After years of working as a concert photographer, I decided to move to analog full-time last year. The transition wasn’t easy—I had to reconcile the comfort of shooting 900 frames during a two-hour concert with the inherently laborious nature of acquiring, handling, and processing film.
When I first saw the Leica IIIF, it was in a video someone posted on Instagram that demonstrated how to load film into the camera. I’d heard about these rangefinders being a real pain in the butt to load, but I thought, how hard could it be? I have a Leica M2. It can’t be too much harder than loading that. I’m a moron (just kidding). Blinded by the shine and beauty of it, as I often am when seeing a camera I like, I had to have one.
This is a tale of my experiences with a Leica M10-D, but my journey with a digital M without a screen didn’t start with this camera. I used a Leica M-D for a while in addition to an analog M for portrait shoots in order to test whether I like the concept of a digital camera without a screen.
When I first got my Leica M10-P I referred to it as being brilliantly underwhelming. This isn’t the most complimentary sounding comment I don’t think, but actually it comes from a place of feeling really very satisfied with it as a camera.
For a specific set of my needs, the Leica M10-P does exactly what it’s supposed to and does so in a way that I needn’t put a second of thought into how I use it and what I use it for. But none of this is because it’s the most technologically advanced camera I own – instead it’s because it feels like it’s the most well refined as a concept. And for that alone, I see it as only a little less than a complete success as a camera.
I bought my Leica M8 used in 2012. After dabbling in all sorts of digital cameras – Nikon, Fuji, and Olympus — I was looking to replicate the joy of my old Leica M4-2 so I finally mustered up the courage (and the money) to buy the M8. I had never spend so much money in one go on photography gear till that day. Things did not start off smoothly. After a few months with the M8 the shutter failed.
