Leica 14496 Handgrip M (Black)
Leica 14496 Handgrip M (Black)
- Ergonomic design
- Can be used with the finger loop for additional support.
- Particularly useful when using the Leica R-Lenses and the Leica R Adapter.
The handgrip M ensures improved safe and steady camera handling, particularly when shooting with heavier R-Lenses.
List Price: $ 300.00
Price:
Leica 10771 M 24MP RangeFinder Camera with 3-Inch TFT LCD Screen – Body Only (Silver/Black)
- Leica Max 24 MP Sensor for maximum imaging quality.
- Fast Leica Maestro image processor
- Universal capabilities with Live View and the electronic viewfinder.
- Splash-proof camera body.
- 3″ display with 920,000 pixels, Corning® Gorilla® glass screen protector.
The new Leica M is the most innovative and versatile M-Camera that the modern M-System has ever created. It unites decades of experience in rangefinder technology with groundbreaking digital technologies: It features a completely newly developed high-resolution full-format CMOS sensor that, in combination with its high-performance processor and the legendary M-Lenses; delivers outstanding imaging results. With Live View, video, and new additional focusing methods, it is also the M for photograph
List Price: $ 7,250.00
Price:
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A bit ho hum,
1. It connects to camera using the tripod connector that is in the body of the M-P, not just in the base plate as earlier models. Leica touted this as being a better, more robust way to connect the camera to a tripod. They have just negated that with this hand-grip and now the camera is back to using threads in the base plate of the grip.
2. The standard base can be removed with a half twist of the key to replace the battery and SD card, with this base plate I now have to unscrew the hand grip base plate, many rotations. Not a big deal but if you need to change a battery or card quickly this just isn’t as quick as with the standard plate.
3. I have the silver M-P, the standard base is silver, no option for a silver hand-grip.
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|Love this grip,
Other than the obvious benefits of the grip it should be noted that the tripod mount reveals threads that are directly connected to the body of the camera (as opposed to the M9/Monochrom grips, where the *grips* are threaded to accept a tripod mount). The result is that the M240 has a much more robust attachment point for tripods which is of course very important.
I have *both* the “Finger Loop Size M 14 647” and the “Finger Loop Size L” that are capable of attaching to this grip. The finger loop rocks and I use it daily.
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|It’s the better Leica,
The Leica M9 had lots of character, that special quality that’s hard to describe but oh so easy to see in your photos – but the M9 also had a lot of limitations and sometimes frustrating shortcomings, the look was second to none, but trying to shoot a few frames in quick succession and the camera could freeze and require you to take out and re-insert the battery. The LCD screen was good for reading menu text, but really viewing photos on it was more of a theoretical thing since the color cast and detail was horrible and zooming in to see if you nailed the focus would take seconds to render – I could go on and on, but as far as the system around the amazing imaging went, it was a barely working camera.
The typ 240 changes all of that and more – the rangefinder focusing is more accurate and it’ll nail more shots then ever before, the sensor is higher quality, the colors are more accurate, no more green cast and blown out reds. The LCD screen is beautiful and zooming in to photos is instant, files are now usable upto 3200 ISO – and it even has live view which can be quite useful when it’s too dark to RF focus or when you’re shooting at f0.95. Just everything about it is a huge step forward and makes for a much better camera.
If you haven’t shot Leica before, then this short review won’t be enough to tell you everything you need to know – but there’s countless resources available online to help you out there. But I will say this, the quality of the photos from the M typ 240 are far better than any Canon or Nikon DSLR can produce, the contrast, saturation, colors and sharpness the M combined with Leica lenses can deliver is out of this world – and when you do nail that shot, the Leica will make it look better.
The rangefinder system is much harder to use, manual focus, a very poor exposure system, very few bells and whistles compared to most modern camera’s – but that’s not what the Leica system is about – the Leica is all about slowing down, taking photos full of intent and art. So it’ll help you take beautiful photos if you’re willing to take on the challenge, but if you’re looking for features and something that can shoot 11fps, auto-focus, do subject tracking in sports of birding, or even has real lenses beyond 135mm or zoom lenses for that matter – get a D800 or a 5D Mark III instead – they’ll give you 90% of the image quality for 30% of the price and give you a much wider choice of lenses. If however you want that special range finger experience with that look that nothing else can product, than this system is for you – and the 240 is the best Leica made to date, by far.
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|A little buyer’s remorse–,
UPDATE – camera has been back to Leica twice for service. First time they paid, second time they sent me a bill for $1200 to re-repair a loose sensor and misalignment of the rangefinder. I fear Leica has jumped the shark. I have owned a lot of their glass over the years. I’m probably never buying another (new, at least) camera from leica. For the money I would buy a used phase one with a digital back and get 10x the camera and quality.
Prior review:
I often try to talk myself into liking something that I got ripped off on buying in order to justify getting ripped off. I feel a little bit that way with this camera. Before you say, “Oh you are a poor person; you aren’t the right consumer for a Leica; go buy a Panasonic,” let me interject that the M240 is my third Leica and I’m absolutely not afraid to spend money. I’m not going to return this camera or unload it onto craigslist or the like but I don’t feel good about how much it cost; it feels like a bad value. I would have been happy to pay $2-3k for this but for $7k+ I could have bought a Sony full frame and a bunch of new glass for it. The only reason I’m keeping this is because the images are breathtaking and I can use the $30k worth of Leica glass I already own and know how to use/like and not have to buy more lenses.
The good:
* Great colors
* Full frame resolution – picture quality is breathtaking
* Rapid Frames Per Second Capability – (More frames per second than my Monochrom)
* Live View on the screen – I can do Macro photos with a stack of spacers; can’t do that on any other Leicas except with a single spacer and goggles
* Focus Peaking – (very helpful with a Noctilux or other hard-to-focus lens or doing macro)
* Screen – screen tells me what my shutter speed setting is (helpful in the dark when I’m changing from 1/60 to 1s to B or whatever)
* Tripod mount is more solid than the Monochrom – instead of connecting to the baseplate the mount connects to the camera body itself. This is really helpful and noticeable.
* Accessories – I can use the Leica extended grip with finger loop on the M240. The extended grip on the MM does *not* have a fingerloop option and is noticeably flexible and less solid that the M24. I usually switch base plates on the MM back to the “stock” base plate instead of the “large grip” base plate because the large grip base plate is so flexible. The large grip baseplate on the M240 is solid as a rock.
The bad:
* Bulb setting maxes out at 60 seconds (or worse, at only 30 seconds at ISO >200). For some reason this really bothers me. I take lots of pictures with long exposures and now I will have to “stack” them if I want 3-4 minutes and I don’t know how to do “stacking” in photoshop and I don’t want to learn; I just want to take pictures. The monochrom maxes out at 240 seconds and that sort of bothers me but I have yet to need longer than 240 seconds for any shots and so I still love the monochrom.
* Dirty sensor from the factory – I don’t know if I just got unlucky on QC but the sensor had dust spots all over it and I had to clean the sensor 5 times in the first week I owned it because dust somehow kept getting on the sensor even though I didn’t remove the lens from the camera between cleanings. It is almost like something was dirty inside the camera body and migrating out into the sensor area and causing problems. I’ve never had such a problem with any other camera, whether from Leica, Fuji, Canon, Sony, Panasonic or anyone else
* System lockup – In the week I’ve owned it the camera has locked up on me where it wouldn’t respond to inputs from any button and I had to remove the battery to reset it. I’ve heard complaints about this on other Leicas; it has never happened to me on my Monochrom.
* Shutter button feel – unlike the shutter on my Monochrom, which feels like a camera shutter, the shutter on the M240 feels like the button on my iphone. I hate it.
* Menu System – the menu system is complicated and gives me a headache. The reason I use a Leica instead of a Sony, Nikon or Cannon is that I don’t need to read a 300 page manual to know how to use it; shutter speed, aperture and focus is all I need to know. Other than White Balance, nothing in the menu structure is helpful for me and it is just screen after screen of headache. If I wanted to tolerate menu systems and little buttons I could have saved $5k and bought the Sony.
All in, it takes great pictures and when I combine that with my level of laziness I will end up keeping it. But I wish I’d bought the Sony instead. Or just stayed with my crappy, cheap Fuji cameras for color because they work fine for 1/10th of the price. The M240 isn’t 10x better than my Fujis, it is just 10x as expensive.
EDIT: after spending another month with the camera it has grown on me appreciably. The three features that I didn’t fully appreciate are:…
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|Shooting with a Leica is like a long tender kiss,
Leica’s rich photographic history, gorgeous, clean construction, German engineering, compact body, beautifully illuminated Rangefinder patch, no DSLR-like Shutter lag, being able to come close to the subject and being part of the scene, Leica’s superior range of beautifully constructed, small yet fast aperture lenses with manual focus; that sweet, discreet, orgasmic shutter sound and the sheer joy and purist simplicity of using a Leica …
I never regret selling all my CanoNikon gear. Sold those plastic junks, saved up for couple of years and bought myself a beautiful Leica and I am loving every bit of it. People say it is expensive, yes it is, but instead of buying CanoNikon gear every 5 years, you buy a Leica and it is likely to outlast you. A Leica is for life. You save money in the process, because you are not going for the latest gimmick every few years. You already have a Leica and it has a special place in your photography practice, at least that’s how my Leica makes me feel.
By the way, you can get a used Leica M3, M6 (film), or even a used Leica M8 (digital) and you don’t have to sell a kidney to get your hand on one of those beauties.
Finally, (and this is important), it’s not about specs. If specs is the most important thing for you, then forget Leica, move on, there is nothing to see here. There is no end to this spec-race, there will always be new cameras with ‘better’ specs, but that’s not why you buy a Leica. Those who keep arguing about specs are missing the whole point of owning a Leica. You don’t buy Leica after looking at a Spec-Sheet. You buy Leica with your heart.
To those who love shooting with a Leica, it’s more about the ‘experience’ of using a Leica Rangefinder and not just about the end-product, although some of the most well-known photographers of 20th century used a Leica, mainly because of their unobtrusive, minimalist design, the durability and the range of extraordinary Leica lenses.
The ‘Leica Experience’ is unique in that regard, a Leica doesn’t necessarily take better photos (although they have a distinct ‘Leica Look’), but it can help you to become a better photographer, because in this world of automation, Leica slows you down – and that’s what I LOVE about it. It makes you to ‘think’ before you press that shutter, it brings you closer to your subject, you take less photos, but sometimes less is more, and you keep getting better at it – and all of these are as important, or probably more important in photography than the Spec-Sheet.
The great man himself said it best –
“Shooting with a Leica is like a long tender kiss, like firing an automatic pistol, like an hour on the analyst’s couch.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
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