Home Brands Leica Changing Gear: In at the deep end with the Leica M11 rangefinder

Changing Gear: In at the deep end with the Leica M11 rangefinder

10 June 2022

Dear Mike,

The more I read Jono’s review of the new M11 rangefinder here on Macfilos, the more I miss my old Canonet QL17. Plus all that jazz with the pixel binning and whatnot is helping in making up my mind. The Leica store in Delhi told me they were getting a few M11s on pre-order in March. I just may order one.

I came across this chap Thorsten Overgaard’s site on the internet. He too has a review of the camera.

I bought a bundle of his e-books and video classes and am poring through them. Strikes me as a pretty funny guy. As anyone who reads his books will know, he liberally peppers his text with his pictures. Quite amazing pictures too. I like his slightly wicked sense of humour and his irreverence for grammar and spelling. Besides having a nice drawing-room, he has a practical attitude towards his cameras and lenses.

Have been doing more research.

The YouTube channels for Leica Camera Australia and USA and chaps like Justin Mott, Three Blind Men and an Elephant and RedDotForum have all proved to be invaluable sources of information. For example, it is good to see that a lot of the people using rangefinders wear glasses, have greying hair or none at all.

Because, after all, the last time I focused a rangefinder was 47 years ago.

Okay, I’ve decided to get an M11. Just needed to sell my left kidney. Ordered a silver model. To match my hair.

Have to decide next on the lens. You’d advised me to consider Summicrons, the 35mm and 50mm, and APO if the old wallet runs to them. But that may present a slight problem.

You see, the Delhi store by chance has a pre-owned Summilux-M 1.4/35 ASPH and a pre-owned Noctilux-M 0.95/50 ASPH for sale. I’ve tried them out at the store. Loved the way the Noctilux rendered my coffee cup at the store.

Thanks for your email. After successfully holding up a couple of banks, I got the Summilux and the Noctilux.

I think the adverb you used must have crept in by mistake when you say you sold off all your fast lenses and now have “just Summicrons, plus two slower 28s, the Elmarit and Summaron”. I must be in that “mad fit” phase you mention, except that instead of selling off the fast lenses, I have gone ahead and acquired two.

Also, you said you bought the Visoflex 2. Am taking your advice to heart. No point in spending all that money and ending up with out-of-focus pictures.

The M11 has arrived. I went over to the Leica store in Connaught Place immediately.

The Leica Camera ambassador in India, Vineet Vohra, was there too for a meeting when it was unboxed. I think he uses an M10D.

I have downloaded a copy of the manual. I think I know how I want to set up the camera.

The resolution I’ve set to medium (36MP) because I don’t want to put too much of a strain on my last-legs iMac.

Next, I have set jpeg to monochrome. But, that isn’t working out quite so well since I prefer colour. I can’t get used to looking at black-and-white pictures on the LCD screen. So it’s going to be back to jpegs in colour.

There are a couple of changes from my normal settings in other cameras. For instance, I set the metering mode to centre weighted when earlier I’ve always used multi-field. God knows why, apparently multi-field is now better on an M.

Also, I have begun to set white balance off auto and manually set it using a white balance card. This last one has helped improve the in-camera colour so much that I can use the jpegs straight out of the camera if needed.

The other settings are pretty basic. No LCD, no automatic review, no focus peaking, retaining factory settings for the custom buttons and other stuff like electronic shutter and ISO and saving to the card first for DNG & JPEG. One thing I checked was that the jpeg colour is set to natural. I’ve set the highlight warning on even though I find it annoying.

Disaster. Can’t open the M11 DNG files with the version of PhotoLab 2 that I have. Aarrgh!

White balance card is in my back pocket whenever the camera is out with me. ISO knob doesn’t feel quite so stiff anymore since it gets a lot of action. Indoors, it’s pull, turn, set to 800-3200. Outdoors, pull, turn, and set to 64-200.

For the first 30 days, I’ve kept the 35mm Summilux on the camera.

Been fiddling around with the way to steady and focus the camera. It’s a delicate balance between thumb and three fingers base support and index finger on the focusing tab. Over time I hope it comes naturally.

Looking through the viewfinder with glasses makes me wonder if the “view beyond the frame lines” isn’t a tad over-hyped. To even see what is within the frame lines I have to move my head around.

There’s that other annoying thing with the viewfinder and rangefinder windows. They are magnets for fingerprints. Along with the white balance card, I’ve started carrying a couple of microfibre cloths to clean them on the go.

Funnily enough, unlike for some others, the mechanical shutter sounds fine to my ears. The first slap, second slap of the mirror or whatever opening and closing doesn’t bother me. What did fox me the first couple of times is when the shutter automatically switched to electronic mode. At first, I thought the battery had gone dead or that I had done something wrong.

Hey Mike, I’ll be sending you some pictures.

Since I can’t open the DNG files yet, these are all jpegs from the camera with some finishing touches in post. Most have been taken at the widest aperture or nearly wide enough. That’s another thing I have to keep checking — the aperture ring on my copy of the Summilux moves quite freely so a slight nudge can change its setting.

I’m really trying to get the focusing with the RF as spot-on as possible. The blessed focusing rectangle is so small. I am steadily notching up my share of misses. But I suspect that it is partly due to the fact that I have stubbornly kept to a wide aperture. Stopping down, as the first picture attests, helps greatly.

You’re right, captions help. So here are the pictures taken with the Summilux-M 1.4/35 ASPH.

*Connaught Place (CP) is a great place to photograph early morning*

Hi Mike, I carried the M11 with the 35mm Summilux on a short trip to Haridwar. By the way, this was also my first trip out of town in the electric car.

Haridwar is situated on the Ganges, a couple of hundred kilometres north of Delhi. The ghats along the river bank are famous pilgrimage sites for all Hindus.

I found the 35mm got me back in my old groove to an extent as some of these pictures show.

There are several explanations for shaving the head and retaining a knot of hair by Brahmins and Vaishnavites in Hindu culture. One explanation I have heard is that in order to curb their egos Brahmin males were required to shave their heads when they entered the brahmacharya ashrama. A tuft of hair is left behind because there is a spot on the head known as adhipati marma below which is the Brahmarandhra also known as the seventh chakra, the seat of wisdom. The knotted hair protects this spot.

Here are a few more pictures taken with the Summilux in Haridwar. On the second day, I took an autorickshaw to one of the many bazaars.

Focusing with a rangefinder in a bouncing vehicle is a skill I haven’t yet mastered. Tried to set focus using the distance scale and the aperture at f/8: Street shooting style. Read a tip somewhere on the Internet that to get the best DoF one could set the infinity mark to correspond with the aperture setting.

Once out of the auto and on my own two feet, I preferred focusing through the rangefinder.

*A gentleman sporting a Chaplin moustache*

On the third day in Haridwar I again had the morning to myself.

This time I took a walk around the neighbourhood to see what I could find. Poked my head into a couple of dharamshalas for pilgrims, an ashram or two and even an open hall.

The camera coupled with the small lens doesn’t draw attention to itself even when I have it up to my eye. To aid my focusing chops I try and remember to position the tab at the infinity mark after shooting, that way I only have to move the focusing ring in one direction. That’s another tip I got on the Internet. I don’t do this with the Noctilux though.

Hey Mike, The new camera firmware update ver. 1.3.0 went through smoothly.

I have switched over to highlight metering mode. Have to be extra careful getting the exposure correct in the camera now.

Looks as though the new firmware update has fixed a bug I thought I spotted previously. Earlier setting the DNG size to medium, the menu screen would display “L” instead of “M” alongside the DNG and JPG sizes. That seems to be fixed. Or I may be wrong.

Joined a group on a walk through Old Delhi.

I think my focus on the RF is improving. But they had to designate a chap to specially look out for me as I was always lagging behind the rest. Here are a few more examples from the 35mm.

March is winding down. I’m planning on using the Noctilux for a few weeks starting in April.

I have been shooting with the Noctilux for a few days. What a wonderful lens! The EVF gives a good idea of the DoF with the lens wide open.

I remember you asked whether there’s a difference in weight between the silver version of the Nocti and the black version. I believe they’re both the same weight. But coupled with my silver M11 body and the Visoflex 2 it is a substantial jump in weight over the 35mm. Though after using it continuously for five weeks I’ve more or less become used to it.

Here are some pictures with the Noctilux-M 0.95/50 ASPH.

Hi Mike, I’ve been trying to take some night shots with the Nocti. The challenge here is not so much in getting the focus right but in getting the white balance right. On more than one occasion I have had to recalibrate the WB between two shots. Even then the end result hasn’t always been pleasing. For example, there is a pleasant yellow and then there is an unpleasant one. With practice, I hope I can spot one from the other.

It is so nice to have a sensor that can go beyond 1600 ISO without too much noise. In low light situations, shooting wide open, I set the ISO to 3200. If there is some leeway to use a slower shutter speed, I dial down the ISO.

Here are some night shots with the Noctilux-M 0.95/50 ASPH.

Hi Mike, I can imagine the relief you must be feeling having finished with the home renovation. I’m planning on doing some soon before the onset of the monsoon.

By the way, between the time I sent in the first draft of this article and now, I took the M11 with the Noctilux to Old Delhi with another photographer, a chap called Jaidev Jamwal who runs an outfit called Delhi Photo Walks. We started our walk at 6 pm and carried on till around 9 pm.

As usual, I kept the aperture wide open. At one point, I had a deuce of a time in getting the focus cross-hair back on the EVF screen, it having disappeared to god knows where.

In hindsight, I could have chosen a better day for a photo walk. It was 47 deg C. Here are some pictures from that day.

*At least one person appears to be interested in the proceedings*

Hi Mike, I’m loving the Noctilux. Thought I would ditch the EVF and try focusing the Noctilux through the rangefinder. Made a few test shots around the house. Surprisingly it isn’t that difficult. With your “new” eyes you too shouldn’t have a problem.

There’s this place about 45 mins away called Museo Camera, Centre for the Photographic Arts, that I had visited once earlier. Seems to be an ideal place to try it out on some stationary objects — cameras don’t fidget around.

Dear Reader, You may be left with the impression after reading this that these were exchanges between the editor and myself over a period of a few weeks. Well, yes and no. Where I specifically refer to an exchange of views between us, it is true there was such a conversation over mail. But in all other cases, the emails ostensibly written by me to him are just a figment of my imagination. That said, I hope you enjoyed it.