Filed under: Cameras, Editor’s Picks, Digital Camera, Reviews, Holiday Gift Guide

HYPE CHECK
Leica M9 Digital Rangefinder Camera

What it is:

The cult of Leica originated in the ’40s, when Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Magnum photographers first brought the so-called “decisive moment” into the cultural consciousness. Their startlingly immediate images of street life, war, and people are as fresh today as they were the day they were snapped. The weapon of choice for this school of photographers was the Leica rangefinder, a small, lightweight camera that offered photojournalists an easy way to capture high-quality pictures on the move. Though the film era may be waning, Leica is now producing rangefinders for the era of digital photography, and the M9 is its latest entry into the category. This $7,000 camera is for folks who are serious about their still photography; the M9 doesn’t do video.

Rangefinders work in a way fundamentally different from what we’ve come to accept as standard camera functionality. A standard viewfinder displays only what is in the frame, meaning that elements outside of lens range aren’t seen. Therefore, the shot you see in the viewfinder is the shot you get. With a rangefinder, however, you look through a viewfinder that is aligned with the lens but not connected; small marks on the glass delineate the area in frame, with space around the marks remaining visible, allowing you to look further afield when composing the shot. When you drop the shutter, there is no moment of blackness. This lets you focus on your next shot without that momentary disorientation.

Continue reading Is the Leica M9 Worth the Hype?

Is the Leica M9 Worth the Hype? originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Cameras, Digital Camera, Holiday Gift Guide

Leica M9 Digital Rangefinder Camera (Gadget Head, Cost No Object)

The Leica brand has represented the ne plus ultra of photographic excellence for nearly a century, and continues to burnish its impeccable rep with its new M9 ($7,000). As beautiful a piece of gadgetry as any we’ve come across, the M9 is somewhat of an oddity in the digital realm: it’s a rangefinder camera (meaning you don’t see through the lens to focus), is essentially all manually controlled (including focus) and is the smallest camera around to pack a full 35mm CCD image sensor. That giant sensor also explains why the M9 can capture positively massive (and gorgeous) 18.5-megapixel images — which, at about 36-megabytes (MBs) a snap, also means you might want to look into a new hard drive before you get snap happy. Nicely, the M9 can also accommodate any existing M-series lenses dating back to 1950s, a further enticement for any film Leica enthusiasts who are still sitting on the digital bench. Any devout shutterbug would kill or die to have one (and considering its $7,000 price tag, it’ll surely cross some minds), though casual shooters who aren’t comfortable messing with ISO, aperture and shutterspeed settings should likely opt for a DSLR with more automatic controls.

Gift Guide: Leica M9 Digital Rangefinder Camera originally appeared on Switched on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments