My Summer with the Leica M10: From a Fuji and Sony User Perspective
Update: I wrote this article in the winter of 2020, but never posted it. Since Leica has recently released their latest iteration of the M series camera; the Leica M11, I thought I’d share my thoughts and experience with the Leica M system through the lens of a Sony and Fuji user. I’ll leave some of my recent and latest thoughts since the release at the end of this article for those that are interested.
TLDR: For those that don’t want to read the entire article and my account/experience, I’ll leave a condensed summary of my experience with the Leica M10 camera here.
It’s a fantastic camera system, especially when focusing on user experience. That’s what you are essentially paying for. Although workmanship, quality of hardware, optical excellence, elegant manual focusing, and aesthetically pleasing color are all part of the positive experience of Leica; at the end of the day, you aren’t buying a Leica because its image quality is “better” than Sony, Canon, Nikon, or Fuji…it’s because you are looking for a unique shooting experience, which is coupled with excellently crafted optics — similar to the buying experience and justification of purchasing a luxury or rare sports car. Leica is not a sensible purchase. It’s a luxury purchase. And with all that said, the Leica can even introduce challenges, you don’t normally run into with modern digital cameras, which depending on where you are at with photography are welcomed creative challenges or hassles.
It’s also worth noting that not all Leica gear is out of the spend radius. You can even pick up digital Leica’s for the equivalent of modern entry and mid-range digital mirrorless cameras, but of course used, as well as very optically competent choices in third-party M glass-like Voigtlander and TTArtisan lenses, which produce fantastic glass, at a more accessible price.
If you’d like to know why I ended up selling my Leica M kit in the end, feel free to read below……
I’ve been an avid Fujifilm and most recently Sony shooter for the last few years. I’ve had both the Sony and Fuji systems side by side for a while now, and have been happy with both.
But oftentimes, I will sometimes get caught up in the feeling of overwhelmingness, swimming in gear to try and figure out which camera system, what lenses, etc, to bring to a shoot. This started happening more and more, and it started getting in the way of my creativity.
I started looking into possibly forcing myself to shoot with one camera and one lens and in my research to selecting that right combo, I came upon an article about a photographer, who similarly struggled with too much gear. He was experiencing the same challenges, so he did something radical. He sold off all his gear, picked up one camera and one lens, and forced himself to do all his photography on that combo. His camera lens combo was a Leica M Type 240 and a 50mm f1.4 Summilux ASPH. This concept appealed to me.
This is where my curiosity with Leica came about. What better way to foster creative juices, than with an incredibly simple but legendary camera like a Leica digital camera. I was very apprehensive at first, because I always dismissed the Leica system for its premium cost, to get into the system. Camera bodies average from $7000–$10,000 and lenses range from $3500-$6000. But hey…if I decided to pair down my system and sell a good chunk of gear, maybe I could afford a used Leica M10 and a lens.
So I started doing some research and figured out how much it would cost, to find a well-kept, Leica M10 body.
Then came the lenses. I started looking at 50mm options first. I do portrait and street photography and have been recently shooting mostly on 50mm lenses, so I decided it would be the best first and only lens to start with since I was used to the focal range. I looked at the Leica 50mm Summilux and saw the cost immediately used and new. It seemed extremely expensive. But I was interested in getting the fastest lens I could afford. There was no way I would be able to afford the 50mm Noctilux f0.95, so the Summilux was in my sights.
But then I started researching third-party lenses. I figured what might be a good idea is see if there were good quality third party glass, I could start with, and then slowly graduate into the expensive Leica glass, since I was still skeptical on this pretty major investment, especially if it meant getting rid of some kit, from the other two systems. So I started looking at Voigtlander options and was impressed with what I saw. So I went on LensRentals.com and put together a rental package with the Leica M10, Leica 50mm Summilux, and the Voigtlander 50mm Nokton VM f1.2.
They arrived a couple of days later and I started with the M10 and the Voigtlander. I was blown away initially. Manual focus was something I never really did regularly so this was something I was extremely intimidated by. My first shoot was an adventure hike with my wife in a park right outside of New York, called Rockefeller State Park.
I only wanted to shoot black and white, so I turned on the Monochrome option, slung the Leica M10 over my shoulder, and started shooting.
The character of the images just had this amazing 3D pop to it. The out-of-focus areas are rendered very dreamy and it’s something I’ve been trying to achieve for a long time in my images, but usually takes a few tricks both in-camera and in post. Capturing real-life, through dreamy aesthetics. I fell in love instantly!
I felt like this was the first camera in a long time, that I could shoot practically anything mundane and feel good about it. That’s how you want to feel when you shoot with a camera. I noticed very quickly that the Rangefinder style of focusing fit my way of shooting fairly well, and I noticed right away that I had higher keeper rates of images in focus on my Leica than I did with my Sony and Fuji systems. Yes! I had more accurate in-focus images shooting manually than with my autofocus “AI machines”.
I took to the streets with the M10 and Voigtlander, giving it a fair shake, to see how the Leica system was, in many conditions, and if it was worth this possible investment. And so far it seemed like it was.
Next in my testing, was adding the Summilux 50mm f1.4 and comparing it side by side against the Voigtlander.
Surprisingly I did not care too much for the Summilux. I found that sometimes the images were a bit too clinical for my taste. Something about the Voigtlander lens exhibited a more vintage unpredictable character to it, that I enjoy. Don’t get me wrong, the Summilux is an amazing lens, and if I was doing a major fashion shoot, or needed a lens, that I could rely on 100%, with no compromise or no question, the Summilux would do well! Another thing I didn’t like about the Summilux was the focus tab. Maybe I’m not used to shooting with a focus tab, but I found the rounder lens body of the Voigtlander to be a much better experience manually focusing.
Other than those things, I liked the overall compact design of the Summilux and the built-in lens hood. But for now, it seemed to make more sense for me to stick with the Voigtlander. I know many Leica users reading this are going to think I’m crazy. Probably because at the end of the day, Leica’s digital bodies are not where the magic happens. It’s a tool to access the magical lenses that Leica offers. But with that said, I felt the Voigtlander hit all the checkmarks for me as a beginner Leica user, and felt my sensible value-based side was talking to me about keeping this purchase responsible for now.
So after some additional shooting and testing, I was in! I handpicked a bunch of Sony and Fuji gear I decided to part with, and to pair down the Fuji and Sony kit to bare minimums in case I ever need them, and I decided I wanted to move forward so I found a Leica M10 body on MPB.com, and chose to buy a new Voigtlander 50mm f1.2 Lens.
That was the beginning of my Leica adventure.
Shooting Experience
So over the next couple of months, I took that camera and lens everywhere I went, whenever I left the house when I could. At the time of this writing, we are in the middle of a pandemic, so shooting outside at the very beginning was challenging. However, I wanted to master the craft of shooting with this camera. The images that were coming out of this camera were fantastic!
However, I started running into some interesting quirks to the camera, that I later understood as the nature of the rangefinder camera system.
Close Focus Distance
So as I said before, manual focus and the rangefinder focus system are what make the Leica fun! However, I quickly started noticing that I did not have as much close focus distance as I do with my other camera bodies. When I rented a couple of wide-angle lenses like the 28 and 35mm focal ranges, I noticed this right away. I tend to like to shoot close when using wide primes. The rangefinder systems can focus up to .7m and in some cases with the newer Voigtlander lenses, they can get as close as .5m. It seems close enough, but in real-world scenarios, it’s not that close, at least compared to what my Fuji and Sony systems could do. So I had to adjust my way of shooting to compensate for this slight adjustment. Not a complete deal-breaker, but another creative challenge to embrace?
Exposure Challenges
Another challenge, I was starting to run into was accurate and dependable exposure. You’re shooting through a Rangefinder Optical View Finder, so it’s extremely hard to account for accurate exposure in some environments (especially when getting used to mirrorless cameras with EVFs). With my Fuji’s for instance, I played around with different metering modes, while monitoring with an EVF, to capture exactly the right exposure I wanted to capture. From switching to Spot mode, to get high contrast images, to multi-mode, which gave me a better blend.
With the Leica, there were two vulnerabilities, I ran into. Overexposed highlights. And grabbing and locking exposure using center weight metering. I didn’t always get the results I expected when judging and executing an exposure plan when composing. So it takes a lot of trial and error. I suppose through long-time practice, I‘ll start understanding what works and doesn’t work, but I found the experience to be a little frustrating. Not something you want to mess with during a critical shoot.
The other exposure issue I was surprised to see for a camera of this caliber and price, was the lack of highlight recovery on images. Leica sucks at over-exposed highlight recovery. This to me is pretty unacceptable for a camera body retailing at around $8000. Shadow recovery seemed very sufficient, but when some of my images were overexposed, due to me getting used to exposure handling, I shot a few over-exposed shots, and the recovery of highlights is just awful. This to me is a huge problem. I purchased some ND filters, to try and mitigate brighter environments, where I want to keep my aperture wide open, but cut down on some light, and that’s helped in some cases. But overall this is an issue that has been a sticking point for me. I’m sure through practice one can get good at predicting the exposure and how the camera meters for it, so one would assume practice helps a lot.
Update: I’ve since learned that the mantra of shooting Leica is “Protect your highlights”. I’ve heard that you should always keep your exposure comp set to -2/3rds to -1 stop under 0 to protect highlights. I’ve found this practice to work with multiple camera manufacturers and is an overall good approach to digital cameras.
These challenges above really started to make me rethink this investment though. The images, however really impressed me, and besides the challenges, the rest of the shooting experience was pretty amazing!
Did I need to rethink this purchase?
Over this summer, I started working on some documentary photography projects, and as I started reaching for the Leica, at times I would tend to lean towards my Sony kit in most instances. For personal work, the Leica was there for me, but any professional or documentary personal work tended to go to Sony. Especially in tough environments, where there are a lot of moving parts to the images, and I need the best autofocus, I can get, and capture multiple moments quickly. It made more sense to reach for my Sony system. But wait…wasn’t I suppose to regiment myself to one camera one lens, and that being my newly purchased and expensive Leica M10?
You’d think that the manual focus again would intimidate me, but I have been fairly solid with my focusing skills, so that had not been an issue. But what made me hesitate, was bringing an extremely expensive camera to perhaps an unpredictable shoot environment out in the field of photojournalism. Sure I could put insurance on it, and I have, but reading comments from other Leica users, I’ve noticed that Leica’s repair service, is a bit limited. It appears that all cameras have to be sent to Germany for repair, and so you could potentially have to wait for your camera for up to 1–2 months in some instances. There goes my one camera and the one or two lenses idea! So do I have to spend more money and get a second body? Just so I can ensure, that if I were to have to send my Leica out for repair, I would have a backup? I guess I could keep my Fuji and Sony kits, for that maybe? I generally shoot with two bodies, so that appeals to me, but now we’re getting into significantly more money or keeping my other kits, which means, I’m not trading gear out to make room for the Leica, but adding a third system to my already two systems. This is where the rational investment radar, starts kicking in for me.
Eric Kim said something that resonated with me. He said, if you buy a camera, it should always be a camera that you could potentially buy two of. If you can’t afford to buy two of that camera body, then you probably shouldn’t buy that camera at all. With my current finances, I can only afford one Leica body. Especially if I’m still keeping some form of my Sony and Fuji kit.
The Sony has been my workhorse so far and I have an emotional attachment to my Fuji system because it’s the system that got me shooting more in the first place. I can’t get myself to sell those systems, especially after encountering these limitations.
The Leica was supposed to be my all-in-one camera, but it didn’t end up that way. Now comes the decision. If I’m adding the Leica to my current kit, is it worth it with my current setup both functionally and economically?
One more test…..
So what happened to that dreamy amazing image quality, I was gushing over, and focusing on and less about the rationale of the purchase?
Well…I got to thinking, maybe my gushing was all about the lens and not so much about the camera body. Maybe I should test the Voigtlander out on my Sony body and see if I get similar results.
Sure enough, I was right! The image quality and lens character were very similar to the Leica! I wouldn’t say exact and the Leica had a slight edge, however, I have to ask myself at this point, is the Leica worth it for me? When adding up all the pros and cons, and compared to my other camera systems?
Why Fujifilm and Sony, and is there room for Leica?
I think when you are looking to purchase a Leica system you have to be in a certain state of mind with your photography equipment. I think through all of this I discovered my relationship with gear, and in that process, started looking at what I needed to produce the photography that I have a passion for. And although the Leica in many ways could potentially fulfill that for me, it didn’t end up fulfilling it for me as much as my other camera systems as the Sony and Fuji kits did.
With my Sony kit, you get a completely different experience than a Leica. It tends to be a lot more robotic, and clinical, but also has features that get the job done in almost any environment, especially in autofocus. I often shoot fast-moving subjects in unpredictable environments, and although it’s not impossible at all to catch fast-moving subjects and environments with an M10; I think it’s safe to say that Leica is a camera that you use in very specific environments, that are often a little more deliberate and focused.
With Fujifilm, often called the “poor man’s Leica”, it’s sort of a mixture between vintage ergonomics with modern mirrorless digital camera features; at an affordable price of entry. Although we won’t go down the road of arguing crop sensor APS-C cameras vs Full Frame cameras, Fuji does fall in that category of producing a unique experience offering its vintage dials and buttons, bundled with classic film simulations built into the camera body.
Lastly, I found the “rabbit hole” of lusting for other Leica glass and hitting the financial roadblock, frustrating. I like fast f1.4 lenses and most all of them in the Leica catalog. were in the upwards of $3500-$6000. I really would need to let go of my other camera system to begin to support a growing Leica setup, and I couldn’t see myself doing that, at the time.
So…after careful thought and review of my images, I decided to part ways with the Leica M10, in early 2021. I think the Leica system is an extraordinary camera system, offering such a uniquely positive experience. I learned a lot about photography shooting with it, and I think some of the best photographers out there shoot Leica. The camera forces you to think before you shoot and if you are in a place where you’ve gotten bored with your existing kit, going Leica will rejuvenate your love of photography. It’s all about getting back to the basics, but just remember it comes at a cost, and it’s not just the initial buy. It’s wanting more and more and more.
A final note on the recent Leica M11 release and if I will ever buy a Leica again: When I saw that Leica had announced a new tri-resolution sensor camera body, I was VERY excited. I thought…wow this could be the camera truly marrying modern tech with refined and vintage ergonomics. I like where Leica is going and I like the bold move. I’m hoping other camera manufacturers go in that direction, allowing one to shift between sensor resolutions, such as 18mp, 33mp, and 61mp all in one camera! Will I ever go back to Leica? Someday when I can justify spending the money again! My decision to sell the Leica was more of an economic one when supporting another camera system. I think a new Leica like the M11 is still out of my spending reach unless I decide to ditch my other cameras and use those funds to dedicate myself to Leica, but for now, I can’t do that, I like my Sony and Fuji kits as well as reviewing other camera systems, so I’ll drool at what Leica comes out with, maybe rent one on occasion and maybe pick up a Leica M10-P when the finances do make sense again for me because after all the Leica is an extremely fun and rewarding camera I would like to get back into someday!