Taboo topic?

[Olaf_ZG]

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A SL for weatherproof and the telezoom, a rolleiflex for film. A phone for notes.

[-ph-]

My companion to my M is Olympus/OMDS mFT. If at the time of the M9 the system had offered a good set of primes, I might have not gone with the M. I want my gear to be as small as possible. This is why the M is my only 35mm camera. I got it because of the great and small prime lenses. For the things the M can't do (AF, zoom, long tele lenses) I use my mFT gear.

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[sebben]

Leica S 007

[jakontil]

Is M film bodies considered? Usually i’d take ‘em too and now adding X2D

[GFW2-SCUSA]

1. SL2 and CL since both will take my M lenses. I find it easier on my old brain to stick with one brand. Years ago I did also use various Nikons for professional work. 

[adan]

11 hours ago, julianf73 said:

I'm curious: what do you guys use as a companion to the Leica M?

For anything longer than 21-135mm, a Fujifilm XT-2 with a 70-300 Fuji zoom (effective 105-450mm fields of view). Have not actually used it much at all yet, but it is a "security blanket" in case I feel the need to do any more sports or wildlife or similar. As was its predecessor, a (much heavier) Canon 5DII with 400mm prime lens.

Rolleiflex F2.8 and Hasselblad SWC for 6x6 square film pictures.

Don't do 'phone photography at all. I use the Ms for everything (including copying documents and other chores). Helps them earn their keep. 😁 And faster and more convenient than swapping my flatbed scanner over from film to paper mode and back.

[Crem]

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Sony A7C and an Olympus XA. 

[Studienkamera]

A rarely used Nikon D500.

[newtoleica]

12 hours ago, -ph- said:

My companion to my M is Olympus/OMDS mFT. If at the time of the M9 the system had offered a good set of primes, I might have not gone with the M. I want my gear to be as small as possible. This is why the M is my only 35mm camera. I got it because of the great and small prime lenses. For the things the M can't do (AF, zoom, long tele lenses) I use my mFT gear.

I've used a lot of Olympus stuff over the years as I spent 40 years using the old OM system with film, either as a primary system or a secondary one. I sold the last OM stuff bar an OM1 nine months ago to fund more Leica gear. The problem with mFT is that its the 5th iteration of a non-compatible system from Olympus (FT, OM, bridge digitals, 4:3, m4:3) and I prefer the rendering of 35mm to 4:3. There are some decent prime lenses though. I had reliability issues with 4:3 cameras so went to a Nikon D3 for a bit, which was replaced by an M9. the 'OM system' as it is now though is a good alternative for a light 'long reach' in particular. I often recommend it to friends and would suggest it to my daughter if she wasn't so keen on shooting film with the old OM1

[muskyvibes]

17 hours ago, julianf73 said:

This might be grounds for getting expelled from here, but I'm curious: what do you guys use as a companion to the Leica M? Any modern high-tech Canon/Nikon/Sony/Hasselblad/etc for those situations where the M won't cut it?

Disclaimer: I've been a stubborn M user for over 25 years. The last time I had a different camera system was a Minolta SLR in the late 90's 😀

But sometimes I do feel that it would be nice to have an AF/IS/Video/zoom/close-focus/fancy-schmancy camera as well. Would it stir up the creativity a little more, or would it collect dust?

Don't kill me, Leica Gods 😇

I shoot the Leica M precisely because I don’t want to shoot any of those cameras.  I only own 1 camera. My M. 

My creativity is stirred up by the subject I shoot.

Not sure where my Leica M can’t cut it. Ultimately it is up to me to get the shot, not up to the camera. 

Edited December 12, 2023 by muskyvibes

[JoshuaRothman]

I'm in the market for such a system.

What I have now is a Q2. But it's too similar to my digital Ms. The main upside is a little bit of weather sealing.

What I want is an SL2-S. For me, it would probably be an SL2-S, the Sigma 24mm and 45mm primes, and some Sigma zooms. But it's so expensive, even without Leica glass! When I look at the price tag, I think, Why not just upgrade my M10 to an M11?

Another option is the new Nikon Zf. With the 40mm f/2 pancake and the 24-70 f/4 zoom, then a tele-zoom later on. But then I think: Why buy another system just to replicate the focal lengths I have with my Ms?

Edited December 12, 2023 by JoshuaRothman

[PhoToad]

Olympus mFT (OM-D E-M1, E-M10 II).

[mujk]

A Canon DSLR system, consisting of EOS 5DSR, EOS 7D, a total of ten EF lenses ranging from 17 to 600mm, flashguns. My main cameras are the M10 and the EOS 5DSR, used for different purposes, with the M9 and EOS 7D as backups. For video a Canon M5 (EF-M mount), mostly with adapted EF lenses. 

Edited December 12, 2023 by mujk

[irenedp]

Phase One IQ4, Leica S2 and .S3, M10r, Nikon D850 -for work-. And an M9 P and a Lumix LX100 for personal use. 

[Deejaybeephoto]

Ricoh GR3x.  Amazing camera for street.

[Reciprocity]

I love my Leica system, but compared to my main systems and the ones I do my best work on, it is still small and will always remain that way. 

The Nikon Z system and Hasselblad X2D system are my main rigs for digital work...

[muskyvibes]

-

Edited December 14, 2023 by muskyvibes

[WvE]

Recently got a discounted SL2-s (with 50mm Summicron non-apo) to accompany my M10-P. It's a beautifully made camera. Sure, not better than the competition out there but I like to stay in the Leica system (look and feel). The EVF is wonderful. I just hope it will not shelf my M10-P...  

[RexGig0]

Canon EOS DSLRs were my primary system from 2010 until 2018. Because the Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro L lens is so good, and because the Macro Ring Lite flash is so useful, I will still use a Canon 7D Mark II, 5Ds R, or 5D Mark IV camera for macro shooting. The GPS built into the 5D Mark IV is useful when it is desirable for the image files to have location data embedded, especially if I want to use flash and GPS at the same time. 

My wife became devoted to the Nikon system shortly before I started using Canon, when she really liked her employer-issued D300s camera. It makes economic sense to share Nikon lenses and Speedlight flash units, so, I gradually added Nikon SLRs and then DSLRs. I finally bought my first new Nikon DSLR, a D5, in very early 2018, about two months before I added the Leica M system. The D5 was, at the time, Nikon’s top-tier sports/action/bird/wildlife camera. My wife and I added Nikon D850 cameras, that same year; 2018 was when I received a one-time financial blessing that enables us to do this. Nature/wildlife/bird/plant/fungi photography is important in the “citizen scientist” role, which is especially important for my wife’s volunteer naturalist activities. 

Notably, the Nikon D5 is a high-performance, low-light beast. 

I am largely equipped to shoot “head shot” images, with my Canon kit, so had, for a time, considered that as a potential self-employment, after retiring from police service, but,  one of my specialized duties had been photographing crime victims, especially traumatized victims of domestic/family violence, so, wanting to avoid the post-traumatic stress, I have yet to pursue that idea.

I have, recently, been assessing my SLR/DSLR lenses, for potential “down-sizing,” especially the longer, heavier lenses, which we use less, as we age, and because our nature photography trends toward close-range and macro.

 

Edited December 14, 2023 by RexGig0

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[RexGig0]

To elaborate a bit on the macro and close-range aspect, the practice of “action” shooting at close-range does exist. I first realized this after acquiring my pair of Canon 7D Mark II cameras, in late 2014. I had the added duty of photographing living, breathing assault victims, who, by definition, are not static subjects. Often, I did this hand-held, which meant my camera was not static, either*. By using the AI Servo setting for auto-focus, which is more often associated with sports and bird/wildlife photography, combined with the amazing “Hybrid AF” technology in my then-latest-version Canon Macro “L” lenses, which had been introduced in 2008 or 2009. For a brief moment in time, Canon’s 2014 7D Mark II camera, though a “semi-pro” model, with an APS-C sensor, could do some things that Canon flagship 1D X cameras could not yet do. Action shooting at macro and near-macro distance had become a feasible reality, for my shooting.

I had, previously, had to “focus bracket,” firing the shutter multiple times, to finally get one or more good images. This could frustrate me, or my subjects. The AF improvements made my job SO much more efficient.

Then, in 2016, Nikon introduced much-improved AF, in the D5 and D500 cameras, followed by the D850 camera in D850.

So, when I need high-performance AF, for fast-moving wild things, Leica M is not a best candidate for the task. Thankfully, I no longer photograph crime victims, but photographing insects and other wee beasties, in their habitats, especially for such tasks as species identification and counting, requires serious macro capability, which is also not a strength of the the Leica M system.

I could, of course, use an adapter to affix some of our Micro-Nikkor lenses, which have manual aperture rings, to a Leica M camera, for macro and close-range subjects that do not require AF. It is not that Leica M cameras, themselves, cannot be used for serious macro photography, of static subjects.

Importantly, however, I added the Leica M system because I wanted to be creative, with “character” lenses, especially 50mm and 35mm Summilux lenses, and loved the idea of using a rangefinder to very deliberately manually focus. Being scientifically and technically “perfect” is not something I want to do with M cameras. Someday, I might be able to work a meaningful amount of creativity into my shooting.