Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The new Leica M really brings out the haters...



Wow! There's a lot of prejudging going on regarding the newly announced Leica M camera. People seem seriously obsessed about the cost at the expense of their own rationality.

I've extensively shot a Canon 5DmkII as well as a Leica M9. Rangefinder focusing is admittedly not for everyone but I can certainly say at low-to-moderate ISOs the photographic quality of the M9 easily exceeds the 5DmkII. The Leica glass is simply phenomenal! Canon has nothing even remotely close to Leica lens quality, especially on the wide end. I'm very eager to see RAW results from the new M's sensor.

Is $7K a reasonable price for a camera? Given the resulting image quality, the insane build quality and the compactness of the M9, certainly I think so.

The disdain some folks have for Leica and its users borders on pathology. I'm a decent photographer who takes great pride in my work and having people dismiss me as a "dupe" or fool simply because one of my cameras is rather expensive is idiotic in the extreme.

A rangefinder camera doesn't make sense for *every* shooting situation but for the ones it does, it excels!

Am I rich? No.
Did I have to sell a ton of gear and save up to afford the M9? Yes.
Was I duped into buying for "fashion" or "glamour" reasons? Not on your life.
Is the quality of the output everything I hoped for? Damn right!

These people commenting on the new release actually need to *try* an M.

Some of the hubbub can be sampled here:

1 comment:

Jack Astro said...

I am not much of a photographer, but I can see the appeal. I have used a friend's Leica rangefinder a few times. Once you get the hang of focusing, it is pretty easy to take really really ridiculously good looking photos.