When you repeat an action, but expect another result it.. I believe, is the definition of insanity. And if that is anything to go by, then I am insane. Because, yes, you guessed it, I've bought another Leica M. After my last post, almost a year ago, where I explained in excruciating detail, why I couldn't make the Leica M system work for me.. I've gone and purchased another. However.. I might have cheated a little. And when I say a little.. I mean a lot.
I mean.. insanity means you can do what you want.. think what you want. and change your mind when it suits you.
And so I purchased a Leica M10 Monochrom. Which.. had been sitting in the back of my mind ever since I heard of Leica's first Monochrom camera back in 2011 with the M9M. So why is it a cheat? Well, first off, it's digital, which means that the long wait between badly exposed photography and getting the pictures back from the lab went down from several months (the average time a roll lives in one of my film cameras) down to.. instant. And secondly.. because unlike a Leica M film camera.. with an M10 I can actually use a digital viewfinder and see through the lens. And that changes EVERYTHING. The whole M equation is completely flipped, upended, rendered moot. Now.. I can see what I'm doing, and I can get what I want out of the camera (a black and white image) right out of the camera. This is truly.. amazing. Ok, let me be very clear. This is AMAZING!
Why?
Because my love of photography started with black and white images developed in the school darkroom in Sydney in 1982. And all through my journey through different camera models and film stocks, mostly Tri-X and then Ilford XP (that's how long I've been shooting.. when it was just XP, not XP2!), then digicams, then DSLRs, then mirrorless digital.. I was always searching for the perfect black and white image. Of course I also shot colour, and enjoyed colour. But it wasn't what I wanted. And I spent endless hours toggling images between colour and black and white, to see which worked and which didn't. And that's time of my life that I'll never get back. Now however, from the get-go, I have my image in black and white. And with an M10, it's a better image than I've ever been able to achieve with a bayer filter camera (basically all digital's out there).. Not only is the quality amazingly detailed with it's 40mp sensor, but my camera can see in the dark at ISO 100,000. Sure, it maxes out at that number, the same as my Nikon Z8 in Hi 2, but at that ISO, the M10 images just look like film with a bit of grain.. Absolutely usable images. Whereas my Z8 is simply garbage. I now shoot at night.. walking around.. with my M10. Simply outlandish!
Not only that, but with 3 buttons on the back of the camera, and with a menu written for a child, it is possibly the simplest digital camera I've ever owned. The Rolex feel of the buttons is not quite there, to the level it was with the M3.. but the M3 was Leica's masterpiece. However the M10M feels sculped from a block of brass, all hard edges and corners in a way that they just don't make cameras anymore.
As for lenses.. well, remember that 90mm f2.8 Elmarit-M that I said I didn't use much? Well.. I found another.. a South African photographer who's downsizing.. we had a meeting of minds and an exchange of cash, and now I have my least used lens again :-) Though I may not use it often.. it is a beautiful lens to work with, and with my high ISO, I can use it with impunity.
Second Leica lens is quite an unusual one, the 50mm summicron Dual Range (DR for short) which focuses down the the rather useful 40cm.. much closer than the standard 0.7m of newer Leica lenses, which makes it an excellent close quarter portrait lens or semi-macro (nothing with Leica M's is ever truly macro).. Possibly the heaviest densest lens I've ever owned.. it is a joy to use in the same way the M3 was a joy. Mechanical perfection.
More to say about this development in the weeks to come, but understand this, I haven't felt this excited about photography in quite a while. And it's not about holding a beautifully made object, it's about the images that I'm creating now..
