of these stores no longer exists. The other, Houston Camera Exchange, in Texas, a Leica dealer, remains viable, thankfully.  

I may not be able to buy many Leica products as new items, but sales of pre-owned items can help support the local camera store(s). Trading and selling my pre-owned items also helps the local camera store, as they can earn money when they re-sell the items.

[Darrell]

15 hours ago, fotografr said:

Blasphemers! Are you trying to make Leica AG go broke? 

No, they’re getting rich from my lens purchases! 😔

[overexposed]

And I love my Contax 645  with Phase One P65+ in 2023

 

besides my Leica M10M and M10R

[newtoleica]

Another very happy M10-P user here. Bought used. I got it over the 10 as I wanted the quieter shutter for my street photography and I prefer the subtle design without a red dot.

It's great at what it does. It's not great for shooting with an EVF, but I use it as a rangefinder. If it broke I would get another one. Whenever I think I should upgrade I realise its because I'm trying to make it do something its not designed for, and something that actually won't help my photography either.

[erniethemilk]

I’m coming up 4 years next month with my M10-P & love it just as much today as the day I bought it. Probably more so now as I understand it more now than I did then. 

I have other systems such as the Nikon Z7ii which really kicks out some amazing images quality wise, but it’s as dull as ditch water to use. 

I’ve looked on at other M series cameras (specifically the M10-M) but my M10-P will always be with me - I couldn’t bring myself to trade it for another M.

I plan on using it until either it dies or I do.  😂

[ggweci]

8 hours ago, Multicoated said:

“I’ve always owned the newest cameras.”

You have to let go of this pointless consumerism.
...

Frankly I find the whole topic of cameras insufferable now. I have no desire to know what’s the latest thing from any manufacturer. I’m more interested in lenses. 

...

Sensor metering? I don’t need it. I know how to work with the one I have now. 

bigger battery? I don’t need it, I have an extra one in my pocket,

more pixels? I don’t need them 

aluminum? No thanks I like brass.

USB-C? Don’t need that either. 
 

You seem to know a lot about the latest M camera...

But, I do agree, particularly with the M cameras that you don't need to latest and greatest, since most of the experience is the RF and manual lenses.  The IQ has been great a long time ago.

Having said that... I'm looking for an M10 to replace my M240.  But, not for IQ reasons though.

 

[hepcat]

Another fascinating thread.  I had an M8 black paint anti-panda and an M9-P.  I liked both of them.  The color output from the M9-P's CCD sensor was to die for, and the 18mp were adequate for any job I had for it... unfortunately it never "felt" quite like a film M, and for reasons unknown to me, I got to a point with my eyesight that i could no longer see the focusing patch well enough to critically focus.  It became apparent to me by 2013 that I needed to return to SLRs with better focusing aids, so I sold all my M Leica kit.   As a young aspiring photographer in the early 1970s, my first serious camera was a 1953 Canon IIF with four exceptional Canon LTM lenses.  About a year and a half ago, a good friend gifted me a freshly overhauled Canon IVSB and two lenses.  As my first IIF had been stolen in 1975, and I had carried it's accessories (lenses long sold) around for some fifty years, I reunited them with the IVSB and then more beautiful chromed brass "Canon Lens" and Serenars began appearing on the shelf along with three more bodies including another IIF.  There are now some 14 LTM lenses in that stable.  Another good friend convinced me to pick up an M3, reminding me that the finder is very different from the early digitals and even from the M4-P I had.  To my amazement, I could focus the M3 quite nicely, and an M5 followed.  Both the M3 and M5 came with Summicrons (the M3, a DR and the M5 a v.3) but the 1950s Canon lenses round out the stable... particularly the 35mm f/2.8 and 85mm f/1.9.  

On to the point:  a month or two ago, I found a chrome low-click M10-P at a bargain basement price from a seller on fredmiranda.com and picked it up.  It is what the M8, M9, and M240s all should have been.  It feels and handles like a film M.  The shutter sound is so delightful, it almost makes me want to click away just to hear it.  And the output of the new sensor is just as gorgeous as the M9's CCD.  It handles mixed light sources as elegantly as the M9 did.  24 mp is perfect.  Not too large for storage and manipulating, but large enough for any purpose I'll ever have for it.   And, for whatever reason, the focusing patch is useable for my eyesight.  I don't know if Leica changed the implementation, or my eyesight changed again in the ensuing ten years or what, but I can focus it easily.    It is, in my estimation, the pinnacle of digital Leica design for those of us who don't need a Phase One XF and IQ150 150 mp back.*    And those old Canon chromed brass 1950s lenses continue to render spectacularly on the M10-P.  Despite having two superb 50mm Summicrons, I have the 1952 Canon Serenar 50mm f/1.5 Sonnar design on the camera at the moment.   I love the rendering of that old glass.   Unfortunately for Leica, I don't believe that clinical sharpness is all it's cracked up to be, and I really have little interest in "modern" glass on these bodies.   I have a Lumix S1 and S5 and a couple of ultra sharp modern lenses for them, but they usually see either Leica R lenses or Konica Hexanon glass used most often.  This M10-P is a keeper.

*   I moved to Phase One Df and XF bodies with a Leaf Credo 40mp digital back for nearly ten years after I sold my M8 and M9-P.   I sold the Phase One gear a year and a half ago for the Lumix IBIS bodies to take advantage of the Leica R lenses I have. 

[Jeff S]

On 8/18/2023 at 9:30 AM, Multicoated said:

One of the upgrades for the Leica M10’s and beyond was a viewfinder upgrade. Bigger and easier to focus. It’s also a 0.72x magnification instead of 0.68x. I love my M10R Black Paint and I wouldn’t change it for anything. But if it wasn’t for that bad sensor I would still have my M10P. It was lovely. 

.73x magnification, larger diameter VF opening and better eye relief.

Jeff

[WvE]

I don't think the M10 sensor is that bad. Sure it has its limitations but it produces wonderful images in my opinion.   

[Al Brown]

The M10 is only 6 years old, we talk about it as if it is 25 or more lol...

Anyway, mine has a firm place next to my M10-R (which I consider definitely a better camera sensor for extreme pushing of capabilities). We share hotel rooms, plane seats and Uber rides. She performs well under pressure. Two digital and two film bodies is my absolute ownership maximum and there is no room for M11 atm.
 

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Edited August 22, 2023 by Al Brown

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[Torpille]

Am 22.8.2023 um 16:23 schrieb Al Brown:

The M10 is only 6 years old, we talk about it as if it is 25 or more lol...

Anyway, mine has a firm place next to my M10-R (which I consider definitely a better camera sensor for extreme pushing of capabilities). We share hotel rooms, plane seats and Uber rides. She performs well under pressure. Two digital and two film bodies is my absolute ownership maximum and there is no room for M11 atm.
 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

@AL Brown, can you tell me which strap is on this photo please?
it's exactly the one I want to replace mine.

My M10 has been with me since 2018, it's definitely a camera to keep over time and one that inspires me and always makes me want to take a camera with me.

It occasionally gives way to the CL (my mini M10), but I don't see any weaknesses. 

The photos are beautiful. DNGs require very little adjustment.

An elmarit 28mm asph works wonders on this camera. 
A 35 FLE gives exceptional character to the images...
A 50 summicron is also perfect. 

I love the M10:)

 

[Al Brown]

4 minutes ago, Torpille said:

@AL Brown, can you tell me which strap is on this photo please?
it's exactly the one I want to replace mine.

My M10 has been with me since 2018, it's definitely a camera to keep over time and one that inspires me and always makes me want to take a camera with me.

It occasionally gives way to the CL (my mini M10), but I don't see any weaknesses. 

The photos are beautiful. DNGs require very little adjustment.

An elmarit 28mm asph works wonders on this camera. 
A 35 FLE gives exceptional character to the images...
A 50 summicron is also perfect. 

I love the M10:)

 

Absolutely. It is the Hyperion hand made leather strap from Greece. https://www.hyperioncamerastraps.com/products/real-pull-up-waxed-leather-strap-grey.

You can get them directly from the website or from Etsy. Write to the owner @Pavlos Koutsoukos and he might give you a few % off... A great savvy guy who really appreciates a cool loking Leica with his strap! Love Hyperion straps, their price/performance is awesome and they are so well made...