There’s a follow-up article by my friend Ashwin Rao on Steve Huff’s site today discussing his long term experience using the Leica M10.   As would be expected from Mr. Rao, it’s an interesting read but what caught my attention is how much of the article is devoted to comparing the M10 to the M9.

That’s pretty remarkable considering the M9 is now two generations behind… but it’s also something that doesn’t surprise those of us who still appreciate M9 cameras.

On a related note, there’s even an entire thread on the Leica User’s Forum titled What I miss from my M9 in my M10.

(By the way Ashwin, I agree with you that the M10 has regained some of that image quality “pop” that went missing from the M240).

Related reading (particularly the discussion in the comments) from 2013:

The M240 image quality is a step down from the M9.

—Peter.

Interestingly, I don’t like the bokeh from the Leica 50mm Summicron APO.

I mean, everybody raves about it.  And admittedly when I examine it in photographs (magnified to reveal detail) it looks quite neutral and uniform.  So it should look good overall.  But when I view the image in its entirety, I intensely dislike the out of focus portions.  The elements within the bokeh are too “structured”.  Perhaps the out-of-focus areas — similar to the in-focus areas — are somehow “sharper”.  Though neutral, the net effect is more… visible.

(Perhaps, though, people have applied too much structure during post-processing.  That’s the only variable I can’t tease apart when viewing others’ images.)

My preferred 50?

Still the Leica 50 Summilux ASPH.   I continue to believe that it achieves the best balance between size and performance vs. any other 50 in the full frame format.  There are sharper 50mm lenses, there are more corrected 50mm lenses, and there are faster 50mm lenses, but none of them achieve the over-all balance of the Summilux.

—Peter.