New York City with the Leica SL and Leica M10
Writing about any product featuring the famous ‘Red Dot’ logo means venturing into controversial waters. Leica’s price points are by and large insane in both absolute terms ($8,000 for a manual focus rangefinder) and relative terms (the Leica 50mm Noctilux carries a nearly 100% premium to the coming Nikon 58mm Noct). And this isn’t even getting into the premium ‘Special Edition’ Leica product, some of which winds up being kept unopened as a collectors items despite the natural technological depreciation of any consumer electronics product.
But just as there is apparently a market for $8,000+ cycling wheelsets, the reality is - for better or for worse - there is a market for premium priced cameras featuring that oh so famous Leica logo. And as I touched on a few weeks ago in Saint Louis Wanderings with the Leica M & Noctilux, Leica products can be a sublime pleasure to shoot. They’re not fast - even on the SL autofocus has a tendency, in my experience, to hunt. But they are a pleasure to use and while I wouldn’t venture to attempt to rationally justify the price point, I do personally love many of the images the cameras produce. With that in mind, a small sample gallery from shooting the Leica SL and Leica M10 in our home town of New York City:
1/50 sec at f/1.0, ISO 50, 50mm
1/50 sec at f/1.0, ISO 50, 50mm
1/50 sec at f/1.4, ISO 1000, 50mm
1/50 sec at f/1.2, ISO 50, 50mm
1/60 sec at f/4.5, ISO 1600, 28mm
1/50 sec at f/0.90, ISO 200, 50mm
1/50 sec at f/2.0, ISO 400, 50mm
1/50 sec at f/1.7, ISO 1600, 50mm
1/60 sec at f/1.0, ISO 1000, 50mm
1/60 sec at f/0.90, ISO 1000, 50mm
A New York City based cyclist and sometimes photographer. Part adventure rider, part crit racer, and fully obsessed with an English bulldog named Winifred.
Instagram: @photorhetoric
E-mail: matthew@tobedetermined.cc
