I am honored to be a guest blogger on 35mmc – a blog/webpage that I have been reading for quite some time. When I got the question if I could make a post, I thought of what I should write about. 5 pictures is the theme – but what five pictures? Then it struck me, I have had five Leicas. What about if I post one picture of each camera, and write something about what a Leica camera means to me.
The Leica M9 was the first full frame digital rangefinder. At the time of its release it was also the smallest full frame digital camera on the market. In fact, it wasn’t until Sony released the A7 series cameras some years later that any other manufacturer came close to building a camera as small with a 24x36mm sensor. To this day, the M9 still has a strong user base and even has a bit of a cult following of people who largely seem to appreciate it for the CCD type sensor that sits at its core.
I didn’t buy mine specifically because it’s small (it was the biggest Leica I owned at the time), or because of the CCD, I bought it because it’s the cheapest full frame digital rangefinder on the used market, and after shooting an Leica M8 for a few months it became very clear to me that ‘full frame’, ‘digital’ and ‘rangefinder’ were four words I really wanted to be able to use when describing a single camera in my collection. What I don’t think I entirely expected was just how much I could get out of a digital camera outside of work.
Almost every time I post some photos taken with my Leica M9 I have people asking me “is this straight out of camera”, or “what post process have you done to these” etc. This seems to be a common question with digital photography, especially with mine. I suppose this comes down to people trying to assess from my images what the camera and lens are responsible for, and what is being achieved in post process. The problem is, it’s a just a bit of a hard question to answer without going into lots of detail…
On this particular occasion, the images in question do give me a bit of an opportunity to talk a bit about a specific part of my low light post process when it comes to files out of the Leica M9 – so I thought I’d take the opportunity to go into that bit of detail.
I’ve had the Leica M9 for a few months now, and whilst I am still quite far from writing a review I thought I’d share a few more early thoughts and photos.
I know, I know, more digital – well, there’s more coming too – I’m a good way through my Leica M8 review so that shall be with you soon enough. It’s a good job really, as I’ve recently sold it and replaced it with a Leica M9. I’ve only had it a couple of days …
