Hands On With Leica’s M9 and X1: Fine Art, For a Price

Say what you will about Leica ’s ultra - niche marketing , stratospheric price and romantic press on keeping 50 - year - erstwhile intersection designs — their cameras have always been beautiful , and felt like armoured combat vehicle . In this respect , theM9 and X1don’t disappoint .

https://gizmodo.com/leica-debuts-18-megapixel-full-frame-m9-rangefinder-x1-5355482

What ’s always been striking about the M - series Leicas is just how satisfying they are . In photos , they look quaint and compact , and you gestate them to be small — the kind of comically dinky tv camera you ’d see perched on the face of a German tourist in the 70s , penetrate away at nothing . This is not that photographic camera — the $ 7000 M9 is a lusus naturae . concede it is a full - inning tv camera , so some heft can be forgive , but once you ’ve mounted a crystalline lens , this thing ’s not go to be much more totable than your mean DSLR . unfeigned to form , the mechanisms are satisfyingly mechanical and hark back to the design ’s origination in film . It ’s as much a opus of art as it is a camera , which I hypothesize is part of the whole Leica appeal .

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The X1 is in a standardized place : Its consistency is large for what it is — a compact camera — but so is its sensor . The end result is a moderately compact point - and - photograph that is bigger than all but the bulkiest fixed - lens compact , but definitely smaller than any DSLR on the market . The pop - up instant , that little Mexican valium on the top left wing of the camera , is a nice intent touch .

We ’ll have to trust that the 12 - megapixel APS - C detector and f2.8 , 24 mm lens system combo returns results that could possibly warrant the television camera ’s $ 2000 Mary Leontyne Price , but the fact remains that this is a fixed - lense camera , meaning that you ’re stuck with what you see here . As cracking as the photos are or are n’t , you still ca n’t run out a Modern zoom lens of the eye or aphrodisiac 50 mm prime on it . Leica does call this a beginner ’s tv camera , so the simplicity could be seen as a plus . At that price , this beginner would probably opt for a cause of death DSLR with video recording capabilities , but that ’s neither here nor there .

Anyway , if you ’re a Leica freak with a wad of cash on helping hand , the M9 stand for a with child day for you : The solar day that your M - mount Leica Lens can be used as they were supposed to be , on a full - systema skeletale tv camera . Likewise , if you ’re a Leica freak with a pile of cash on bridge player and a spouse , champion or kid you have yet to taint with your fervent enthusiasm for the firebrand , the X1 is probably going to offend your interest . The sleep of us pleb ? Well , we ’ll keep labor in our frothing sea of Nikons and Canons , or worse . I ’ll say — I’ve never gotten so many looks of pity for carrying a Sony DSLR as I did at the military press effect today . No one reckon down on me ; they just looked … sad .

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