So here’s how I got on, just me and my Leica M-D. A great little camera for this kind of photography.

All of the Landscape Photographs showcased on my blog are available as gallery quality framed prints. Contact me for details…

With the Leica M-D you don’t get the LCD screen so in effect you are shooting film. I have a huge collection of presets in my Lightroom Library from VSCO and others. So I can apply a chosen film stock filter to the images as they import into Lightroom and tell myself Ive shot film. It’s perfect for me. In fact with the number of images I take I reckon the M-D has paid for itself is film development costs already.

Anyway, the Leica M10 is a camera I’ve been interested in trying out since its launch and now in February 2018 I get a chance. So I took the M10 with the Leica 35mm Summilux down to Crosby Beach with my Leica M-D with the old Voigtländer 35mm F2.5 from my M4-P and my Hasselblad X1D and 45mm lens, this giving a 35mm equivalent.

I’ve mentioned before I’m a self confessed pixel peeper and rightly so, I am all about capturing maximum detail so I can present my images in the best quality prints here on my online gallery.

The Leica M-D is the sort of camera I just point and shoot, I don’t see it as a technical camera, however it does produce really beautiful images. In fact I think it produces better colour than the Hasselblad and that is really saying something. So, where would an M10 fit in my system. It would have to replace the M-D.

Here are several images taken with all three systems and while the M10 images are slightly different to the M-D images for me there’s no real advantage to swapping. I won’t say upgrading as I don’t see the M10 as an upgrade to the M-D.

My observations are as follows. The shutter sounds better on the M-D. I don’t like the screen on the back of the M10. Nothing wrong with it, I worry I’ll scratch it or it’ll catch on the buttons on my coat and damage it. The images look good, I’d say cooler than the M-D images. Easy to fix though. The menu system and extra features over the M-D are great, however, I don’t need them. What I love about the M-D is its simplicity. That is why I use it so much. I sling it over my shoulder and go, no worries about bumping it, scratches etc. It’s solid and as I’ve already defaced it with wet and dry, which I regret now, I’m thinking what more could go wrong. I’d be too scared to treat an M10 like this.

For me, you just can’t beat the Leica M-D. It’s raw and simple. No distractions. Just take the shot and move on. If it works great, if not, so what. It’s film and as such you have to learn it. Know where the metering will be etc. I love that. You don’t look at the screen and say yes that will do, you compose the image and click. The resulting files from the M-D never fail to impress me and I’m just not ready to give it up, with owning the X1D I don’t see a place for the M10 in my bag. The X1D is my technical camera. It produces images like no other camera I’ve had and I love slowing down the process and being really technical about my approach when using the X1D. The Leica is a fun camera. It has a different use for me. Now if I didn’t have a Hasselblad X1D I would certainly have the Leica M10. My only complaint about it after 24 hours of use is the sound of the shutter. Everything else is fantastic as you’d expect from a Leica Rangefinder.

All of these images are available as gallery quality prints…

In recent years Ive rarely used wide angle lenses. When I say wide angle I mean super wide. I love 24mm for Landscapes, my Canon 24mm TS-E lens that I no longer own sadly and miss dearly was my go to lens for years. Since I moved to the Leica system I havre rarely used super wide. I own a 21mm Super-Elmar lens which I bought at the same time as my Leica M-D, however I have very rarely used it. So, today I was going to intentionally take this lens out and see how I got on with a wider than usual perspective of a failure location.

All these images have had a preset applied on import, levelled and that’s it. I wasn’t in the mood for post processing these today.

Tarn Hows and the Landgale Pikes in the Distance.

This was my first chance to take some Landscape Photographs with the Leica using my filters and Tripod.

Since I got the camera I’ve been shooting mainly at F1.7 as the narrow depth of field this produces creates an amazing 3D look. The difference between really sharp and out of focus adding to the image.

For this shoot however I’d need a smaller aperture to capture more depth of field, shot at around F11 I can capture an image which is sharp from about 80cm in front to the camera to infinity. Using a low ISO speed of 100 ensures maximum smoothness to the image without any noticeable noise or grain.

I was really impressed with the images the camera captured here, really very sharp and the camera itself is a joy to use. I hope to use the Leica Q on many more Landscape Photography shoots in the future.

After the sun had set I managed to capture this scene above which I find quite appealing.

A Post on the Monk Coniston Jetty at F1.7.

You can see more of my Lake District Landscape Prints from Coniston on this link.