RickOptic
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I managed to get into Seattle today and stop by Glazers Camera and l take the M10 out for about an hour and shoot around South Lake Union.
Just some impressions of a few things I was wondering about. I'll try and keep them balanced so, it may sound like there isn't a lot of difference in this new M10 compared to the M240 I have. To save you time, the end of this initial impression review is, I will upgrade. The M10 is just better in about every way, but the M10 isn't wow better if, you are just interested in specs. But, for me, there is more to a camera than specs.
Just a perspective about me, I've owned all of the M digital cameras from early 2008 with the M8 and have upgraded and traded in each iteration of the M digital line just as they came out. I hope to have the M10 on Monday and I'll trade in my M240. I never keep the previous version as I'd never use the previous camera and I know it would just sit. I have a bunch of Leica M and R glass and have tried a couple of other current FF cameras, both Sony and Canon. Like the Leica cameras, I've sold them for one reason or another and because, I really just need and want one camera... just me.
Ok, first off the new M feels really good in hand as I carried it out of the store without a strap. It definitely feels smaller and a bit lighter. Once I brought the camera to my eye and started shooting, it didn't really feel much different in size or handling from my M240. Switching back and forth, actually shooting, they are very close in size and handling. The M240 is still a nice solid little shooter.
Viewfinder. Very nice. I think it is a little easier to focus. I'm a 28 shooter and the 28 lines are much easier to see... like 35 in the M240 finder. I found shooting 28 a lot easier and less fatiguing. Shooting 35 even better. The 35 lines had a lot of image around the frame lines. I believe 35 shooters are going to be impressed by the viewfinder. But, again, the M240 is fine for 35... a little tough on 28 and still seems fine when I switched back to it.
The ISO dial was a little fidgety to change (you'll never bump it accidentally) and I would have been fine with going to the menu, like the M240. I did like being able to glance down at the top of the camera and see shutter speed and ISO. The ISO dial does look cool and I'll probably warm to using it because, the dial seems to fit into the overall design concept of this camera.
The screen is finally nice. The fidelity is much better than the M240. Finally, I could really enjoy looking through my pictures on the camera. But, not as good as some other cameras and not close to an iPhone.
Speaking of the iPhone, I had the Leica M App on my phone and easily connected it to the M10. The App worked fine and was pretty cool. I can foresee using it occasionally to control the camera and it will make it easy to use the camera for social media, sharing and storing. I did find it kind of odd that Leica put it on this camera and maybe even more odd that it actually worked so well. I liked it.
The buttons and the interface was excellent. Layout and simplicity was excellent. The implementation of the controls and menu just really get out of your way and resonate with the basic functionality of M cameras. The whole organic, simple gestalt of this camera has an integrated feel between shooting and control of the camera. This makes shooting very concentrated and focused. I won't miss the M240, and I thought it was simple.
When I got home tonight I looked through the images. My impressions of image quality always seem to evolve as I use a camera. So, I'll be brief. Reds are truer and less yellow. Skin tones are less magenta and seem to be truer. Colors out of camera in DNG in LR using the Leica imbedded profile was really good as was WB. As you'd expect, Leica color processing has evolved.
I shot all ISOs and my main impression was that the color fidelity was very good as ISO increased. And, no banding.
A lot of cameras do a good job smoothing out the noise but, don't seem to get the colors right. With the M10, it was the color at higher ISO that impressed me. The M10 does have noise at higher ISO but, it is way better than my M240. I'm sure it is not going to be best in class. But, the noise has a really nice smooth grainy feel I liked a lot.
As usual, Leica leaves the files pretty "bare foot." You are going to have to apply NR in PP as you want if, you desire that smooth plastic feel to your photos like other brands give you out-of-camera. I personally like the grainy feel as long as the color fidelity is great, and it is with the M10.
So, there you go. Any one factor is probably not enough to upgrade from the M240. But, in total, the M10 seems like a completely different camera. It is lean. The feature-fat has been trimmed... and some of that fat was certainly not the best part of the M240.
The M10 is organic. More focused, simpler and less. I believe a lot of film M shooters are going to resonate with M10. I believe this one is going to be iconic.
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