Digital camera that doesn't feel like a computer between you and taking a picture

What?! Did you somehow miss the whole Nikon marketing campaign about Digital Fusion?! Its about slowing down, and taking time to enjoy photography and oh never mind I'm just kidding. I wish I weren't though! I bit the bullet and bought a Monochrom and it is about as close to shooting digital with my M6 as I can get. The X-Pro is pretty nice as well, and once you get the hang of it…and use the optical viewfinder..it's halfway there. At least you still have most of the settings on dials to check without turning it on. Set it on auto ISO, pick your shutter speed and aperture and away you go.
 
defconfunk said:
Interestingly, this fault isn't limited to digital cameras, it existed in film cameras just as much. In my dark room class most of us have old 70s or 80s cameras . One poor soul has an Elan 7. Maybe once you know your way around the camera it is nice, but for a student, it is brutal. No one in the class could figure out how to change his aperture in manual mode. The camera has so many bells and whistles it is totally unintuitive.
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Interesting you should say this. Just for fun, I thought I would run some film through one of my old cameras. I originally intended to use the Oly OM-2S, but wound up loading one of my EOS-A2s instead because I have a much wider selection of Canon lenses. I had not used an A2 since 2003, and had to relearn it. I found the experience very similar to using my 6D and not at all what I was looking for. I think the next time I feel like shooting some film, I'll load up the Oly, or maybe a Pentax Spotmatic.
 
presumably cost is no object here? Because the gap between a $200 GRD3 and a used digital M is quite wide. Can't imagine cold that would affect a GRD would spare an M9. And you have set up the GRD to behave as out-of-the-way as possible, sounds like, though a decent 28 VF might help with the screen-off approach, though theres no way to be sure the rocker wheels change your speed/aperture exactly in M mode without a screen-peek.

x100 though can be set to use optical vf while one sets speed/aperture, then fire away. Maybe manual focus is the real fulcrum of Mdesire here? nothing wrong with that of course! but inside that cost gap between grd/M9 I can see several medium format film cameras, for instance....
 
There isn't any digital camera that suits your specifications. Simply use film. They make some pretty nice kinds of films now, and it should continue to be made longer than the lifespan of any of the next three or five generations of digital cameras you might potentially get.

If you want to make it easier on yourself perhaps upgrade your processing and scanning workflow or have the film sent out to a good lab and be patient. The money you save from not buying the latest and greatest digital camera can go a long way.

And if you need a digital camera for some sort of professional assignment, it sounds like a reasonably priced older mid-grade model would suit you just fine since you aren't taking advantage of the latest and greatest features anyway. I'll take a wild guess and assume you hate Photoshop and only shoot jpg and don't adjust your images all that much... so why invest in a camera that's overkill? Just get a D300 or a 5D, the basic zoom lens, keep it in the bag for when you need it. You can shoot the headshot, interior scene, or whatever and put it away, switching back to your film camera for your personal work.

Cold weather will kill the batteries in anything so get a camera that doesn't use batteries.
 
Roger Hicks said:
All digital M-series that I've used up to the Typ 240 are close enough to film Leicas that I've never felt that there was a computer between me and the subject...The Typ 240 can be used like previous (and concurrent) M-digitals, but it's disputable whether it's worth buying a Typ 240 instead of an M-E or second-hand M9 if you don't want the extra features (live view, video, electronic viewfinder...). The extra pixels are welcome, but not (for me) decisive, and the same is true of the higher ISO
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rscheffler said:
M9...Last year there were discussions about this camera being "ISO-less" whereby you set it at base ISO (160) and just shoot the shutter speed and aperture value you want for the situation, then push the files in post, if necessary...
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Generally I agree with Roger, but feel that there are strong reasons to get an M9 or M-E vs an M240, as I've written in another thread where I referred to a statement by Charles Peterson, a Seattle photographer who had showed me his personal color work that I found to be outstanding: he wrote that the he felt that the color rendition of the M9 was more like that of color slide film while that of CMOS-sensor cameras was more like that of color negative film — and that is also what I saw in his personal color work. Since then he also wrote the following, which I think is spot-on: I do think that the higher iso's on the M9 are vastly underrated, and in general much prefer the image quality of the M9 to the M240. The M9 (and Monochrom by de facto) imo are truly two of the most unique digital cameras out there when it comes to the quality of the image. Not the "best" on paper but they have a look, an "umami" as the Japanese might say, that no other 35mm digital camera, comes close to. The PDF file for the book project linked below my signature shows the type of color I'm referring to.

The technique referred to by Ron Scheffler, of shooting at ISO640 and pushing in Lightroom 5, in my view, makes the M9/M-E into an excellent camera for high-ISO night photography, considering the unique color rendition. This technique is discussed in this thread, with post #31 on page 2 giving the suggested steps in exposure and processing. This technique works particularly well when using Lightroom 4 and 5 (with Process PV2012), and I haven't tested it with other raw developers or post-processing software.

—Mitch/Chiang Mai
Chiang Tung Days [direct download link for pdf file for book project]
 
Since you already own Leica lenses I assume you feel compelled to keep them. In this case the M9 is your only (least expensive) option if you desire the angle-of-view to remain constant. But I'm a little confused. The Leica lenses you mention above do not have the angle of view one would experience with 24x36 mm media when used with the GRD. So why not two M 8s? (One for a back up since you have clients).

If you are not wed to M lenses, then there are quite few cameras, many mentioned above, that have pseudo-analog dials that let you see what's going on. If you find menu settings that suit your needs, then changing those settings is not required (at least 8 rarely change mine).

The X-Pro 1 has an OVF but you do have to push a button and spin a control wheel (not an ISO dial) to to change ISO. I would prefer an ISO dial, but changing ISO does not annoy me. The Fujinon lenses are very good to excellent. My camera has never froze or crashed, but others have reported sporadic lens mount electronic connection errors. Some of these reports are out of date and some are more recent.
 
jsrockit said:
The digital M and R-D1 are the only cameras that comes close
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The Epson not only comes close. While I think it is important for a (digital) camera to not get in your way, a digital camera does not need to feel like a film camera to achieve that. Of course, for many people getting as close to certain film cameras as possible is the answer. The Epson R-D1 just goes the extra mile.
 
I have only handled a RD-1 once. Also got to see an M9 at a local get together. I agree that both are minimally digital. My digital minimalist camera is the GX7 (it also fits my budget). I typically use it in full manual mode (exposure and focus). We all seem to find our own gems.
 
Addy101 said:
It isn't the camera, it is your class 😉 The wheel on the back of the camera controls the aperture....
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Absolutely. I'm totally unfamiliar with EOS film cameras. When I tried changing the aperture, I found one dial and began looking for either a second dial, or a button to change the dial's function. I never found the second dial.

The Elan 7 user downloaded a manual and got along fine with his camera.
 
I don't think the Fuji X line is that camera. I don't see how looking at a screen is going to make you feel less like you're using a computer. The M9 however, the only thing you need the screen for is changing ISO.
 
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