What Is Your Favorite Digital Rangefinder Camera?

[Range-rover]

I have an M8.2, an M9 and a couple of M240's. They are all alright and work about the same. The same lens can be used on any of them. I like the CCD sensor M8.2 and M9 best and shoot mostly the M9. When I shoot the A7M III it is like the old Agfachrome/Kodachrome comparison. Shoot an old chateau with Kodachrome and it looks freshly painted. Shoot it with Agfacrhome and it looks more like real. So it is with the Sony vs the Leica. And of the Leicas I prefer the CCD sensor. Maybe because I am a dumb-ass, maybe because I am stubborn, maybe because I am a Luddite but I still think the color is better on the CCD's. And while I can go full manual on the Sony I do not. I use it as a really good point and shoot. It does great. When my masochistic side surfaces it is drag out a Leica and try my best. But at the end-up it is not the pen which makes the writer.

I had a Sony A7II and I just got tired of the handling and stuff, the colors are good but I like the colors of my Fuji better and it's handling, don't get me wrong
Sony is a good camera but I have the Leica now and enjoy the colors more and I don't care if people say it's only 10 megapixels it's all about the colors not how
big you could blow it up.

 

[boojum]

I had a Sony A7II and I just got tired of the handling and stuff, the colors are good but I like the colors of my Fuji better and it's handling, don't get me wrong
Sony is a good camera but I have the Leica now and enjoy the colors more and I don't care if people say it's only 10 megapixels it's all about the colors not how
big you could blow it up.

I do like the CCD Leica color. For me it seems in between Agfachrome and Kodachrome. Those Germans had to have been influenced by Agfachrome with its oranges. Well, that is what I believe. The Sony has good color but it is not as honest. I will have to try a same lens comparison between an M9 and the A7M III to see what I get for color. Bottom line, they are both really good. We are in the arena of hair-splitting.

 

[jsrockit]

I have always thought the M240 (M2Fatty) was the worst looking of the Ms, but after using a black one for like a month I have to admit it has grown on me and I am starting to love the way it looks, feels and the results. I have even warmed up to the red dot. My M10 GAS is gone and so is any GAS for a film Leica.

 

[Godfrey]

Although i liked my previous digital M-P 240 and M-D 262 quite a lot, and emotionally still think the M-D is my all time favorite M, on balance now - with the M10 Monochrom - I begin to feel this M10-M is the best of the lot. I have not yet found a situation where it fails to satisfy me.

G

 

[ZivcoPhoto]

My M10-P easily

 

[Sonnar Brian]

The M9. Also have the M Monochrom and M8. The M9 and M Monochrom both have the new version of the CCD with BG55 cover glass.

 

[Darthfeeble]

I would have said hands down the R-D1, but I've recently gotten a M10 and it's finally what I thought a Leica Digital should be. If only they could have made the sensor so it had self cleaning...... I'd be hard pressed to choose between the two now.

 

[CLAdictic]

My favorite digital is my Leica CL.

 

[Godfrey]

Although i liked my previous digital M-P 240 and M-D 262 quite a lot, and emotionally still think the M-D is my all time favorite M, on balance now - with the M10 Monochrom - I begin to feel this M10-M is the best of the lot. I have not yet found a situation where it fails to satisfy me.

I like the M10-M so much that I decided to complement it with an M10-R, thus having the same body in both monochrome and color versions, both with 40 Mpixel resolution and nearly identical controls. And the M10-R is very very nice ... but ultimately I still feel that the M10-M is tops. It is just more to the point and does what it does with superb ease and competence.

G

 

[LCT]

Strange the poor score of the M11. Too expensive perhaps? the M11 is my favorite M body since the seventies within its own limits of a camera i cannot shoot handheld at slow shutter speeds. Its main fortes are its BSI sensor free of color shifts with WA and UWA lenses, its internal memory, its EVF as effective as that of my digital CL, and a similar UI as the latter. It just lacks IBIS and a faster shutter actuation to become the modern high-res rangefinder i was expecting. Freezes look like a thing of the past since firmware update 1.6.1, besides individual issues due to user errors or faulty bodies.

 

[dreamsandart]

Had an M9, but really wanted the MM when it came out. A few years later, and a few trades…, it is my dream camera. Love the simple analog-style feel in use, it punches above its MP count, with 14-bits, and the CCD sensor. I’ve even gotten to like that shutter-wind-on sound. There are technically ’better’ Leica digitals now of course, but it was true Classic from the instant it was introduce. I mean, what a crazy-cool idea, a B&W M-digital Leica! Who would buy that?

 

[CameraQuest]

5/3/2023

poll reset to Zero to allow voting of M11 family

 

[CameraQuest]

the M11 was added to the poll only recently.

poll vote reset to reflect current thinking on the entire digital lineup

 

[Godfrey]

I see my previous all-time favorite (M-D typ 262) ... and indeed no typ 262 ...is not on the list. Oh well, I voted for the M10 Monochrom..

I have some issues with the term 'favorite' being ascribed in this poll. It's a bit misleading in a statistical sense to see votes for your "favorite digital rangefinder camera" when it is most probable that most users have only had a few of the ones listed to choose from. If it was a write-in poll or a twin poll, with people entering whatever models they have had and then their favorite, you'd get information on the range of cameras that most people have had and which ones bubble to the top of the popularity contest.

For me that list would be Epson R-D1, M9, M-P 240, M-D 262, Pixii, M10-M, and M10-R, with the top ranking favorite being a split between the M-D 262 and M10-M.

Even that's a little bit skew since I've only had the M10-R a short time and have not yet managed 250 exposures with it... And if people are nominating a favorite being a camera that they have no experience using (like the M11/M11-M in my case) then the meaning of 'favorite' is quite different yet again.

G

 

[aoresteen]

Well, my favorite rangefinder digital camera is the Sony A7 III. It has a good DVF, uses my L39 lenses, my M lenses, my Contax IIa lenses and my Nikon SP lenses. Not to mention all my 35mm film SLR lenses (I don't need a 90mm Thambar, I have my 85mm M42 Fujinon SF lens 🙂 ). Heck, I can even put my 1978 500mm f/8 Soligor CD mirror lens on it via a T2 adapter. Almost too many options.