What's so special About the Leica M System?

[jaapv]

One of the biggest advantages to me, which I think is often overlooked - or possibly not cared about by others, is that the M works really well with coloured filters. If you're using black and white film (or a monocrom too for that matter), you can use colour filter but still look through a clear viewfinder. If you use colour filters on an SLR (or mirrorless but don't know why you would), you see the world in shades of yellow, or green, orange etc...

And indispensable for IR photography.

 

[Keith]

For me it's putting my 1930 Leica 1a beside my M240 and being able to see the clear connection between the two cameras.

 

[Turtle]

I think that's something many Leica owners can understand, Keith. I have no screwmount cameras, but I do have a M2, M3, M6 and MP along with the MMI. The shooting experience remains the same and I value that.

 

[Pioneer]

Leica has always taken me back to a time when fine hand tools and personal craftsmanship was important. Power tools are almost always faster and, when properly set up, are far more accurate. But in many cases the human touch seems less and less necessary to the result. There are other cameras where this same feeling comes out but Leica is the only company still building them.

To me, this is what makes Leica special.

 

[Bill Clark]

The last word in your question summarizes it all for me!

Smiles.

 

[raid]

It is a "pure-bred" system with class and functionality overall. It is a Lamborghini-but-built-like-a-tank of camera systems, so to speak 🙂

 

[Jrp]

One of the biggest advantages to me, which I think is often overlooked - or possibly not cared about by others, is that the M works really well with coloured filters. If you're using black and white film (or a monocrom too for that matter), you can use colour filter but still look through a clear viewfinder. If you use colour filters on an SLR (or mirrorless but don't know why you would), you see the world in shades of yellow, or green, orange etc...

But does the coloured filter not shift the focal plane? (Less of a problem with Liveview.)

 

[bobkonos]

Do you mean the real Leica M system (M3, M2, M4, M6, MP) or the Kool-Aid Leica M system, the one where you spend a lot of money and then return it to have sensors repaired, etc.?