old-gregg
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 p.6 #20 · Leica M11-P as a Travel Camera: A Love-Hate Experience | |
philip_pj wrote:
A frequently stated reason for buying into the Leica M system is that it slows you down so you can concentrate on photography. But there appear to be a lot of serious threats to image quality and versatility lurking in the background - like RF calibration, parallax, VF blockage, basic functionality re lens choice and close focus. So you end up with these onerous overheads that stop or crimp the actual photographic gamut of usage.
RF calibration, parallax, VF blockage and close focus simply aren't relevant for normal photography. I never had any issues them them because I don't shoot macro with the Leica and I don't buy ridiculous lenses for it.
I shoot with my film M regularly along with the Sony and Nikon mirrorless. Their numerous buttons, autofocus modes, drive modes, tracking modes, exposure modes, aspect ratios, shutter types, screen brightness settings, energy saving modes, auto-ISO sub-settings, zooms, and I can go on and on... represent a noticeably bigger overhead that gets in the way of spotting and capturing a good image. Somehow, managing all this automation takes **more** of my brain cycles that simply controlling focus, aperture and shutter manually.
Just recently, when photographing static scenes at dusk, I adjusted the minimal shutter speed sub-setting under the auto ISO setting to be slower. And then I forgot to switch it back. The next day, when photographing moving subjects, I ended up with a few hundred shots all ruined by motion blur. The failure rate was a spectacular 100%. Before that, I had a non-chipped lens mounted, for which I had to manually set the focal length to have IBIS work properly. And again, I forgot to turn it off and IBIS happily became a shutter-shake emulator with a different lens. These mistakes are simply not possible with simpler cameras.
I like your wording here: "photographic gamut of usage". I feel like the modern cameras are over-optimized for the niche edges of that gamut, for stuff like sports, birds, macro, astro, etc. But when it comes to creative photography, their needy complexity does not let your brain focus. "Am I in the correct settings bank? Is IBIS off for a tripod? Did I turn off auto-ISO?". Those are my onerous overheads, not parallax.
I am convinced that most people will become better photographers if they were forced to shoot with just one body, one focal length, permanent ISO, with manual shutter, aperture, and focus. After a year, their portfolio will blossom and they will finally be rewarded with something they can proudly hang in their living room without a risk of divorce.
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Honestly I’ve managed wide open shots with moving subjects while I was moving and got things in focus because of practice with guessing distance and pre focusing ahead of time if I see something developing. It just took a lot of practice to get there and of course I’m far from always nailing the shot. But lots of times I don’t mind the motion blur or even soft photos if the photos tell the story anyways. 
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