The new Leica M11 digital rangefinder camera may also come from a completely different era. Do not misunderstand me. The technology inside makes it feel very modern. The M11 features a high-resolution sensor (to be precise, a 60-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor), sophisticated measuring tools, and even some of the most common digital camera components of our time. But in many ways, it works like the movie cameras your parents had. He blows his nose at autofocus, does not shoot video and is very happy to receive decades-old lenses.
But more than that, the Leica M11 looks like an old Leica. The new M11 is very faithful to the legacy of the M series camera, which was launched in the 1950s and went digital in 2006. It is compact and discreet, a box to which you attach a lens.
Leica
The M11 is also true to its heritage in terms of price, which is high. The retail price of $ 8,995 is higher than most of us are ever going to spend on a camera. And this price is only for the body of the camera. Leica lenses, ranging from $ 2,500 to $ 12,000, are sold separately. But even for those of us who do not have the financial means and are never going to get a Leica M11, I think this is a device that we need to look out for and talk about. It’s worth more discussion than a simple product review.
This is because the M11 shows that Leica engineers are trying to keep something alive, something I think the rest of the camera world has forgotten: that the camera does not matter, but rather the photos. The camera is just a tool and every tool is as good as the person using it.
Advertising
A key is just a wrench. Some keys may be better than others, but if you want to do anything useful with a key, you need someone with the ability to use a key. This ability can take many forms and manifestations. I know what I do with a socket wrench in an internal combustion engine, but I have no ability to use a plumbing wrench on the pipes in the basement.
In the same way, a camera comes to life when picked up by a person with the ability to use it. Put an obsolete digital camera from the early 2000s in the hands of Maggie Steber and chances are you will end up with a great image. Put the brand new Leica M11 in my hands and the chances of getting a great image are less favorable.
Leica lent me an M11 and I shot with it for a week. The reason I say the Leica M11 looks more like a Leica movie than a modern digital camera is not because it is incompetent, but because it is designed to be used in conjunction with human skills. Specifically, your skills as a photographer.
Cameras are increasingly being designed to take the human factor away from taking a picture. With the addition of features such as autofocus, auto white balance and auto metering in recent decades, the technical effort of most camera makers has replaced the individual photographer’s learning choices with algorithms. These algorithms turn the act of producing a great image into something that is no longer a challenge you have to face or adapt to, but a range of options from which to choose.
