Hello from Buenos Aires

[Thaddeus]

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Greetings all. First post here.

Back in the 70s my Dad would let me borrow his early 60s era M3. I loved it. I now own that camera, along with the 50mm Summicron lens that came with it. Still works great. Pop took good care of it. But I can't do film as my main medium. Maybe sometimes, but I need digital too. 

So I did some reasearch and decided on a Fujifilm XT-30 as a good, fairly inexpensive place to start getting back into photography. It does alright, but I can't stand all the menus, options, AF, bells and whistles and menus. And the pics, while decent, have no soul. Probably the operator. 

In any case, I've decided I need a camera as close as possible to the M3 - only digital. Parameters: must accept that Summicron lens. No complicated menus please. Simple as simple can be. Thanks for any suggestions.

- Thad

 

 

[Thaddeus]

Thanks Al. I should've mentioned that I'm partial to the rangefinder. So that limits the range of choices. The M10D is one I had been looking at. But there don't seem to be many available. M10P? M11? 

And then there's the monochrome thing. When I was using that M3 in the 70s, it was all black and white. That's what I like. But all the time?

 

[dpitt]

The cheapest FF digital M to got into digital now is the M240. Although the M8 with a cropped 1,37 sensor is a bit cheaper still.
Both accept the M lenses and will use them as designed.

If you are partial to rangefinders, then The Leica SL with a simple third party adapter L-M will be very good. It is designed to work great with M lenses, even the wide ones. And you can set the profile in the camera to even improve the results. The menu and layouts are very simple. If that is too expensive or too complex, then have a look at the Leica TL or TL2. The CL is in the same price range of the SL, but more compact. With the T series there is a crop factor or 1,5.

All other mirrorless FF camera's will accept the Summicron 50 and will work reasonably well. They all look more complicated to use than the options above, but they will work with the longer M lenses reasonably well. I doubt the experience will be similar to the M3 though.

[Thaddeus]

Thanks for the info @dpitt. I've made the purchase. And it contradicts, ignores, thumbs its nose at just about everything I said in the original post. I sprang for the Q2 monchrom. My search for an M body will continue, eventually. But I had no idea the Q2 or the Q2 monochrome even existed (I live under a rock). Once I saw that thing, with the Summilux 28, form factor for street photography, I was a goner. But thanks again for your suggestions.