Leica M11-D Review by Jonathan Slack

[M11 for me]

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vor 2 Stunden schrieb M Street Photographer:

When using the Visoflex 2, focus peaking is always activated

No, you can set this by pressing the function key on top of the camera. Have a try.

[elmars]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb maxpower:

One thing that I'm wondering is about the ISO dial though, what material is it made of? It kind of felt like plastic to me, but could not find any specifications on that and they didn't seem to know either.

It is not plastic it is metal. Jono says it is stainless steel.

[M11 for me]

vor 10 Minuten schrieb elmars:

It is not plastic it is metal. Jono says it is stainless steel.

Yes indeed. And there is actually a very simple trick to find that out. But I will not reveal that here. 

[charlesphoto99]

2 hours ago, Derbyshire Man said:

Man with three cameras criticises man with four 🤣

I do know what you mean though always worth keeping in mind.

I wrote that fully aware of the hypocrisy. 😏 But at least they are spread out over a period of fifteen years or so  - and the M9 is so beat I just hang onto it for nostalgia's sake, and for when the black paint M10-R on occasion goes back to the mothership. 

[Smudgerer]

I've been playing with a "trial" M11-D this weekend and yes coming from a M10-D I have to say that there's been a few moments of confusion.

First was in camera charging, it took many attempts for me to find that it requires a high wattage, ( 40 watts and above ), Fast USB charger to work otherwise the camera will just ignore lesser chargers. Couldn't find anything in the downloaded manual that mentions this requirement, it could be there but I didn't see it.

I think it was frustrating to note that Leica did not include the external battery charger with the camera..........Why the hell not? Cost savings? How much would it have cost them to at least include just the battery holder itself that enables charging with an owner supplied USB charger, €35-50 ???? On a €9350,00 camera? Give me a break, come on Leica are you just trying to annoy us?

Downloading files. Ok, I'm familiar with taking out a SD card and transferring to my Mac, you can do this too obviously with the SD card out of the M11-D, ( I don't want to have to download to a iPad via Fotos because that might mean me having to port the iPad around with me at times and as I do not have or use a iPhone any more downloading to one of my Macs is my best / preferred way to go ). The SD download to the Mac works fine so far but I have yet to figure out how to get the images off of the Internal Storage, again I found nothing of any help on this in the manual which is frustrating.............I read somewhere that one way to go is to transfer Internal Storage files to a SD card then go the SD route into a computer, perhaps that works but it's a strange inelegant way of going about this task.

Is there a way to download both Internal and SD card files with a direct hard wire connection to a Mac or PC, if so I've yet to find it? The internal storage doesn't show.

Also, how to format or clean off the Internal Hard drive storage? Again nothing in the manual that gives any clues that I have found.

I am still trying to work out the relevance of all of the various in-viewfinder information icons and yes I do wish that there would have been a way to transfer some of those functions to hard selections via the Function button and Thumb wheel, but I guess that horse has gone too. It's not going to, or possible to, be improved in firmware updates.

There still exists for me a few other circles of confusion with the operation of this the latest iteration of the M D cameras, but on the other side of things I do very much like the lighter body as compared to the M10's, I like the black finish and let's face it the camera sure is a thing of beauty to look at and I've liked the no LCD screen concept for sure with the other D's so I am leaning towards keeping it and hoping that my main operational problems will evaporate soon, if not, regretfully, back it goes.

Edited September 22, 2024 by Smudgerer

[Derbyshire Man]

I’ve not got one but my guess is first ensure it’s in PTP mode rather than MiFi. When you plug it in after that both LR and Capture One will see it as source, import the photos. Will copy across both internal and SD images. You’ll need to set the mode in Fotos. 
 

Removal of internal files I imagine is fire up Fotos select all of the images and delete (once copied across!). 
 

Allegedly no need to format. 
 

As I say, I’m making an educated guess as I don’t have one!

[Smudgerer]

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7 minutes ago, Derbyshire Man said:

I’ve not got one but my guess is first ensure it’s in PTP mode rather than MiFi. When you plug it in after that both LR and Capture One will see it as source, import the photos. Will copy across both internal and SD images. You’ll need to set the mode in Fotos. 
 

Removal of internal files I imagine is fire up Fotos select all of the images and delete (once copied across!). 
 

Allegedly no need to format. 
 

As I say, I’m making an educated guess as I don’t have one!

Can you repeat that in English?

The problem must entirely be on my side of things for sure, yes heard about PTP mode but yet to recognise that in the VF's early Egyptian era hieroglyphics, not the easiest way for trying to switch into and out of modes, scroll find, click, hold for XXX seconds and so on whilst squinting through the VF.

I've got a couple or so more days to figure out if I want this camera or not, I am really trying to say yes to it but then I trip over something new that I don't understand and have to spend too much time with the inadequate manual to try to find the way forward.

It really shouldn't be this complicated for a "simplified" camera, but then as said, the blocks are all probably down to me.

[Syrjames]

5 hours ago, elmars said:

What do You mean with off metering?

Off-sensor metering sorry.

@Jono mentioned it is not like in M11, where sensor opens up to have a reading (therefore the noise-operation when u switch on)

[Derbyshire Man]

26 minutes ago, Smudgerer said:

Can you repeat that in English?

The problem must entirely be on my side of things for sure, yes heard about PTP mode but yet to recognise that in the VF's early Egyptian era hieroglyphics, not the easiest way for trying to switch into and out of modes, scroll find, click, hold for XXX seconds and so on whilst squinting through the VF.

I've got a couple or so more days to figure out if I want this camera or not, I am really trying to say yes to it but then I trip over something new that I don't understand and have to spend too much time with the inadequate manual to try to find the way forward.

It really shouldn't be this complicated for a "simplified" camera, but then as said, the blocks are all probably down to me.

I think the first step is to set those things up in fotos via your iPhone or android phone. I don't think you can do it via the VF only see what it's set on.

[Smudgerer]

4 minutes ago, Derbyshire Man said:

I think the first step is to set those things up in fotos via your iPhone or android phone. I don't think you can do it via the VF only see what it's set on.

Right, but as I said before in these threads I ditched iPhone usage nearly four years ago and I won't re-inhabit that universe again.............But sure I can do much of the initial set-up on my iPad Mini and hopefully as was the case with the M10-D once set the camera should be good to go for most of the time. I have just got to find that sweet spot with it's set-up and the camera's operation, as said too it is quite different than the M10-D, something I did not expect.

[Derbyshire Man]

The mini should be fine!

[elmars]

vor 2 Stunden schrieb Syrjames:

Off-sensor metering sorry.

@Jono mentioned it is not like in M11, where sensor opens up to have a reading (therefore the noise-operation when u switch on)

There is no off sensor metering. Sorry!

[Alberti]

5 hours ago, M11 for me said:

Yes indeed. And there is actually a very simple trick to find that out. But I will not reveal that here. 

If you use that obvious method to test the supposed plasticity of the dial, then of course the equally supposed plastic coating of the camera will be part of the test environment too .  .  🤪

Edited September 22, 2024 by Alberti

[Mahesh]

5 hours ago, Smudgerer said:

I've been playing with a "trial" M11-D this weekend and yes coming from a M10-D I have to say that there's been a few moments of confusion.

First was in camera charging, it took many attempts for me to find that it requires a high wattage, ( 40 watts and above ), Fast USB charger to work otherwise the camera will just ignore lesser chargers. Couldn't find anything in the downloaded manual that mentions this requirement, it could be there but I didn't see it.

I think it was frustrating to note that Leica did not include the external battery charger with the camera..........Why the hell not? Cost savings? How much would it have cost them to at least include just the battery holder itself that enables charging with an owner supplied USB charger, €35-50 ???? On a €9350,00 camera? Give me a break, come on Leica are you just trying to annoy us?

Downloading files. Ok, I'm familiar with taking out a SD card and transferring to my Mac, you can do this too obviously with the SD card out of the M11-D, ( I don't want to have to download to a iPad via Fotos because that might mean me having to port the iPad around with me at times and as I do not have or use a iPhone any more downloading to one of my Macs is my best / preferred way to go ). The SD download to the Mac works fine so far but I have yet to figure out how to get the images off of the Internal Storage, again I found nothing of any help on this in the manual which is frustrating.............I read somewhere that one way to go is to transfer Internal Storage files to a SD card then go the SD route into a computer, perhaps that works but it's a strange inelegant way of going about this task.

Is there a way to download both Internal and SD card files with a direct hard wire connection to a Mac or PC, if so I've yet to find it? The internal storage doesn't show.

Also, how to format or clean off the Internal Hard drive storage? Again nothing in the manual that gives any clues that I have found.

I am still trying to work out the relevance of all of the various in-viewfinder information icons and yes I do wish that there would have been a way to transfer some of those functions to hard selections via the Function button and Thumb wheel, but I guess that horse has gone too. It's not going to, or possible to, be improved in firmware updates.

There still exists for me a few other circles of confusion with the operation of this the latest iteration of the M D cameras, but on the other side of things I do very much like the lighter body as compared to the M10's, I like the black finish and let's face it the camera sure is a thing of beauty to look at and I've liked the no LCD screen concept for sure with the other D's so I am leaning towards keeping it and hoping that my main operational problems will evaporate soon, if not, regretfully, back it goes.

Glad you mentioned about using high wattage charger. How did you figure that out about 40W minimum? I better buy one before I get the camera. 

[jaapv]

No charger because of regulations.

[Mahesh]

22 minutes ago, jaapv said:

No charger because of regulations.

I was referring to (LEICA BC-SCL7) which is included with M11-p but not the D model looks like.

[Smudgerer]

1 hour ago, Mahesh said:

Glad you mentioned about using high wattage charger. How did you figure that out about 40W minimum? I better buy one before I get the camera. 

Trial and error, perhaps too much error...........Went through the ones I have at home and the studio to see which would work, the one with the higher rate of charging did the trick. Same with Power Banks too, only one of the three I have would wake up the charging of the M11-D's battery in camera.

[egrossman]

Nobody is talking about the USB-C cable or wall plug. The BC-SLC7 battery charger itself should have been included in the box as it was with the M11. The fact that it wasn't is honestly inexcusable.

Erik

[Mahesh]

1 hour ago, Smudgerer said:

Trial and error, perhaps too much error...........Went through the ones I have at home and the studio to see which would work, the one with the higher rate of charging did the trick. Same with Power Banks too, only one of the three I have would wake up the charging of the M11-D's battery in camera.

Very odd.. the technical data document for m11d mentions the following on page 25 - " When the camera is switched off, a minimum power of 4.5 watts is required from the power supply unit.When the camera is switched on, an output of at least 8.5 watts is required."

If you are saying minimum 40w is required, that sounds contradictory. 

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Hallo,

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[egrossman]

15 minutes ago, Mahesh said:

Very odd.. the technical data document for m11d mentions the following on page 25 - " When the camera is switched off, a minimum power of 4.5 watts is required from the power supply unit.When the camera is switched on, an output of at least 8.5 watts is required."

If you are saying minimum 40w is required, that sounds contradictory. 

 

Because no battery charger was included in the box, I first connected my M11-D to my Mac Studio front USB-C port and it was charging extremely slowly. When I later plug the cable into a large wattage charging brick, it charged very quickly so I can confirm what @Smudgerer said above.

Erik

Edited September 22, 2024 by egrossman