Leicarticle on the M-P (Typ 240)
For a long time, I opined that rangefinders are hardly appropriate for architectural photography. Wide angle lenses need to be coupled with external optical viewfinders for framing and what you see might not be what you get. At times, this can be disconcerting as you have to constantly compensate for this “short coming”. Focussing with a rangefinder isn’t something I am comfortable or confident with, especially in low light.
Announced in 2012, the Leica M Typ 240 (I’ll call it the M from now on) changed that. Not only you get live view, an optional electronic view finder can be coupled with the new M! Leica drew flak from the purists for this move but for me, this instantly made their cameras much more useable with wide angle lenses. The inclusion of focus peaking was a plus too because that would make focusing easier for the uninitiated like myself. There you go, two wonderful reasons to justify an M system, besides the great lenses. The only thing which stood in the way was it’s price tag. The price of a “starter” M system will exceed the cost of a full frame Canon camera and two wide angle tilt/shift lenses, which will be a nice kit for architectural photography.
Moving on to 2014 and came the M-P Typ 240 (I’ll call it the M-P from now on). Some cosmetic differences, sapphire glass LCD panel, new LED frame lines lever, increased internal memory to 2GB, the instantly recognizable Leica red dot on the front of the camera is gone and that’s about all that sets it apart from the M. Do I need one? Not really. Do I want one? Well, I bought one.
The feel
As with other Leica rangefinders, the M-P feels great and well built. That said, Leica rangefinders are not well known for their ergonomics and the M-P is no exception. Some slight improvement were made on the M and M-P with the thumb rest and that’s about it. Even that was a little too shallow to be effective in my opinion. I bought the Really Right Stuff BM 240 to be used with the M-P. It comes with an Arca Swiss compatible base plate, right angle plate and hand grip.
The controls
The controls of the M-P is kept to a minimum, just enough for the frequently used adjustments. At the front of the M-P, there are 2 buttons. The lens release button on the bottom left of the lens mount and a function button above it. By default, tis button is for exposure compensation. it's a two-handed operation though. You hold the button down and use the thumb dial to adjust exposure compensation. In the SET menu, you can switch exposure compensation to direct adjustment. This way, adjusting exposure compensation becomes a one-handed operation. You don't have to press and hold the button. Pressing the button now will magnify the scene in live view to aid focussing.
On the M-P's top plate is the shutter speed dial, on/off switch, shutter release button and movie button. The shutter speed dial covers everything from 8 seconds to 1/4000th, including bulb and aperture priority modes. The on/off switch is used to select single, continuous or timer shooting. Shutter release button has a distinctive two-stage action. Half press to lock the exposure, full press to release the shutter. Takes standard screw-in mechanical cable release. The movie button..... well, it activates movie recording and I wish for it to be customised for other function.
On the left side of the three inch LCD screen on the back of the M-P are 6 buttons.
LV (live view) - Activate/deactivate live view.
PLAY - Play back recorded photographs.
DELETE - Delete recorded photographs.
ISO - ISO adjustments (Hold this button down to call out the ISO menu and use the thumb dial to make adjustments).
MENU - Calls out the M=P's six pages of menus.
SET - Calls out image setting options like file format, white balance, ISO, etc.
On the other side of the LCD screen are four directional buttons for navigating through the menus and scrolling in play back. These buttons surround an INFO button which will call ouy different sets on information during live view and review. It is also used as the select key in menus.
The menus
It’s simple and straight forward. Six pages in all and nothing gets buried too deep. I scrolled through the menu in a breeze and was surprised to find a few things I find useful which I didn’t expect the M-P to have.
a) Horizon – The built-in dual axis leveler. Tried it out and it appears to be one of the most accurate and precise I’ve ever used! Perfect for lining up verticals and horizons with the EVF since I can’t use any hotshoe mounted bubble levelers anymore.
b) Focus peaking – You can choose the colour of peaking. Comes in three flavors. Red, green or blue.
c) Film mode and filters - Film mode is simple with three different selection: vivid colour film, smooth colout film and black & white. The black & white mode has five contrast filters and three different tonal selection. I initially thought that you can apply the film modes and filters onto the DNG files. Those files reviewed in-camera showed that the applied effects but in actual fact, those effects were not recorded in DNG so don't be fooled.
The rest of the menu are pretty standard stuff such as bracketing, flash mode, settings for JPEGS, etc. If you are familiar with other cameras, the M-P shouldn’t be that foreign to you.
The accessories
a) Extra battery - A fully charged battery is good for about 300-350 shots, lasting for about 2 days on my M-P. That's ok for me but having an extra spare battery to switch around is good, as with all other cameras. So I bought one. Of course, at SGD$200 a pop, it carries the Leica price tag too.
b) EVF 2 - As I've said earlier, having an electronic viewfinder in the M system changed the game. To me, this is a must-have since I use wide angle lenses most of the time. At SGD$650, it's overpriced and resolution is not that great but it's still a must-have. Leica's optical viewfinders are not cheap either.
c) Really Right Stuff BM240 - I bought the complete three-part version which came with an Arca Swiss compatible baseplate (replacement for the original Leica brass plate), portrait orientation plate and handgrip. The portrait orientation plate and handgrip can be detached from the baseplate when you don't need them, saving some weight and bulk.
d) Nikon AR-3 cable release - Found one of these tucked away in a dark corner of the house (aka haven't used it for god-knows-how-long) and it works with the M-P. So it gets a new life.
e) Soft release button - Some say you gain an extra stop using these. Comes in many flavours and colours. small, medium, large, convex, concave, red, black, silver, green, pink, you name it. Bought a medium, concave one. It's tiny and doesn't stay on the camera well so I lost it within two days. I suggest getting a few of these if you find them useful since the plastic ones cost about SGD&10 each. Leica ones cost seven times more and there is no guarantee those will stay on your camera.
f) Artisan & Artist cloth neck strap - These straps are very comfortable and quick to adjust. Perfect. Nuff said.
The lens - Elmar M 24mm f/3.8 ASPH
The lens which I have been using with the M-P is the Elmar M 24mm f/3.8 ASPH. This relatively inexpensive wide angle lens is well-built, compact and light. The focussing ring is well dampened and aperture ring has that firm click at every half stop. The lens produces excellent results across the frame. Details are well resolved at the corners. Some reviews suggest that this lens performs better than it's much more expensive sibling, the Summilux 24mm f/1.4. Curvilinear distortion is almost non-existent but I suspect Leica's lens profile has kept that under control. A metal screw-in hood is supplied with the lens. 24mm is wider than the rangefinder's viewfinder so you will need an external viewfinder to work out the compositions. I use the EVF 2.
I've done a quick comparison between this lens and my PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5(the bread and butter lens) on a D800E. The results in the centre of the frame are almost comparable. However, the Elmar really shines in the corners, giving better details and lesser chromatic abberation. This lens gives new meaning to "pocket power". If only Leica will start making lenses with movement. My only complaint is that the closest focussing distance is only 0.7m. However, a closer focussing lens would probably be larger(longer) too. The lens will take 46mm screw-in filters.
For a long time, I opined that rangefinders are hardly appropriate for architectural photography. Wide angle lenses need to be coupled with external optical viewfinders for framing and what you see might not be what you get. At times, this can be disconcerting as you have to constantly compensate for this “short coming”. Focussing with a rangefinder isn’t something I am comfortable or confident with, especially in low light.
Announced in 2012, the Leica M Typ 240 (I’ll call it the M from now on) changed that. Not only you get live view, an optional electronic view finder can be coupled with the new M! Leica drew flak from the purists for this move but for me, this instantly made their cameras much more useable with wide angle lenses. The inclusion of focus peaking was a plus too because that would make focusing easier for the uninitiated like myself. There you go, two wonderful reasons to justify an M system, besides the great lenses. The only thing which stood in the way was it’s price tag. The price of a “starter” M system will exceed the cost of a full frame Canon camera and two wide angle tilt/shift lenses, which will be a nice kit for architectural photography.
Moving on to 2014 and came the M-P Typ 240 (I’ll call it the M-P from now on). Some cosmetic differences, sapphire glass LCD panel, new LED frame lines lever, increased internal memory to 2GB, the instantly recognizable Leica red dot on the front of the camera is gone and that’s about all that sets it apart from the M. Do I need one? Not really. Do I want one? Well, I bought one.
The feel
As with other Leica rangefinders, the M-P feels great and well built. That said, Leica rangefinders are not well known for their ergonomics and the M-P is no exception. Some slight improvement were made on the M and M-P with the thumb rest and that’s about it. Even that was a little too shallow to be effective in my opinion. I bought the Really Right Stuff BM 240 to be used with the M-P. It comes with an Arca Swiss compatible base plate, right angle plate and hand grip.
The controls
The controls of the M-P is kept to a minimum, just enough for the frequently used adjustments. At the front of the M-P, there are 2 buttons. The lens release button on the bottom left of the lens mount and a function button above it. By default, tis button is for exposure compensation. it's a two-handed operation though. You hold the button down and use the thumb dial to adjust exposure compensation. In the SET menu, you can switch exposure compensation to direct adjustment. This way, adjusting exposure compensation becomes a one-handed operation. You don't have to press and hold the button. Pressing the button now will magnify the scene in live view to aid focussing.
On the M-P's top plate is the shutter speed dial, on/off switch, shutter release button and movie button. The shutter speed dial covers everything from 8 seconds to 1/4000th, including bulb and aperture priority modes. The on/off switch is used to select single, continuous or timer shooting. Shutter release button has a distinctive two-stage action. Half press to lock the exposure, full press to release the shutter. Takes standard screw-in mechanical cable release. The movie button..... well, it activates movie recording and I wish for it to be customised for other function.
On the left side of the three inch LCD screen on the back of the M-P are 6 buttons.
LV (live view) - Activate/deactivate live view.
PLAY - Play back recorded photographs.
DELETE - Delete recorded photographs.
ISO - ISO adjustments (Hold this button down to call out the ISO menu and use the thumb dial to make adjustments).
MENU - Calls out the M=P's six pages of menus.
SET - Calls out image setting options like file format, white balance, ISO, etc.
On the other side of the LCD screen are four directional buttons for navigating through the menus and scrolling in play back. These buttons surround an INFO button which will call ouy different sets on information during live view and review. It is also used as the select key in menus.
The menus
It’s simple and straight forward. Six pages in all and nothing gets buried too deep. I scrolled through the menu in a breeze and was surprised to find a few things I find useful which I didn’t expect the M-P to have.
a) Horizon – The built-in dual axis leveler. Tried it out and it appears to be one of the most accurate and precise I’ve ever used! Perfect for lining up verticals and horizons with the EVF since I can’t use any hotshoe mounted bubble levelers anymore.
b) Focus peaking – You can choose the colour of peaking. Comes in three flavors. Red, green or blue.
c) Film mode and filters - Film mode is simple with three different selection: vivid colour film, smooth colout film and black & white. The black & white mode has five contrast filters and three different tonal selection. I initially thought that you can apply the film modes and filters onto the DNG files. Those files reviewed in-camera showed that the applied effects but in actual fact, those effects were not recorded in DNG so don't be fooled.
The rest of the menu are pretty standard stuff such as bracketing, flash mode, settings for JPEGS, etc. If you are familiar with other cameras, the M-P shouldn’t be that foreign to you.
The accessories
a) Extra battery - A fully charged battery is good for about 300-350 shots, lasting for about 2 days on my M-P. That's ok for me but having an extra spare battery to switch around is good, as with all other cameras. So I bought one. Of course, at SGD$200 a pop, it carries the Leica price tag too.
b) EVF 2 - As I've said earlier, having an electronic viewfinder in the M system changed the game. To me, this is a must-have since I use wide angle lenses most of the time. At SGD$650, it's overpriced and resolution is not that great but it's still a must-have. Leica's optical viewfinders are not cheap either.
c) Really Right Stuff BM240 - I bought the complete three-part version which came with an Arca Swiss compatible baseplate (replacement for the original Leica brass plate), portrait orientation plate and handgrip. The portrait orientation plate and handgrip can be detached from the baseplate when you don't need them, saving some weight and bulk.
d) Nikon AR-3 cable release - Found one of these tucked away in a dark corner of the house (aka haven't used it for god-knows-how-long) and it works with the M-P. So it gets a new life.
e) Soft release button - Some say you gain an extra stop using these. Comes in many flavours and colours. small, medium, large, convex, concave, red, black, silver, green, pink, you name it. Bought a medium, concave one. It's tiny and doesn't stay on the camera well so I lost it within two days. I suggest getting a few of these if you find them useful since the plastic ones cost about SGD&10 each. Leica ones cost seven times more and there is no guarantee those will stay on your camera.
f) Artisan & Artist cloth neck strap - These straps are very comfortable and quick to adjust. Perfect. Nuff said.
The lens - Elmar M 24mm f/3.8 ASPH
The lens which I have been using with the M-P is the Elmar M 24mm f/3.8 ASPH. This relatively inexpensive wide angle lens is well-built, compact and light. The focussing ring is well dampened and aperture ring has that firm click at every half stop. The lens produces excellent results across the frame. Details are well resolved at the corners. Some reviews suggest that this lens performs better than it's much more expensive sibling, the Summilux 24mm f/1.4. Curvilinear distortion is almost non-existent but I suspect Leica's lens profile has kept that under control. A metal screw-in hood is supplied with the lens. 24mm is wider than the rangefinder's viewfinder so you will need an external viewfinder to work out the compositions. I use the EVF 2.
I've done a quick comparison between this lens and my PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5(the bread and butter lens) on a D800E. The results in the centre of the frame are almost comparable. However, the Elmar really shines in the corners, giving better details and lesser chromatic abberation. This lens gives new meaning to "pocket power". If only Leica will start making lenses with movement. My only complaint is that the closest focussing distance is only 0.7m. However, a closer focussing lens would probably be larger(longer) too. The lens will take 46mm screw-in filters.
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helps a lot to demystify Leica to people like me
