Leica Announces the LEICA M-D Digital Rangefinder

[pwp]

You guys are all over-thinking it....

Perhaps, but I'd suggest Leica is over-thinking it.

-pw

 

[jeffa4444]

If you think like a Canon DSLR user then the Leica is not for you. If you think like someone of the elk of say Joe Cornish then he would immediately relate to thinking about composition and framing through the viewfinder, using the camera manually and appying hyperfocal distances.
Ive been on three different landscape workshops with three different award winning landscape photographers all of them suggested manual operation and all of them said composition, patience and routine create the best lasting images.

 

[ChristopherMarkPerez]

Great! Another Leica way to impress complete strangers with the size of your disposable income allowance and "good taste."

 

[Machaon]

Sharing the image happens on facebook, tumblr, flickr, instagram and twitter. Not on the back of a camera.

What do I use the rear LCD for?
- histogram
- selection of AF point
- selection of region to meter from

Since every picture that I take I expect to put through Lightroom/Photoshop, looking at it on the back of the camera is somewhat pointless except to check for "did I hold the camera still enough." And if your skill level is correct, this is not an issue.

I have also found LiveView immensely valuable for reliable framing. Through-The-Lens framing is the only way you really know what you're going to get, as the OVF frame lines are only guides. Sure, you can crop in post... but why do that if you can do it in camera?

The other huge benefit of LiveView is the ability to frame lenses less than 28 mm focal length. LiveView allows the camera to do this natively, so why cripple oneself with extra add-on viewfinders, whether OVF or EVF?

For these reasons, I did not get the M Typ 262 for its lack of LiveView.

Some of the Leica user community seem to hate the LCD and LiveView as the work of the devil.

At the end of the day, it is an obviously useful function that allows people to take better pictures more reliably in-camera. I love the Leica rangefinder philosophy. I enjoy using the rangefinder as a focus-assist tool (which is exactly what it is), and framing lenses 28 mm or better where framing is not critical to the photograph. But it makes exactly zero sense to take offence at the LiveView function or think that other photographers are lesser sorts because their style makes use of an in-camera function.

There are no doubt some who will want the M-D as a close simulation of the film shooting experience. I'm happy for them that they got the product they were hoping for.

For me, I will continue to shoot my Leica film camera when I'm after the characteristics of a film camera, and use my M240's LiveView to the utmost where that is useful for photography.

I hope the next Photokina iteration of the M digital family includes a sensor with better dynamic range, more usable high ISO for available light photopgraphy (supposedly Leica's forte), and an integrated rangefinder OVF-EVF. With the Leica Q and Leica SL, the company has shown that it has some respectable technology with which to take the M line forward in a serious way. If the M-D satisfies the "minimalist" submarket, then the company is now free to do some serious innovation in a different direction with the presumed Typ 241. That would make a great photographic machine even better, and an enjoyable shooting experience even more so.

 

[Machaon]

Regardless, Leica philosophy has a side point to reflect upon. 1. We need less bulky DSLRs. 2. We don't need the entire DIGIC parameters displayed in triplicate (top LCD screen, rear LCD and viewfinder). Downsize. Use less or smaller batteries to save space. Unless (Canon) your target group ends up to be just "those guys with the white lenses" in the soccer fields.

Well said, George.

For someone who grew up on Canon SLR and just feels over-encumbered now with the shear bulk of DSLRs and a small lens kit, the M mount has been immensely liberating. It just requires one to shoot more manually, which is what most advanced photographers will be doing anyway when they don't need AF tracking.

If Canon had a product in Full Frame with comparable optics and a comparable system form factor, I would be all over it. But that product doesn't yet exist. (In my opinion EOS-M has some great advantages, but isn't in the same ball park.)