Leica M11-L for left-eye shooters ...

[hoolyproductions]

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58 minutes ago, Datsch said:

only suitable for left handed, left-eye dominant photographers.

I would suggest that the market would be even smaller = the above group who have not already developed muscle memory to do it with a 'normal' M 😀 

I would not be interested, and think also of the "second hand" market - pun intended!

[jakontil]

1 hour ago, Datsch said:

Many thanks for all your comments on this design.

I agree with @maxpower and @jakontil and @Warton and @Anbaric and @hoolyproductions

Yes, I think the -L camera has to be held left handed -- otherwise the shutter button would have to sit on top of the viewfinder and I don't think there's room for that. Also if both viewfinder and shutter button were on the right your right hand would be in your face and your thumb against your mouth, a bit weird (try it)

Yes I think many left eye shooters are right handed. I don't think dominant eye has much to do with dominant hand.

So this -L I have drawn in the OP is probably only suitable for left handed, left-eye dominant photographers. How many such people are there? Perhaps half of the left-handed people so 5% say? Still enough of a market to warrant a special limited edition camera? Actually I don't now find shutter release with left finger and focusing with right finger to be that odd. So maybe some lefteye-righthanders would also like this -L

Personally I am left-eyed but have been shooting my M-D with my right eye for non critical focusing --- and it's not so hard to get used to -- anything with infinity focus, like a landscape, no problem, obviously. Anything more than 5 or even 3 metres away or with widers lenses (28, 35) the rangefinder patch does not have to be perfect and images are still fine. Well worth a bit of perseverance. Becoming ambidextrious / ambioptic? can be handy.

And I like what @Anbaric says, that there are benefits to shooting left-eyed, especially bracing against the face for stability ...

 

 

 

 

Weird though, when first time i shot RF, my stonger eye was left, and adapting to SLR style was no problem for mE, this happened my entire life shooting before mirrorless era, this i mean like sony came to market with its A7 series

then i went back with RF, notably M240, somehow i forgot my way through the RF, left eye was still strong but when i started the M10 era, i realised the viewfinder was more comfortable with my right eye which happened to be the weaker side since i never tried that before and had to adjust and adapt to it

morale of story, anything leica throws at me, i’d just adapt to it 😂 

[pgk]

On 1/7/2024 at 6:39 PM, Anbaric said:

Here Leica explains the 'professional' way to hold an M4 in portrait mode, naturally with the left eye.

Surely this is wrong. Its not a 'professional', black camera.

[pippy]

I remember reading that back in the 2016 Westlicht Auction one of the lots was a left-handed 'Leica 1 Model A'.

OK; in reality it was created sometime in the 1980s based, in part, on a Soviet-made copy but with (probably) some genuine Leica fittings;

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Mechanically-speaking it really did work. Quite an amazing bit of engineering but I'm not entirely sure how any film cassette would fit properly as its internals would all have to work 'the wrong way 'round'. Perhaps the person who purchased the camera is here and could reveal all?...

Very nice conversation-piece!

Philip.

Edited January 16, 2024 by pippy

[charlesphoto99]

3 hours ago, Datsch said:

Still enough of a market to warrant a special limited edition camera?

 

 

 

 

Keep in mind Leica would have to retool the entire camera, which would be a largely expensive undertaking, making new metal casts, swapping parts to work left to right, etc. They would have to find not only the market for a small percentage of left handed shooters, but within that market find those willing to spend a premium of 2-5X (just spitballing) for a body in order to cover the retooling costs. No doubt sometime in the last seventy years of M's somebody in the company ran the numbers and realized it wasn't financially feasible. 

[Datsch]

2 hours ago, pippy said:

I remember reading that back in the 2016 Westlicht Auction one of the lots was a left-handed 'Leica 1 Model A'.

Fascinating!

Looks almost like the top plate was simply rotated 180 degrees and the viewfinder then bolted on backwards ...

... but not quite, as the shutter release button is on the rear face in both left and rigth handed designs ...

 

[Datsch]

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And I've just found the ML 240 design from 2015 (I didn't do any research before drawing mine, obviously ..🙃)

https://nodalpoint.weebly.com/blog/new-leica-lefty-ml-240

It features the all-important left-handed cleaning cloth as well ...

[pippy]

18 minutes ago, Datsch said:

Fascinating!...Looks almost like the top plate was simply rotated 180 degrees and the viewfinder then bolted on backwards...but not quite, as the shutter release button is on the rear face in both left and rigth handed designs...

It is rather fascinating and, clearly, was someone's Labour of Love.

Hardly rocket science for the most part as the location of all of the body's internals would 'simply' need to be reversed but at the same time this would involve a considerable amount of re-manufacturing for such parts as the film advance / rewind let alone the shutter-speed assembly. The lens is similarly remarkable in that not only is the focussing helicoid reversed the aperture diaphragm is also reversed in terms of its operational directions.

Astonishing piece of work!

14 minutes ago, Datsch said:

And I've just found the ML 240 design from 2015 (I didn't do any research before drawing mine, obviously ..🙃)

https://nodalpoint.weebly.com/blog/new-leica-lefty-ml-240

It features the all-important left-handed cleaning cloth as well ...

😸

A very special model released, I notice, on the 1st of April that year...

😸

Philip.

[FlashGordonPhotography]

It's not impossible to train to shoot with the right eye. I did for M's although I'm left eye dominant and still shoot other cameras left eyed.

Gordon