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After my play with a Leica M8 I booked myself onto an "M9 Experience" session at the Leica Akademie which is above the Leica shop in Mayfair.
Oh dear. Shouldn't have done that :nono:.
The M9 Experience is a 3 hour session with max 4 people (there were just the two of us when I went) with Brett. No charge for the session but you need to book in advance. Nice biscuits too. Leica obviously have a good conversion ratio.
Now Brett has some amazing photos. I was completely gobsmacked by his set of promo shots for Leica rifle scopes which were taken in the Highlands of Scotland and captured the mood and essential feeling of a Highland deer stalk. A stunning set - just beautiful. I guess you could have got the same sort of pics with a 5DII and a set of lenses, but with much more weight and possibly a more acute feeling of imposing on the subject.
Brett is an independent consultant for Leica and an obvious Leica fan. Some of his wedding pictures are gorgeous too, and he shoots with just an M9 and a f/0.95 Noctilux (nice if you can afford it) plus a Digilux 3.
Me and my co-student Dave had a really good Q&A session with Brett in a lovely room above the shop, and had use of an M9 each with a selection of lenses (50 1.4, 50 2, 35 2, 35 1.4), plus a 4gb card each and a full battery. The Q&A was really good - free format and I asked a shedload of questions which were all answered, and illustrated with pics from Brett's enviable archive displayed on a nice big monitor.
Then it was onto the streets to take pictures. I found focusing much easier after being taught how to do it properly, and was shooting the 35 f2 wide open then the 50 f2 and 50 1.4 wide open for the hour or so we were out. That is for stationary subjects. For anything moving it's a completely different kettle of fish and requires major practice. I basically missed focus on every shot with anything moving in it :nuts:.
The user experience is indeed very different, from how you hold the camera to the thought process that goes through taking a shot. It is far more involving than using a DSLR. Strange but true. I had my 1D IV with 50 1.4 on my shoulder, centre focus point and "BAM" there's your shot. With the Leica, whilst able to use aperture priority, I only did that to get my shot settings, then used manual. I figured I only needed two settings to cover all my scenes for the day - a sunny setting and a shade setting, which meant leaving the lens aperture on f2 and the ISO at 160, and adjusting the shutter speed. Simple. I hadn't thought it would be true, but you feel far more part of the picture taking process with the Leica than a DSLR. It makes your brain work much much harder. It's almost as though you feel like you've got to take pictures that live up to the camera - something I also felt to a lesser extent when I got my first 1D i.e. I've got to take some bloody good sports shots to justify this.
I cant say I'm comfortable with street photography - it's not my "thing", and I felt quite pressured to get good shots in a short period of time even though there was no hassling whatsoever with Brett, who was very patient and helpful throughout.
Aside from focusing on anything that moves, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. I can see why Leica owners get hooked. It's an experience thing as much as the actual camera itself, and it pulls you in. Gaaagghhh!! I'm doomed already!
Brett demonstrated that it was very possible to focus on moving things and nailed lots of shots of people in motion which was just really annoying. Part of the "draw" is that you've got to work hard to get good with the camera.
Image-wise, the quality is pretty good when you get the focus right. I shot some comparison shots of the same scenes with my 1DIV which were far faster to take (focus, recompose, bang), and actually looked pretty darned good, and so they should as that's £5k's worth of kit when I bought it new. You'd be hard pressed to tell the difference I think unless you're somewhat obsessed and a pixel peeper. Mind you I did an upward looking shot of a tree at f/5.6 on the 50 f/2 and the sharpness in RAW was pretty gob-smacking. Colours from the M9 were very natural as well.
So, very interesting. Certainly very different. The M9 has flaws - slow, poor screen, user-defined focus accuracy, poor high ISO, poor battery life. But the feeling you get taking pics with it is very different and enjoyable as well as challenging. My ideal setup would be an M9 and a 35 f/2 and 50 f/2 which is £8,200. Now that's a lot of money. So for now I'm going to play much more with my 1DIV and a 50 1.4 and see how I get on, and I'll have my GF1 and 20 1.7 handy too.
Some pics with some quick & dirty Lightroom B&W conversions. Nothing special - I was too nervous and uncomfortable.
#1 Co-student Dave probably with 50 2.0
#2 Park life with 50 1.4
#3 Tree with 50 2.0 at 5.6
#4 Brett with 35 2.0
#5 Can with (I think) 50 1.4
#6 Major crop of a smoking break where I nailed the focus very nicely on the 50 1.4
Oh dear. Shouldn't have done that :nono:.
The M9 Experience is a 3 hour session with max 4 people (there were just the two of us when I went) with Brett. No charge for the session but you need to book in advance. Nice biscuits too. Leica obviously have a good conversion ratio.
Now Brett has some amazing photos. I was completely gobsmacked by his set of promo shots for Leica rifle scopes which were taken in the Highlands of Scotland and captured the mood and essential feeling of a Highland deer stalk. A stunning set - just beautiful. I guess you could have got the same sort of pics with a 5DII and a set of lenses, but with much more weight and possibly a more acute feeling of imposing on the subject.
Brett is an independent consultant for Leica and an obvious Leica fan. Some of his wedding pictures are gorgeous too, and he shoots with just an M9 and a f/0.95 Noctilux (nice if you can afford it) plus a Digilux 3.
Me and my co-student Dave had a really good Q&A session with Brett in a lovely room above the shop, and had use of an M9 each with a selection of lenses (50 1.4, 50 2, 35 2, 35 1.4), plus a 4gb card each and a full battery. The Q&A was really good - free format and I asked a shedload of questions which were all answered, and illustrated with pics from Brett's enviable archive displayed on a nice big monitor.
Then it was onto the streets to take pictures. I found focusing much easier after being taught how to do it properly, and was shooting the 35 f2 wide open then the 50 f2 and 50 1.4 wide open for the hour or so we were out. That is for stationary subjects. For anything moving it's a completely different kettle of fish and requires major practice. I basically missed focus on every shot with anything moving in it :nuts:.
The user experience is indeed very different, from how you hold the camera to the thought process that goes through taking a shot. It is far more involving than using a DSLR. Strange but true. I had my 1D IV with 50 1.4 on my shoulder, centre focus point and "BAM" there's your shot. With the Leica, whilst able to use aperture priority, I only did that to get my shot settings, then used manual. I figured I only needed two settings to cover all my scenes for the day - a sunny setting and a shade setting, which meant leaving the lens aperture on f2 and the ISO at 160, and adjusting the shutter speed. Simple. I hadn't thought it would be true, but you feel far more part of the picture taking process with the Leica than a DSLR. It makes your brain work much much harder. It's almost as though you feel like you've got to take pictures that live up to the camera - something I also felt to a lesser extent when I got my first 1D i.e. I've got to take some bloody good sports shots to justify this.
I cant say I'm comfortable with street photography - it's not my "thing", and I felt quite pressured to get good shots in a short period of time even though there was no hassling whatsoever with Brett, who was very patient and helpful throughout.
Aside from focusing on anything that moves, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. I can see why Leica owners get hooked. It's an experience thing as much as the actual camera itself, and it pulls you in. Gaaagghhh!! I'm doomed already!
Brett demonstrated that it was very possible to focus on moving things and nailed lots of shots of people in motion which was just really annoying. Part of the "draw" is that you've got to work hard to get good with the camera.
Image-wise, the quality is pretty good when you get the focus right. I shot some comparison shots of the same scenes with my 1DIV which were far faster to take (focus, recompose, bang), and actually looked pretty darned good, and so they should as that's £5k's worth of kit when I bought it new. You'd be hard pressed to tell the difference I think unless you're somewhat obsessed and a pixel peeper. Mind you I did an upward looking shot of a tree at f/5.6 on the 50 f/2 and the sharpness in RAW was pretty gob-smacking. Colours from the M9 were very natural as well.
So, very interesting. Certainly very different. The M9 has flaws - slow, poor screen, user-defined focus accuracy, poor high ISO, poor battery life. But the feeling you get taking pics with it is very different and enjoyable as well as challenging. My ideal setup would be an M9 and a 35 f/2 and 50 f/2 which is £8,200. Now that's a lot of money. So for now I'm going to play much more with my 1DIV and a 50 1.4 and see how I get on, and I'll have my GF1 and 20 1.7 handy too.
Some pics with some quick & dirty Lightroom B&W conversions. Nothing special - I was too nervous and uncomfortable.
#1 Co-student Dave probably with 50 2.0
#2 Park life with 50 1.4
#3 Tree with 50 2.0 at 5.6
#4 Brett with 35 2.0
#5 Can with (I think) 50 1.4
#6 Major crop of a smoking break where I nailed the focus very nicely on the 50 1.4
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