Ice Abstract
A word of warning first. You loose something when you get a Leica M monochrom. Money, obviously. The appreciation of your fellow man. The pictures are only black and white, after all!
Pondering the Ur-Leica
Yes, you loose color, but could that be a gain?
A Far View
There’s the tradition of photography to fall back upon, to take up in your own black and white work with the M monochrom. Derivative, yes, but at least a good apprentice piece could come out of it.
Functionally, the Leica M monochrom (type 246) is a subtly new beast, though. I collected it five days ago in Wetzlar and here are some first impressions.
Proportions
My son came with, borrowed a Leica M10 and took this photo of me trying out the M monochrom for the first time. It is a small camera, disappearing behind my proportions. Bit awkward to hold in my big hands (glove size 9), but I’ll fix that with a grip.
Had to shoot back, hadn’t I?
Fluid to use in the rangefinder style of working.
You don’t have to chimp. But you can.
Taking photos of a family member is about as far removed from street photography as it gets, but I have to improve my skills in the latter genre and won’t bother you with failed test shots.
I do feel moved to do a new project with the M monochrom:
It is portraits combined with an interview format and I talk about it (in German, sorry) in my latest screencast (above). Contributors / subjects / interviewees are welcome and we can do these in English and perhaps French, too. Contact me on YouTube!
Two windmills
Being a firm proponent of wearing a camera every day, I’ve been taking photos on my morning constitutionals and a longer hike in the Thüringer Wald:
Snow coming over the mountain
Creek scene
Selfie
So, anyway, these I know how to do but they are changed by the fabulous Leica M monochrom. To come back to the question above, I think it is a gain for my photography. And you can up the sensor’s gain from a base ISO of 320 to 12500 without getting significant shadow noise. Good bye, tripod.
Tags: gear, Leica, Leica M monochrom, photography, photos, rangefinder camera, review
April 8, 2018 at 12:46 am
[…] got the monochrome […]
September 4, 2018 at 2:38 pm
[…] and the technicalities of the photographs. So, about the lead image. I shot it with the Leica M Monochrom (Type 246) (let’s call it the Monochrom for the sake of brevity) and the Summicron M asph 35 mm f/2.0. […]
September 15, 2018 at 3:14 am
[…] wouldn’t hurt the camera. Sneaky! So I tried that out and it works as well, at least with the M Monochrom. I think it will also work with the first Leica camera that did TTL, the eponymically named M6 TTL. […]
October 8, 2018 at 1:44 am
[…] that’s my new go-to color digital camera. I need more space on my hard […]
November 16, 2018 at 7:18 am
[…] of Fame and a new Leica flagship store was opened. Here’s a series of photos I took with the M Monochrom as the proceedings […]