What Replaced My Leica

I’ve sold my Leica.

Maybe I’m fickle with cameras. Helen would say yes, although I was pretty loyal to Fujifilm for about 8 years.

I find it interesting when people talk about Fujifilm re-igniting their passion for photography. I get it, because the Fujifilm controls are a little different, a little more traditional. They’re excellent cameras and they look great. As do Leica, although I felt that Leica went one step further with the traditional controls and encouraged me to decide my ISO up front. (Mine was the M240, so before the dedicated little ISO dial on the M10). Leica also goes one step further with simplicity too, which I also like.

But I think that a lot of what is refreshing with Fujifilm and with Leica M is purely because they are different. Because I felt the same switching to Panasonic from Fujifilm. It was refreshing in it’s efficiency and accuracy. It was refreshing in it’s practicality and how you can customize it and the dedicated video functions and the ease of switching between photo and video. Not necessarily better, although it’s the first time I’ve felt that I can rely on the eye autofocus.

So the Leica was refreshing at the time and fun to use. But I needed a good backup camera for photo and video. I wasn’t 100% happy with the images from the Leica either, but then I didn’t invest in Leica lenses to pair with it, only a cheap little Voigtlander, so it’s probably an unfair judgement. Change is refreshing in itself, and now I have a little rangefinder-style camera to replace the Leica. A Sony A7C. It was tempting to stretch to the A7iv but I’ll still use the Lumix S5 as my main camera and getting a used A7C (in great condition with a shutter count of 124) was significantly cheaper (and smaller and lighter).

(Thanks to MPB for offering and honoring an excellent quote on the Leica, and providing it’s replacement).