p.10 #1 · Leica M11-P as a Travel Camera: A Love-Hate Experience
philip_pj wrote:
The Viso 2 gets plenty of criticism for its size and sharp edges. The camera must be held in a awkward position, lower than how it is used in RF mode, where it jams the largest part of noses. It's pretty robust but adds ~100 grams. As any travel person will tell you, it will get caught on clothing, bags, bang on doors, etc.
Worth passing on - you might need some tape:
'They didn’t seal the diopter dial from the inner elements of the EVF, so it gets totally loaded with dust. Here is my EVF after only about 2-3 weeks of use, traveling around Tokyo and Japan with it almost permanently mounted to my camera – Yes, that dust is on the inside.'
There is a lot more than form factor to criticize with the VisoFlex. The EVF is not a high performer, especially in low light. It is slow, drops frames, and jittery to use. Consequentially, I have only used mine in a few forced instances.
In sharp contrast the EVF in the SL cameras is a joy to use, bright, sharp, smooth, and accurate. The addition of IBIS is a great benefit with EVF shooting.
The EV-1 suffers many of the same issues as the Visoflex. I also did not enjoy that shooting experience overall.
I find the SL cameras to be the best EVF based shooting platform for manual lenses in the Leica lineup. In various configurations it can serve as a full featured mirrorless, interchangeable lens platform, a superb M lens platform, and a pretty close match for a Q camera shooting experience. It also makes for a top level film scanning tool producing 61mpx, 14 bit, DNG RAW files supperior to what most labs can do.
p.10 #2 · Leica M11-P as a Travel Camera: A Love-Hate Experience
1bwana1 wrote:
[
There is a lot more than form factor to criticize with the VisoFlex. The EVF is not a high performer, especially in low light. It is slow, drops frames, and jittery to use. Consequentially, I have only used mine in a few forced instances.
In sharp contrast the EVF in the SL cameras is a joy to use, bright, sharp, smooth, and accurate. The addition of IBIS is a great benefit with EVF shooting.
The EV-1 suffers many of the same issues as the Visoflex. I also did not enjoy that shooting experience overall.
I find the SL cameras to be the best EVF based shooting platform for manual lenses in the Leica lineup. In various configurations it can serve as a full featured mirrorless, interchangeable lens platform, a superb M lens platform, and a pretty close match for a Q camera shooting experience. It also makes for a top level film scanning tool producing 61mpx, 14 bit, DNG RAW files supperior to what most labs can do....Show more →
Yes, fair point! The Viso is a big disappointment. I find it okay for fine focusing of wide apertures in good light, and for framing non-standard lenses. But it fails pretty badly in exactly the low-light usage that would be most useful in filling gaps in the capability of the rangefinder system.
I've been pondering whether to get either a Kolari-modded A7CR or an SL3, but they'd both be big chunks of camera to add to my kit just to replace the small but clunky visoflex when I need an EVF.
p.10 #3 · Leica M11-P as a Travel Camera: A Love-Hate Experience
1bwana1 wrote:
There is a lot more than form factor to criticize with the VisoFlex. The EVF is not a high performer, especially in low light. It is slow, drops frames, and jittery to use. Consequentially, I have only used mine in a few forced instances.
I could not agree more. In fact, I use the M11 screen more often. Last time I used the Visoflex was when shooting a concert with the 90mm/2.
Next time, I will use my Sony A7r V with the LM-EA9 in MF or AF.
p.10 #4 · Leica M11-P as a Travel Camera: A Love-Hate Experience
I hope they update the Visoflex when they do an M12, but who knows. Maybe they'll try and push those people into the EV line going forward. I played with a Viso when I dropped in the Leica store in Amsterdam. I had the 50 Nocti on an M11 BP (boy is that a heavy setup!) and while it was good, I still felt like I needed peaking or magnification. Also the Nocti isn't the sharpest thing wide open to begin with. I like that you can use it at different angles and the general build of it, but the design is still a bit awkward.
They also had this ginormous thing in the entrance, lol
p.10 #5 · Leica M11-P as a Travel Camera: A Love-Hate Experience
Been shooting film and digital M for several years, the only thing I still don't get used to it is the metering of the digital M.
I always shoot with +.3 or .7 ev
p.10 #6 · Leica M11-P as a Travel Camera: A Love-Hate Experience
zi464 wrote:
Been shooting film and digital M for several years, the only thing I still don't get used to it is the metering of the digital M.
I always shoot with +.3 or .7 ev
Interesting. That is exactly opposite my experience with digital M cameras. Shadow recovery is so good on the digital Ms that I tend to underexpose the meter by 0.3 to 0.7 stops to protect the highlights.
I tend to over expose a similar amount on my film cameras because shadow recovery is a problem with film and highlights are not.
I am shooting RAW so processing the shadows is easy with a large latitude. Perhaps you are shooting jpeg?
p.10 #7 · Leica M11-P as a Travel Camera: A Love-Hate Experience
1bwana1 wrote:
Interesting. That is exactly opposite my experience with digital M cameras. Shadow recovery is so good on the digital Ms that I tend to underexpose the meter by 0.3 to 0.7 stops to protect the highlights.
I tend to over expose a similar amount on my film cameras because shadow recovery is a problem with film and highlights are not.
I am shooting RAW so processing the shadows is easy with a large latitude. Perhaps you are shooting jpeg?
I'm shooting DNG, I always find the pic is bit underexpose.
I'm also using film style to shot digital M as well, over 1 stop.
Kinda busy these days, will try to unload couple pics I shoot with the KOB passed weekend.
p.10 #8 · Leica M11-P as a Travel Camera: A Love-Hate Experience
I came across this recently while researching coatings (but it certainly will not be going in the 3D Pop thread ) :
Brand Coatings Tuning Differences
Leica: Uses complex multi-layer coatings designed to preserve low-contrast shadow detail and natural, high-acuity color transitions often described as a classic three-dimensional "pop."
p.10 #9 · Leica M11-P as a Travel Camera: A Love-Hate Experience
Reviving this thread with a few images from my travels through Europe using the MP as my travel camera. I'll likely write something longform about the experience, but I enjoyed it overall. The worst part of shooting film is dealing with TSA in different countries. My film ended up being put through some alternative scanner in Germany, but they seemingly came out fine, though I haven't got the ILFORD 3200 back yet.
I only brought three lenses with me, the Simera 28 and 50mm and a Voigtlander 35mm F/1.5. I think the Voigtlander got the most burn with the 28 and 50 next up. I shot 28 rolls of film in about 15 days, mostly Portra 400, but I snuck some Ektar 100 (phenomenal stock), Gold 200, and Portra 800 in there as well. I wasn't as judicious as I probably should have been, but whatever In hindsight, I probably should have brought my 21mm Simera and my 75mm Simera instead of the 28 and 50. 35 is my preferred daily carry lens, and I found myself wanting something even wider than 28 and a bit longer than 50.
) :
In hindsight, I probably should have brought my 21mm Simera and my 75mm Simera instead of the 28 and 50. 35 is my preferred daily carry lens, and I found myself wanting something even wider than 28 and a bit longer than 50. 
