Is Leica really worth it?

[Rocky]

As a M4 user for the last 46 years, I can say that the Leica M4 and the lenses are is well made. They have been trouble free all the time. I do not " baby" my camera, I use them as tools. The lenses are way above average even by today's standard.
I am sure that when Leica goes into digital, The picture quality suffers slightly due to the Bayer sensor. You should look into DPreview and look at some of the sample picture and see how good the pictures are.
As for using the Leica lens on the mirrorless camera, I have done that on the EOS_M with 90/4.0 and 35/2.0. The pictures are sharp with excellent color rendition with super definition. It actually beat the 22/2.0 EF-M by a wide margin. That is from a 46 year old lens made for film.. However, most mirrorless are not made for manual focusing. It is a slow and tedious process. Therefore this is not a acceptable operation for me.
The Leica lens focal length range in production now is quite limited. from 17 to 135mm only. It does offer one zoom 17-28mm.
The M9 or ME and model after them are manual focus body. It is a joy to use with the Leica lenses. The focusing is silky smooth and precise. Much better than the film SLR and the modern DSLR. With fine focusing movement and DOF scale on the lens, you can actually prefocus and stop down the lens to made sure that you have more than enough DOF and shoot with zero focusing delay.
"ARCANEJ" posted an excellent comment with excellent pictures on the Mono Chrome model.
Is it worth the money??? That depends on how deep you pockets is and your shooting style.

 

[Perio]

Some time ago I was looking to get Leica S2 medium format cameras. But their lenses are ridiculously expensive (the cheapest one I believe was around $5000), so I came to a conslusion that my photography skills were not good enough to justify the expense.

 

[Northstar]

No

 

[lintoni]

Excluding Leica S Medium Format DSLR, The rangefinder cameras are unable to replace DSLR Canon or Nikon, or or perhaps mirrorless Sony.

There is not and can never be auto focus. ???
There is not and can never be zoom lenses. :
There is not and can never be macro lenses. :-[
There is not and can never be ultra wide-angle lenses. :-X
There is not and can never be fisheye lenses.
There is not and can never be super tele lenses.
There is not and can never be tilt shift lens. :'(
There is not and can never be Image Stabilizer Lens. :-*

For me, rangefinder cameras work well for a werent limited number of photos, not worth the investment.

You would have more benefits using Zeiss lenses Otus in their current DSLR.

EDIT: How could I forget ... Leica M is the only camera system currently to take pictures with the lens cap, and not notice anything wrong through the viewfinder.

Blind Blake, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie McTell, Blind Eric Clapton...

 

[Hillsilly]

Hallo Hillsilly,

Have look at this:

http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2014/06/sensor-stack-thickness-when-does-it-matter

Thanks, but I suspect we're talking at cross purposes. The R system lenses that I mentioned are SLR lenses and are different to the M system lenses. The R lenses are just like your regular Canon SLR/DSLR lenses. Most were very high quality for their time and there were even some rebadged Minolta lenses that are now fairly affordable on eBay. Going back to the point about using them with mirrorless cameras, they usually have good optics, nice manual focusing mechanisms, manual aperture rings and as far as older, adapted lenses go, there isn't much better . And if you're shooting APS-C, just add a speed booster (which exist for Leica R, but not Leica M) and you're essentially back to using the lenses as designed. (Not that I'm necessarily saying adapted lenses are a great idea, but it is a useful side benefit)

 

[9VIII]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

If you want to own something because it's too expensive for any of your friends to afford one, then yes it's worth it.

 

[dickgrafixstop]

I'd like to meet someone with a brand new Porsche who says "It's nothing special - just a Volkswagen with a big
engine". He could be a Leica owner. Sure, they have a "special" past, fine glass and a body you could drive nails with, but "nothing special" - if you have enough spare change. Using one requires more than a basic knowledge of photography, a mindset to take "photographs instead of pictures" - and not needing a longer focal length than
135mm. It also requires good eyesight to use the rangefinder, good psychomotor skills to focus, and a touch of
arrogance. For an entertaining evening try the Leica user forum at l-camera-forum.com.

 

[arcanej]

I'd like to meet someone with a brand new Porsche who says "It's nothing special - just a Volkswagen with a big
engine". He could be a Leica owner. Sure, they have a "special" past, fine glass and a body you could drive nails with, but "nothing special" - if you have enough spare change. Using one requires more than a basic knowledge of photography, a mindset to take "photographs instead of pictures" - and not needing a longer focal length than
135mm. It also requires good eyesight to use the rangefinder, good psychomotor skills to focus, and a touch of
arrogance. For an entertaining evening try the Leica user forum at l-camera-forum.com.

I love the Monochrom -- really and truly do. It's so much fun to shoot and I really like the images it renders.

I am also the first to admit that it probably isn't worth the price - it's a great product, but I think it would be reasonably priced a few thousand dollars less.

However, I think you exaggerate the difficulty in using a rangefinder.

You need to have a basic sense of what a proper exposure will be but that really isn't too hard to grasp after shooting for a little while. The camera does have a meter built into the rangefinder and it is very easy to adjust the aperture ring if you are within a stop or two of the right ISO/shutter speed on the fly.

Focusing is really easy. I only have two lenses: the 50mm Summilux and the 90mm Summicron. The 50mm is super easy to focus and I rarely have an out of focus shot. I do admit I prefer to have a 40% magnifier on when shooting the 90mm, but, with the magnifier I have few out of focus shots.

 

[Berowne]

Most were very high quality for their time and there were even some rebadged Minolta lenses that are now fairly affordable on eBay.

This is true, as I know these are the Leica-R 24mm Elmarit und the 70-200mm Zooms. But the Leica R3 and the Leica CL/Minolta CLE are also "Minoltas". On the other Hand the Minolta MC/MD Rokor 85/1.7 and the 85mm f/2 MD Rokkor-X are great lenses.

Greetings Andy

 

[mustafaakarsu]

There is not and can never be macro lenses. :-[
There is not and can never be ultra wide-angle lenses. :-X

Actually Leica produces a macro lens for M system http://uk.leica-camera.com/Photography/Leica-M/M-Lenses/Macro-Elmar-M-90mm-f-4-New

And Zeiss produces a 15mm for Leica bayonet http://www.zeiss.co.uk/camera-lenses/en_gb/camera_lenses/zeiss-ikon/distagont2815zm.html

Also Monochrom creates really good images because of the lack of the bayer filter.

 

[arcanej]

Also Monochrom creates really good images because of the lack of the bayer filter.

It really does! Even Roger Cicala likes it although he says he has difficulty using rangefinders.

http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2012/08/mm-mm-good

Also, this blurb from the rental page:
http://www.lensrentals.com/rent/leica/cameras/leica-m-monochrom

"A bargain is something you don’t need at a price you can’t resist. This is something you don’t need at a price you can’t afford. But, damn, it’s a spectacularly awesome thing you don’t need. There’s no logical reason I would need this camera, at all. I can’t even focus a rangefinder because of some eye problems.

"But when I see the images that come out of it, ‘need’ has nothing to do with it. It’s lust, pure and simple. They are different, spectacularly different. I’ve heard people say they can make images just like this with high resolution SLR images and post-processing. They can’t. What comes out of this camera is absolutely unique.

"If I was a great marketing guy, I’d tell you rent this for a week and get it out of your system. But I’ll be honest. You won’t get it out of your system. At least I haven’t.

"I can’t even focus it. I just set the lens to hyperfocal distance, bang away for a while, and then get home, pop the card in the computer, and it’s like Christmas. I’m unwrapping images going “oh, boy, let’s see what I got”. And whatever I got isn’t quite like anything else I can get with any other camera."

 

[ajfotofilmagem]

There is not and can never be macro lenses. :-[
There is not and can never be ultra wide-angle lenses. :-X

Actually Leica produces a macro lens for M system http://uk.leica-camera.com/Photography/Leica-M/M-Lenses/Macro-Elmar-M-90mm-f-4-New

And Zeiss produces a 15mm for Leica bayonet http://www.zeiss.co.uk/camera-lenses/en_gb/camera_lenses/zeiss-ikon/distagont2815zm.html

How can the photographer do the right framework in Macro, through a rangefinder with parallax error?

Again, how to make a correct framework using ultra wide 15mm lens? Is there an optional display that covers the same angle of view?

 

[arcanej]

How can the photographer do the right framework in Macro, through a rangefinder with parallax error?

Again, how to make a correct framework using ultra wide 15mm lens? Is there an optional display that covers the same angle of view?

1) see the macro-kit. It has optics that go over the range-finder.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/382646-USA/Leica_11629_90mm_f_4_Macro_Kit.html
Also, the M240 has an EVF.

2) there are two options.
-The M240 has an EVF.
-For M9 and earlier cameras, you can just buy a line finder to go on your flash shoe.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/586201-REG/Leica_12_024_Brightline_Finder_M_21_f.html

 

[zlatko]

My question is this, is it really worth it? Is the IQ of a top quality rangefinder system with a couple lenses so much better that it justifies the hefty price tag? I know such a question is rather subjective (is it worth it), and different photographers have different needs. And what is good enough for one photographer is not good enough for another. But still, subjectively, is it really worth the added price?

The answer is entirely subjective. I would say the answer is "yes" if all of these are true for you:

1) you specifically want to use a high quality manual focus full-frame rangefinder camera with a system of very high quality, very small lenses;
2) you can afford it; and
3) you can put up with the issues associated with a relatively low volume hand-crafted product, such as slow repair times.

In most cases, it's about the whole package, that is, the experience of using the system, not the specific difference in image quality. That said, a lens like the 50mm f/2 Summicron-M is amazingly sharp wide open at f/2, not to mention the $8K APO version. Likewise, a lens like the 50mm f/1.4 Summilux-M is amazingly sharp wide open at f/1.4. Canon doesn't currently offer a 50mm that is as good wide open. On the other hand, the newish Canon 35/2 IS is probably as good as the Leica 35/2 Summicron-M, and is much cheaper albeit much bigger.