Leica M-D: Pure for the sake of . . . purity?
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Vince Lupo
Whatever
Still plugging away on this bird business....
With the 400/5.6 Telyt, Camcraft Z-Housing.
February Cardinal by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
With the 400/5.6 Telyt, Camcraft Z-Housing.
February Cardinal by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
Vince Lupo
Whatever
Sold the Monochrom 246, keeping the M-D.
My loving wife just picked up one of Brian May's stereoscopic photography books -- really neat!
Stereo Riley by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
My loving wife just picked up one of Brian May's stereoscopic photography books -- really neat!
Stereo Riley by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
Vince Lupo
Whatever
maitani
Well-known
the first displayless M-D has something interesting going, I predict a future classic. a pity they messed up mk2 so bad..
Vince Lupo
Whatever
I definitely agree! I wish they had just stuck with the initial motif, rather than adding all that extra junk (like the wifi, fake advance lever etc), plus moving the ISO dial. The ISO dial on the back of the camera is what really makes it, and I think that the latest incarnation of the M-D goes against the philosophy of 'Das Wesentliche', which is what this camera was all about in the first place.
If only Leica would offer a service whereby you could keep your original camera but do sensor upgrades as they continue to improve, I'd go for that.
Godfrey
somewhat colored
The M-D typ 262 was a follow-on from the M Edition 60 camera ... "Das Wesentliche" as honorarium/celebration of the Leica M3, essentially. It's what I said I wanted rather than that ME60: a standard M body stripped to the core that I could just buy without the limited edition/special model additional paraphernalia and price tax on top.
The M10-D is, to me, a completely different concept. It's an answer to the question: "How do we provide the shooting experience of the M-D—a top of the line digital camera sans LCD and other distractions while in use—and yet still provide the full functionality of the top of the line M10?" With the M10-D, you have the option of setting the camera up for how you want to shoot with the full feature set of the M10 available through a configuration and control app, and then putting the app and smartphone aside to go shooting just as you would with the M-D. Or you can choose to use the app while shooting to modify configuration, review images, do tethered control, and use the EVF, if that's what you need for a given situation. You have access to use the R Adapter M and R lenses, you can do macro or long telephoto work, etc etc.
A different concept then, and to me, fairly compelling. Yeah, I prefer the M-D's ISO control (I think it's much more ergonomically correct and easier to use) and I still hate the faux wind lever, but eh? Seems a lot of others like those things and I always remind myself that in the universe at large, other people constitute the overwhelming majority of people with just one insignificant exception...
😀
If I were to buy back into an M body in the future, the M10-D is one of the two top picks for me now (I like this different concept) alongside the latest M10 Monochrom (I like that concept as well and it lacks that silly lever). Both are slightly off the center mark of my photographic use, which is currently handled extremely well by the CL body, and address more niche desires ... just like the Hasselblad 907x Special Edition does (I continue to wait patiently for that one to be delivered).
G
Vince Lupo
Whatever
Godfrey I hope that Hasselblad 907x doesn't become another Konost!
On a serious note, I'd be interested to see sales figures of the M-D vs M10-D to see if the upgrades/additions to the M10-D has resulted in higher sales numbers. Actually I'd be curious to know what total production numbers of the M-D were!
I think for me the issue with the M10-D is that it has a bit of an identity crisis -- on the one hand it dispenses with the rear screen and the idea that, according to Leica, "the Leica M10-D focuses on the desires of many photographers to concentrate solely on the act of making pictures", yet it includes - at least for me - all this other unnecessary stuff that I consider 'clutter'. So to me it's not quite sure which way it wants to go. There are other models within the lineup that have all the features (fake frame advance lever notwithstanding), that I would have hoped that Leica would have left this particular design alone and maybe only upgraded the sensor to the current incarnation. But here again, this is strictly my perspective. I love my M-D and don't think I'll ever sell it.
On a serious note, I'd be interested to see sales figures of the M-D vs M10-D to see if the upgrades/additions to the M10-D has resulted in higher sales numbers. Actually I'd be curious to know what total production numbers of the M-D were!
I think for me the issue with the M10-D is that it has a bit of an identity crisis -- on the one hand it dispenses with the rear screen and the idea that, according to Leica, "the Leica M10-D focuses on the desires of many photographers to concentrate solely on the act of making pictures", yet it includes - at least for me - all this other unnecessary stuff that I consider 'clutter'. So to me it's not quite sure which way it wants to go. There are other models within the lineup that have all the features (fake frame advance lever notwithstanding), that I would have hoped that Leica would have left this particular design alone and maybe only upgraded the sensor to the current incarnation. But here again, this is strictly my perspective. I love my M-D and don't think I'll ever sell it.
Vince Lupo
Whatever
Vince Lupo
Whatever
rhl-oregon
Cameras Guitars Wonders
The first project I had after purchasing the M-D 2017 was a trip to Firenze, Florence—a honeymoon with Linn, also packing an X100s and RX100III. But no card readers. Although the M-D VF showed the color that was there, I didn’t see the results until I began working on the images two weeks later. I developed most as BW, and mostly shared those here, on the Leica Forum, and Instagram. (The X100 was set to BW RAW + sidecar, and I used it at times as a reference for tones, shadows, highlights—though mostly I carried one camera or the other on our long walks.)
However, I’ve returned to some of those October-light images in order to appreciate and develop the colors:
Of the 250 images in my M-D RFF gallery, just a handful are in color. Sometimes the image wanted it, like the bluffs in sea fog at Centreville below—,
——but in general, owing to my inexplicable and peculiar limits, I found that my raw color images tended to just lie there afterward, inert and undevelopable straight out of the camera. Add to that the existence of 100 zillion oversaturated tarted-up You’re So Colorful I Could Eat You images on every social medium....
With these things in mind, last summer I traded less-and-less-used film gear for an M 246. I justified having both to practice Monochrom M + color M, to find out whether using both could be stimulating as well as rational. (I knew it would be heavy; once you get used to a GR or RX1, the appeal of a bag, or bags, heavy with full frame quality lessens quickly.)
More frequently, it turned out, I carried the 246 alone, or left the M-D in its bag, or carried the lighter T/23 2.0. Indeed, having screen and EVF on 246 tended to spoil the special film-like, delayed pleasures I enjoyed when the M-D was my one digital M. And since making color images has always been a distant second in practice, given the strict limitations I feel about messing about given hues (as opposed to tones, shadows, highlights, textures), during this confinement I decided to put a lot of gear on the table in exchange for an M 10 Monochrom. It’s very very clear in retrospect that carrying one camera and one or two lenses, as I did in Firenze, suits me best. Monochrome seeing, with a tiny black and white eye-television also appears to suit me best, and at my age is connecting me to visual pleasures I grew up with.
I have several non-Leica cameras for color if a future destination demands it. I also have a rapidly growing cataract in my right eye, so until that is fixed—again, only possible after this indeterminate stay-at-home period; until then relying on optical RF is unreliable. My right eye focus is like a Noctilux, f1 at 6 inches, but mere glare and blur beyond.
I’ll get back to y’all on a different thread after the M 10 Monochrom arrives.
However, I’ve returned to some of those October-light images in order to appreciate and develop the colors:
Of the 250 images in my M-D RFF gallery, just a handful are in color. Sometimes the image wanted it, like the bluffs in sea fog at Centreville below—,
——but in general, owing to my inexplicable and peculiar limits, I found that my raw color images tended to just lie there afterward, inert and undevelopable straight out of the camera. Add to that the existence of 100 zillion oversaturated tarted-up You’re So Colorful I Could Eat You images on every social medium....
With these things in mind, last summer I traded less-and-less-used film gear for an M 246. I justified having both to practice Monochrom M + color M, to find out whether using both could be stimulating as well as rational. (I knew it would be heavy; once you get used to a GR or RX1, the appeal of a bag, or bags, heavy with full frame quality lessens quickly.)
More frequently, it turned out, I carried the 246 alone, or left the M-D in its bag, or carried the lighter T/23 2.0. Indeed, having screen and EVF on 246 tended to spoil the special film-like, delayed pleasures I enjoyed when the M-D was my one digital M. And since making color images has always been a distant second in practice, given the strict limitations I feel about messing about given hues (as opposed to tones, shadows, highlights, textures), during this confinement I decided to put a lot of gear on the table in exchange for an M 10 Monochrom. It’s very very clear in retrospect that carrying one camera and one or two lenses, as I did in Firenze, suits me best. Monochrome seeing, with a tiny black and white eye-television also appears to suit me best, and at my age is connecting me to visual pleasures I grew up with.
I have several non-Leica cameras for color if a future destination demands it. I also have a rapidly growing cataract in my right eye, so until that is fixed—again, only possible after this indeterminate stay-at-home period; until then relying on optical RF is unreliable. My right eye focus is like a Noctilux, f1 at 6 inches, but mere glare and blur beyond.
I’ll get back to y’all on a different thread after the M 10 Monochrom arrives.
Vince Lupo
Whatever
Jeez am I now the last man standing in this thread???
Interestingly, I went the other way. I sold my 246, all my Visoflex stuff, my 35 Summilux, kept the M-D and just a few lenses, and then got a Nikon Z7. Don’t think I’ll be going the M10 Monochrom route.
Interestingly, I went the other way. I sold my 246, all my Visoflex stuff, my 35 Summilux, kept the M-D and just a few lenses, and then got a Nikon Z7. Don’t think I’ll be going the M10 Monochrom route.
Not quite, Vince! I've been using the M-D and 35mm Summicron v.1 exclusively since last summer. Here are a few results...
Empty Garage
These rodeo broncos just love to buck off any rider in seconds!
Girl and her pony in the county fair
Street corner story with body language
Main Street in Canmore Alberta Canada
At the Canmore Hotel, Canmore Alberta
Kitchen at Kananaskis Village, SE of Canmore Alberta
Vince Lupo
Whatever
Yay many thanks! Was getting a bit lonely here 🙂
Gotta say the M-D produces excellent colours right out of the gate.
Gotta say the M-D produces excellent colours right out of the gate.
rhl-oregon
Cameras Guitars Wonders
Oh, I shouldn’t have signed off the way I did above—I’m working through my catalog, and will come back to my M-D images (which have undergone 2 development phases, mostly as BW conversions) once I get through the rest. It’s like riding the perimeter of a ranch the size of Oregon, dealing with maintenance, underbrush, varmints, ponds, etc., camping for several days in areas called “Sony” or “Fuji” or “Olympus” or “Leica.”
That is: My LR folder organization is peculiar—by camera—and I am going through folders one at a time, digital first, film next; and by largest number of keepers to smallest (e.g., the Werra section is quite small, and will get smaller).
My M-D camera time may be over, but not the revision and refinement of the raw images.
If anyone is interested in a low-use M-D 262, mine should be available at Camera West / Rancho Mirage in the near future.
That is: My LR folder organization is peculiar—by camera—and I am going through folders one at a time, digital first, film next; and by largest number of keepers to smallest (e.g., the Werra section is quite small, and will get smaller).
My M-D camera time may be over, but not the revision and refinement of the raw images.
If anyone is interested in a low-use M-D 262, mine should be available at Camera West / Rancho Mirage in the near future.
Vince Lupo
Whatever
Vince Lupo
Whatever
helen.HH
To Light & Love ...
Vince Lupo [url=https://flic.kr/p/2iQ8cCU said:
Beautiful Light, serene moment...Lovely !
Vince Lupo
Whatever
Archiver
Veteran
My usual musings about cameras have taken me in the direction of the M-D, or the M10-D as the case may be. As much as the lack of a LCD screen on a digital camera seems silly, I'm pretty comfortable shooting with film cameras, and I love the feel of my M7, so a M10-D wouldn't be such a stretch. The EVF provides the ability to see through the lens if necessary, and the only reason I check the LCD on my M9 is to see if I got the composition right. With an EVF, that wouldn't be a problem.
Cost is another matter! I've got a number of other purchases and responsibilities which come ahead of a M10-D, so it will wait for a while.
Cost is another matter! I've got a number of other purchases and responsibilities which come ahead of a M10-D, so it will wait for a while.
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