What's up YouTube, my name is Martin and
today, I want to talk about Leica M.
I've been using Leica a for more than a year and a half and I got it because I wanted to buy a rangefinder
camera, and I ended up with
M240. I have only one lens and that's all I have been using.
So this is kind of like mine minimalist setup for shooting. I'm gonna share with you what has been my experience and
what setting I use. So let's get started
So why
rangefinder? Unlike many reviewers. I have actually not shot too many cameras in my life. I
have started with Leica a D-Lux 109 and the reason back then was I liked the design and
it came together with a free copy of Lightroom and
that kind of justified the price for me back then what I was reading about cameras
I kind of felt like every company is trying so hard to chase the "decisive moment"
with higher and better ISO performance
more frames per second or
faster autofocus, and then there was a Leica M.
I kind of felt like when you go out fishing you can either take this all
fishing rod and do everything manually and
you're risking to miss a lot of things, but it takes some skill and you really have to think about the process and the
settings and so on. Now, I'm not saying you don't need skill to shoot DSLR but
for me it kind of felt like
having a shotgun in
comparison with an old fishing rod and you just shoot and spread and pick up the one shot out of the burst and
It depends, you know
like I definitely like the cameras like Sony A9 where you do those 20 frames per second and
I would definitely think about it in case let's say I would go to the Olympics and
I needed to deliver. So I guess it pretty much depends on
what you are using your camera for but for me and what I use it for
It's just not the case at the moment. So
Why M240 ?
When you want to get into the M digital system
you actually have a several options. It starts with M8 and goes all the way up to
recently released M10-D.
So I wanted to get a used Leica and I didn't want to get too narrow with my lens.
Not more than 50 millimeter. So when I actually found a great deal and got the 50mm lens.
I didn't consider getting
M8 because of its cropped sensor.
So I was deciding between M9 and M240 and I actually found
M240 that was just slightly more expensive than M9 and was actually almost new so that's why.
We can probably all agree M is beautiful camera. It's based
the design is based on M3 and
it remained more or less untouched and it has this cool retro look
especially the chrome finish. When you look at the camera. You can see there are three basic settings outside. You have focusing
aperture ring and shutter speed.
The cool thing is those can be set even when the camera is turned off unlike the old Leicas
this one is full of electronics. So
when you remove the bottom plate
you will find your memory card slot and
the battery. The camera will actually not work in a case the bottom plate is not connected to the camera.
I have actually sticked a small paper here with my
address and phone number and I don't know if this will ever help if I forget it somewhere
but I have those also on my laptop and my
external hard drive. Now when we are talking about the battery. I have actually never run out of battery
I think I get more than
six hundred shots
on a battery charge.
But it also depends on a temperature whenever you are using live view or
video. So you get this charger to charge your battery with your camera and it comes
together with the cable that connects right here.
One thing I have figure out when I'm traveling and I don't want to pack too many cables.
What you actually can do is you can take your iPhone
You can take your iPhone or MAC charger and you can use a part of it.
Plug it in like this.
Plug it in like this and
use it.
Or vice versa you can use big cable to charge your iPhone
or or Mac. One thing to note is the camera doesn't have an electronic shutter and
even though I would say it's pretty quiet
especially on street and
you can set it up all the way
to
4,000 or auto. A lot of people actually dislike the auto mode
but I mean those functions are there to help you and I also use it sometimes when
I'm not sure or just to figure out what
the camera suggests at the moment. It actually has a video button
I don't really know
Why you should want our video in this type of camera. It does not have an image stabilization,
no HDMI, no
mic input, only 25 frames per second while shooting 1080 and
no flat image profile, but you know, it's there and
The best camera is the one that you have with you, right?
So the cool thing is you can actually use the manual focus to create nice
focused to
out-of-focus shots
while using the focusing ring.
Not like you can do that with an iPhone
I like it his microphone even though I would place probably somewhere on the bottom or
somewhere where it's not
distracting or and visible. I mean, you will probably never use it as your main audio source, right?
But it's nice to have it
in case you are using this as your secondary camera
or if you
need to synchronize the sound in the post
The ISO has is dedicated button and you can change it using this wheel while you holding
the ISO button. It was actually a little confusing at the beginning
So the basic ISO is 200, but when I was watching, Torsten Overgaard
he said the dynamic range tops at
400 so that's good to know. Now when you check the viewfinder
you will notice you are not looking through the lens and then that way what you see is
not what you get due to the parallax. There are three types of marks in the viewfinder
left arrow right arrow and the dot. What they show us is -
you are either under or over exposed. At the beginning I had a little problem to remember whenever I shoot
over or underexpose.
So I actually taught myself a little trick. When you see the red arrow pointing to the left you either have to move
the upper part of your aperture ring to the left or
you need to adjust your shutter speed
to the left. If that make any sense to you or vice versa if you see the red arrow
pointing to the right you adjust it to the right or you can change your ISO.
The focusing is actually a little tricky at first
but after some time you will figure it out. As for the focusing you have few
options to approach it.
The easiest one is to bump up your ISO and use for example f/8, f/11 and
together with that when you set your focus to infinity you can kind of use this camera as a point-and-shoot
for the distance five meters and longer. You can also use zone focusing
when you figure out the distance according to
the F-stop you use and you actually see on the lens what distance is in the focus for each
F-stop. When you are focusing what you actually see in the viewfinder
is this small rectangle with the "ghost" image,
and the key is to line up both
the "ghost" image and what you actually see. Also a little tip here when you need to move your "ghost" image to the left you
can imagine you need to move the upper part of your focusing ring
to the left great way to focus on moving subjects is
actually
to start at infinity and
and then slowly as your subject moves towards you
you can move the focusing ring to the other side considering you are trying to focus on moving
subject that's moving towards you.
Because I think that's like 90% of shots you you're going to take. When you look at the back of the camera
you can see this this camera has dedicated Live View button and
I actually find quite useful, especially
for those low angle shots, but it also works for me as a light meter
I often just turn it on and
figure out what is the right speed for the shot
I want to create. I wouldn't probably use an EVF since I think it
kinda kills the whole point of having
the the viewfinder
rangefinder and especially when you have the option of Live View.
What's actually cool about this viewfinder is that you actually see around the borders
what you are shooting it's also a little similar when you are using the live view except what you see on the screen is actually
what you get. Now when I go through over the menu I use I would just point out some differences
otherwise, my setting is pretty standard. In the film mode. I
sometimes use
The vivid color profile because I like it's colors.
In my opinion it little oversaturates the red but it can be
corrected in the post and
it actually looks pretty cool. To be honest. I like this profile.
I use Lightroom and
treat my JPEGs the same way as the DNGs so it imports side by side and
that way I can often see the vivid colors and I often just edit the JPEG and
don't bottle with the DNG. Now. What I have been doing lately is using the black and white and
it's great too when you use the Live View, it's great
because you can see the composition a little better, but also
sometimes
during the post you just get more inspired
when seeing how the black and white shot is converted
so that's that. The other setting I use is actually the auto review.
I have it set to release button pressed.
So what it does is when you take a shot when you hold the shutter button
it actually
keeps the preview on the screen, so
this is kind of like a compromise between
not chipping and
and chipping :D actually, but what I use it for
is mostly when I go out and want to start shooting and I want to
set up my light meter and everything. I just take a shot and look at it on the screen and see whenever my
settings is right. It's overexposed underexposed or so. Other than that
I would like to mention I have my auto power off set to two minutes. So what I do when I'm out shooting I
leave the setting on
on a single shot and just leave the camera on my neck or in my hand or
wherever I have it and
what I do when I enter a scene I want to photograph is just lightpress
this shutter button and what it does is it wakes the camera
so it's ready within like a second or two and then
what I do it when I'm reaching for the camera
I just like press it whenever I put it to the eye and then I can just you know
ajust focus and shoot. So what is my setting when I usually go out and shoot?
I usually go out when there is plenty of light so my typical setting is
f 8.0 ISO 800 and then I
just either ajust shutter speed or if I'm getting like too low like under
1/180, I would say like under 1/180
I'm ajusting ISO. I rarely shoot at night
But when I do, I shoot wide open and I just bump the ISO
So that my shots are correctly exposed.
That's my experience.
Otherwise it quite doesn't work for me. As I said, I only have my 50mm lens and I
mostly use it for street photography
and sometimes portraits but I also use it for landscapes and cityscapes and
It's just I mean, it's not super convenient for cityscapes and landscapes since this is not the wide lens.
But when I want a wider shot, I just have to move a back little when I want to tighter shot. I just
need to move closer, but it's not like you cannot shoot cityscapes or landscapes with this one.
It's just I didn't want to get like more lenses. So the 50 is kind of like a
great compromise, I can shoot pretty much whatever I want with it. So let's talk about some pros and cons.
First what you're going to notice when you pick up this camera,
this camera is heavy and I mean you will find out as soon as you hold it in your hand, but
actually it is probably lighter than
the big DSLRs I
Think my combo of the body and the lens is like one kilogram
so it's like
you will feel it a little once you carry it for the whole day
It's not the end of the world, but you know, it's worth mentioning
it is not like the lightest thing. Might not be with
the other generations like M 10, M 10-D and so on. It does not have an auto focus
I mean that's obvious and
It's expensive.
Even though if you do not need the latest greatest
you can find use ones for pretty great deal. Now in the other hand. This camera is quite small
when you consider, this is a full-frame
It's great looking no doubts about that and it's actually pretty easy to use.
It does not have the autofocus and
I know I have mentioned it as a "minus"
but I think it's as weird as it sounds it actually is a good thing
it does not have this option like for example
Leica Q
or my D-Lux 109 where you can kind of have both. Like the auto focus and the
manual focus. To be honest when you have the autofocus
I don't know about you, but I would actually not use my manual focus that much. I mean almost like never.
Also, like how many of you who have like this option to have the manual focus and auto focus
are using the manual focus except for like
stage portraits or macro.
So I actually think
by this lens and the body not
having the auto focus it actually forces you to learn it.
So also one thing to mention a lot of people when they are talking about Leicas
and
when they usually pick the black ones they talk about this camera being stealth. Now I
kind of think that doesn't make sense like nowadays
because. When you think about it
whenever you pick up like a small smartphone or or anything that you just put close to your eye
nowadays
everyone is going to notice you are taking photo. Because everyone is like so used to it
someone is just taking like a smartphone and shooting so
this might have been thruth like
50 years ago when Cartier-Bresson
had this camera and then half of the people never saw a camera and then it was black and
we could say it was kind of like stealth, but nowadays. I think you're going to be noticed in
99.9% of
when you are taking a shot.
So I actually think having the chrome version
this kind of like retro looking camera. You're going to be more stealth in terms of
not
not being noticed, but in terms of
people will not mind
you are taking the shot because
they will usually think like you're an artist or this is a film camera or whatever.
So I think it's kind of true
this camera being stealth but not for the reason like it's small and compact but for the reason it's just
tolerated by the people who you are taking a shot off. So should you get Leica M?
So if you are totally new I would recommend to loan one
before you buy it
so, you know what you are buying you can get a cheap option with Leica. M8 and
Voigtländer Lens, but it's hard to recommend this since I think
M8 is already discontinued and it would be
expensive to repair it eventually. In my opinion if you can find the m240 for a great price
It's actually still great. Even though it has been released more than five years ago. With every new M
they introduced every generation gets slightly better
lighter faster
but it's also more expensive. So it's up to you how much you want to spend?
Can this be your only camera? I mean it can
if you don't purchase any other camera, it can definitely be your only camera :D. In my case. I have been using this camera and
my iPhone for video and that's pretty much it.
So it depends on what you need a camera for. The last thing I want to point out is
this camera won't make you a great photographer. That's something you actually have to learn so it's not like you
buy this camera and you become this, you know, Henri Cartier-Bresson or something.
Thank you for watching. Let me know in the comments.
Do you have like I am how do you like it?
Or do you consider getting into the M system. Once again, thank you for watching and I will see you in my next video
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