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Tuesday, 7 August 2018

LEICA M10 - My body likes it!


This is my new profile picture for my social media and stock photography sites. It's the best self portrait I've taken for years, which isn't saying much for the others!, but I like it. The camera, as some have spotted, is a Leica M10. I've bought it to replace quite a few other cameras. Already sold, or on ebay, are Leica Q, Leica TL2, Sigma SD Quattro H and Canon 5DS R. Also a lot of lenses are going as well, including the amazing Leica 24-90mm zoom for the Leica SL (which is staying).

All this is because I've started to get some shoulder, back and arm 'twinges'. that I know from experience are camera weight related. Now I haven't sold much in the last 18 months or so and have accumulated quite a lot of gear. So in a way the twinges have helped me to get round to selling gear I rarely use these days. Plus ebay had this offer where total fees were only £3 per item for a few days.

I will obviously be writing about this in the future. But it's already become my favourite camera, supplanting the Leica M7 on which it is based. You will spot the Visoflex add on EVF in the picture, which I bought for my Leica T and TL2 cameras and I've been using it all the time. It really opens up the possibilities for the M10 and I've been using Nikon and Leica R as well as my Leica M lenses on the camera. Manual focusing with focus peaking is the best I've ever used and makes some of my 'difficult' lenses much easier to use.



Top is from a Leica 135mm M lens and bottom is my Voigtlander 10mm, which for a rangefinder camera needs a separate (very expensive and wildly inaccurate!!) viewfinder. Not any more, the Visoflex handles it well. In terms of results, the images are similar to the SL (which means great quality) but this is clearly a different sensor.

So, I get a versatile camera, a lighter and smaller camera than I have been using of late and, of course, a very aesthetic piece of kit. And no it isn't cheap, but I've easily covered the cost with the gear I've sold. Manual Focus only of course and no video, but that fits in with how I'm working these days anyway. I wrote earlier this year that the Leica M7 was my favourite camera, but the M10 now has that title. And it has restored my faith in digital imaging. It is pretty much like a film camera in operation, which works for me and I have really enjoyed using it.

More later, obviously, including a run down on using the Visoflex. I found it very difficult finding out about that before I bought it, so I thought I'd put together a comprehensive guide to using live view on a Leica M camera. (Currently in progress) Finally any camera that takes a self portrait I'm not embarrassed to publish must have a lot going for it!!

Stock photography by david martyn hughes at Alamy

© David Taylor-Hughes / Soundimageplus Blog
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