I’ve become intrigued by the Nikon ZF as a replacement for my M11. After all, I mostly shoot Voigtlander lenses with my M and 60MP is overkill for street photography.
Anyway, I did think the ZF is a bit large, but the manual focusing is a pleasure and the fact that I can adjust the diopter strength is a real bonus compared to the pain of the M diopter rings.
So, I decided to just play a bit with my M11 after trying the ZF at B&H. Rangefinder focusing as always is a bit of a mixed experience for me, but I use zone focusing most of the time anyway.
Then I take out my Visoflex 2, which I haven’t used in a while but was always in its dedicated pouch. This makes the M11 as large as the ZF, but should help my eyesight.
So, the camera doesn’t switch to the Visoflex and, lo and behold, the small metal backplate of the Visoflex then comes completely loose and falls off. That Leica quality…. I use washi tape to hold my Leica gear together and for some reason the Visoflex comes to life.
I feel like a fool, though, for having to use tape to hold my Leica kit together. This kind of stuff really makes me doubt my overall investment in Leica. Why bother?
Saddened to see this news. I reckon that I will scratch the Visoflex 2 from my 2024 list of candidates for potential purchase.
Not to be a Leica apologist, but, I am not so sure that Leica, itself, manufactures this Visoflex 2. As was the case with the Leica/Olympus EVF, that fits the 240-series, some outside vendor probably supplies this EVF to Leica.
RexGig0 wrote:
Saddened to see this news. I reckon that I will scratch the Visoflex 2 from my 2024 list of candidates for potential purchase.
Not to be a Leica apologist, but, I am not so sure that Leica, itself, manufactures this Visoflex 2. As was the case with the Leica/Olympus EVF, that fits the 240-series, some outside vendor probably supplies this EVF to Leica.
You may be right, but for the new price of this thing, you can almost buy a camera like the Ricoh GRIII. This shouldn't happen. I've always been a bit wary of owning a Leica because of the price tag and the question whether it's justified and this just adds to that wariness.
The earlier Visoflex 020 is prone to issues as well. They can stop working correctly and I suspect there is some issue with connections to the camera hot shoe. Mine stopped working for a while, then started working again (last time that I used it), but after that, I don't have a lot of faith that it will continue to operate as it should.
It does seem odd that the Visoflex quality is not up to par and that idea that they are manufactured by someone other than Leica may be correct. However, Leica is still responsible and for the high cost, they should not have these quality issues.
I got some superglue and glued the back back on. Also will put gaffer tape over it, because it’s obvious the back was originally also just connected with glue.
Connection to the camera doesn’t seem to be reliable, but I’m trying.
I can understand your frustration with quality issues like this. Your Visoflex 2 must still be under Leica warranty coverage at this date. I would ask them for a repair or exchange. No way should your premium purchase depend on super glue and tape to keep it together. Their response would influence my decision to stay with Leica.
The M11 experience is primarily about MF using the rangefinder. If this is not an experience that you enjoy, and get good results from, I would question owning an M11.
The VisoFlex 2 is really not a competitive mirrorless EVF performance wise. There is no way that it is as durable as the built in EVFs on even low cost mirrorless cameras these day. Heck, neither the VisoFlex nor the connection to the camera has weather and dust sealing. Forget impact damage, this alone makes in vulnerable. I can't imagine using it for the bulk of my photography. I use mine only under certain circumstance, and with very wide, or very long lenses. If you want an EVF for most of your shooting, you should probably choose another system.
In your situation using mostly Voigtlander glass and not Leica M lenses you can change systems much more easily and get similar optica qualities on either Sony, and more and more Nikon mirrorless bodies. The native mount versions of the Voigtlander lenses will likely give you better results than adapted VM lenses will.
In my opinion, the Nikon Zf body provides the very best MF/EVF experience available currently. It is handsome, and will provide you the opportunity to use AF lenses with excellent performance on your "lazy" days. That said, it is not an M11. The image Quality and resolution will be lower. It will not render the same as the M11. Nor will it provide the user and community experience that many of us love so much. AS much as I like many things about the Zf, I would not exchange my M11 for one. No way.
Your circumstance will in the end of course drive the best decision for you in this matter.
I hope this rambling is at least a little helpful in making the choice.
