For those who have not experienced the joy of shooting with this camera, I will offer several concrete reasons why someone would pay three or four times the price of other major brands:
1. The rangefinder itself is a great way to shoot. Especially with telephoto, where it matters most, you see far more perimeter action than just the area of the photograph. This completely transform the act of composing and framing a photograph. The rangefinder itself is a high precision and very expensive apparatus that partly accounts for the high price of the camera.
2. There are an insane number of legacy lenses that fit the Leica and synch with the rangefinder. There's a whole suite of lenses by Nikkor from the 1950s that are a joy to use and surprisingly sharp, each with its own personality. There are of course Zeiss and Voigtlander lenses, but also Schneider, MS Optics, Canon, Meyer Optik, and so forth. Some of the legacy lenses are really tiny. They may only go to F3.5 but they're excellent, really sharp and contrasty, and fit in your pocket like spare change. Canon, Nikkor and Sony and Sigma now make some very good lenses for SLRs and mirrorless, but they are ENORMOUS compared with Leica. The Leica lenses will be tiny and excellent at the same time.
3. The darned thing fits in your suit pocket along with three or four spare lenses, so you have it with you at all times. I recall a conversation I had once with another photographer who was carrying his Canon gear in a backpack and stopped me to ask why I was using a Leica. During our conversation a couple stood next to us with several dogs tugging at their leashes. While we were talking I must have shot 30 frames of the leashes and shadows on the pavement, from waist level, while his Canon stayed in the backback.
4. The dynamic range of the sensor is very good. I know there are some other cameras represented to be a bit better, but I've taken photos where there was streetlight and daylight in the same frame (under a bridge) and I was able to cull detail out of both lighting conditions.
5. They are very unobtrusive. When you shoot with a Leica, people barely recognize you as a photographer. They think it's a quaint old film camera and want to look at it.
6. If you want to use it as a mirrorless camera, just add the viewfinder. I use it for macro photography, for extreme telephotos, and for superwides beyond the capability of the rangefinder frame, which goes to 28 mm.
7. The menus are simple. True it does not have all the special effects which I view as gimmicky, just a few essentials, so you don't need a PhD to get through the adjustments.
So there you have it. If you want a stealth camera to carry at all times, with several spare lenses in your pocket, and yet has superior picture quality and the best optics available anywhere, the Leica is it.
1. The rangefinder itself is a great way to shoot. Especially with telephoto, where it matters most, you see far more perimeter action than just the area of the photograph. This completely transform the act of composing and framing a photograph. The rangefinder itself is a high precision and very expensive apparatus that partly accounts for the high price of the camera.
2. There are an insane number of legacy lenses that fit the Leica and synch with the rangefinder. There's a whole suite of lenses by Nikkor from the 1950s that are a joy to use and surprisingly sharp, each with its own personality. There are of course Zeiss and Voigtlander lenses, but also Schneider, MS Optics, Canon, Meyer Optik, and so forth. Some of the legacy lenses are really tiny. They may only go to F3.5 but they're excellent, really sharp and contrasty, and fit in your pocket like spare change. Canon, Nikkor and Sony and Sigma now make some very good lenses for SLRs and mirrorless, but they are ENORMOUS compared with Leica. The Leica lenses will be tiny and excellent at the same time.
3. The darned thing fits in your suit pocket along with three or four spare lenses, so you have it with you at all times. I recall a conversation I had once with another photographer who was carrying his Canon gear in a backpack and stopped me to ask why I was using a Leica. During our conversation a couple stood next to us with several dogs tugging at their leashes. While we were talking I must have shot 30 frames of the leashes and shadows on the pavement, from waist level, while his Canon stayed in the backback.
4. The dynamic range of the sensor is very good. I know there are some other cameras represented to be a bit better, but I've taken photos where there was streetlight and daylight in the same frame (under a bridge) and I was able to cull detail out of both lighting conditions.
5. They are very unobtrusive. When you shoot with a Leica, people barely recognize you as a photographer. They think it's a quaint old film camera and want to look at it.
6. If you want to use it as a mirrorless camera, just add the viewfinder. I use it for macro photography, for extreme telephotos, and for superwides beyond the capability of the rangefinder frame, which goes to 28 mm.
7. The menus are simple. True it does not have all the special effects which I view as gimmicky, just a few essentials, so you don't need a PhD to get through the adjustments.
So there you have it. If you want a stealth camera to carry at all times, with several spare lenses in your pocket, and yet has superior picture quality and the best optics available anywhere, the Leica is it.
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