Reader Jim Arnold in Ohio has just managed to borrow the new minimalist Leica M262 from Lensrentals. He’s currently comparing it with his M-E and I’ll encourage him to jot down a few thoughts. One thing he has noticed immediately is the absence of some options, such as the ability to choose an alternative to centre-weighted metering and the absence of the red frameline option.
In the move back to basics, shrank the menu system from six pages (including the single SET menu) to three—two pages of main menu and one SET screen. In view of Jim’s comments I took am in-depth look at the owners’ manuals for both the M240 and M262 and reached some interesting conclusions. You can find full details in my previous review of the M262 and they certainly make interesting reading.
A really minimalist M would get rid of the LCD in the manner of the "boutique" M60…
…Effectively a completely traditional M camera with the simple substitution of a roll of film (analogue sensor), with a "full frame" CMOS, producing .DNG "open raw" files.
Post processing would then be via one of the software products that are available to us, instead of the scanner and the darkroom.
MMMMM…..
I still hope there is a chance of our seeing such a camera one day. Meanwhile, the M262 is a good effort along the way.