I first bought a Leica camera in 2012. It was a Leica M-E or Type 220, a stripped down version of an M9, purchased from Adorama, a well-known camera store located in Lower Manhattan. I subsequently purchased a Leica M Monochrom, a black and white version of the M9, from Fireside Camera in San Francisco. Both cameras were full frame; had a 18 megapixels CCD sensor; and required manual focus. The difference is that the Monochrom does not have a color filter.
Over time, I acquired 4 Leica M lenses to cover a range of focal lengths: Super Elmar-M 21mm f/3.4; Summicron-M 35mm f/2; Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4; and APO-Summicron-M 90mm f/2.
Why Leica? It’s for the usual reasons: the “Leica Look” and manual photography. The “Leica Look” for me means sharper images, better colors and more micro-contrast. It helps me achieve my goal of capturing images as I want to remember them (i.e., with a bit of a “pop”). Here’s a fun article on “Understanding the ‘Leica Look”” including a image comparison quiz – https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2022/08/understanding-the-leica-look/.
The logic behind shooting in manual mode with fixed lenses and manual focusing is that it allows the photographer complete control over the variables behind an image. The intent is to focus on creativity.
The Leica is compact and somewhat unobtrusive. I use it for travel and street photography.
Here are sample photos of both the M-E and Monochrom taken from 2 workshops given by Leica Store San Francisco: Monterey/Big Sur and Street Photography. In most cases, they are unedited except for a bit of cropping.
Now here’s the bad news… After taking a hiatus during the pandemic years, I shot photos of the 2022 Monterey Car Week. During image processing, I noticed spots on some of the images which I assumed was dust on the CCD. After a local camera store told me I had a more serious problem, I shipped both cameras off to Leica for servicing. The diagnosis was corrosion on the CCD sensor. Apparently, this was a known problem with the M9 – see https://petapixel.com/2020/09/12/leica-m9-sensor-corrosion-due-to-dumb-design-decision-report-claims/.
By late 2022, Leica no longer had any replacement sensors. They did offer significant discounts ($2,000+) on a M10-R and a Q2. The M-11 was announced in January 2022 but not generally available. The Q3 was not announced until May 2023, the following year. I accepted their offers and got both cameras. Getting a Monochrom was not an option.
For comparison purposes, I shot the 2023 Monterey Car Week with both cameras as well as the Nikon Z6.
The Leica Q2 has become by travel and general purpose camera while the Leica M10-R is used for special projects or simply when I want to go manual. The Q2 has a 47 mexapixels sensor, a fixed Summilux 28mm f/1.9 lens, and auto-focus. The M10-R has a 40 megapixels sensor, uses interchangeable M mount lenses, and manual focus. Both are great cameras!