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Leica cameras produce some really awful photography

dsio
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Not sure if this is something that just poisons my Instagram and facebook feed or if it’s a really common thing, but I’ve just finished flipping through some blokes album and it just went from bad to worse the longer it went on.

I think because Leica cameras are well made, and sort of mechanical, and manual, there a bit of a perception that they’re better and going to improve your photography even if you’re not a photographer, or turn you into a good photographer if you’re a bad one. That coupled with the worship for the brand leads to people gushing over this guy’s shockingly bad photos because they think it’s deliberate or artistic or something.

It’s not just one guy, I know a pile of these guys that are watch collectors who bought into Leica rangefinders because they’re expensive and “the best” and produce nothing but badly overexposed, blurry, out of focus, poorly composed garbage, taken under lighting conditions that were never going to produce good results on that camera anyway.

If your photography skills are bad to begin with buy yourself a decent beginner friendly mirror-less camera with autofocus, auto exposure, auto everything. Learn how lightning works, read a book on photography.

Then when you can take a portrait that doesn’t look like something out of a random letter, consider upgrading your gear, but make sure you actually know what you’re doing before buying an ultra-expensive camera and lens that magnifies your failings by design.

You know who you are, go buy a Fujifilm or Olympus or something.
 
pdxleaf
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D-amn! Now that's a review. :whipped:

Not sure this was intended to make me giggle but it did. (Of course, now you made me want to see the pictures.)
 
dsio
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pdxleaf pdxleaf
D-amn! Now that's a review. :whipped:

Not sure this was intended to make me giggle but it did. (Of course, now you made me want to see the pictures.)
Yea I wish I could but I can’t as its not fair to the people in them but imagine the excessive flash and exposure of Terry Richardson’s work, which IMO is complete trash to begin with, only shot wide open on an excessively fast lens, out of focus, with motion blur.
 
Scarecrow Boat
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I love the Leica M3 & 2 and have a couple. Staring at an M3 that I got from @JwRosenthal as I write this. Modern Leica is a lot like modern Rolex. It’s an accessory, a status symbol, and a flex. I have come across quite a handful of photographers who have spent tens of thousands just to have the “red dot” hanging from their neck. I have no idea who you were looking at, but with modern Leica’s, that is rather common. The misperception that the camera makes the photographer. Edit to add- not always the case but common nevertheless.

While I love Leica for how solid they are, how smooth they feel when you advance the film and overall looks (again, M1,3, 2), I love working with cheap and obscure film cameras. Medium format cameras with mirrors so large the “mirror slap” sends shockwaves.

Fun with a cheap $600 medium format camera w/standard lens, and a moderately expensive roll of film. (Not high resolution- didn’t want to pull out the hard drive for the original file).
A60C6C6E-4F9B-4CF1-B92E-ED05E0CFD1B5.jpeg



And a $2500 Hasselblad and an overpriced roll of film. (Also not high resolution)
C27023A7-A714-4E4B-BD61-17F29775DC43.jpeg
Edited:
 
pdxleaf
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Scarecrow Boat Scarecrow Boat
I love the Leica M3 & 2 and have a couple. Staring at an M3 that I got from @JwRosenthal as I write this. Modern Leica is a lot like modern Rolex. It’s an accessory, a status symbol, and a flex. I have come across quite a handful of photographers who have spent tens of thousands just to have the “red dot” hanging from their neck. I have no idea who you were looking at, but with modern Leica’s, that is rather common. The misperception that the camera makes the photographer.

While I love Leica for how solid they are, how smooth they feel when you advance the film and overall looks (again, M1,3, 2), I love working with cheap and obscure film cameras. Medium format cameras with mirrors so large the “mirror slap” sends shockwaves.

Fun with a cheap $600 medium format camera w/standard lens, and a moderately expensive roll of film. (Not high resolution- didn’t want to pull out the hard drive for the original file).
A60C6C6E-4F9B-4CF1-B92E-ED05E0CFD1B5.jpeg


Been searching for 5 minutes but I still can't find the watch...

Other than that, pretty nice.
 
JwRosenthal
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As a professional photographer, a camera is a tool to do a job. Yes, there is the gear fetish aspect of it- and Leica does well in that department. But every tool has its application. I was exclusively large format (5x7 Linhof) for my architectural work during the first half of my career. I used 4x5 Linhof for aerial work.
For the 9 years I shot weddings, it was 2 Hasselblads with 4 backs and 5 lenses for portraits, 2 Leica’s (one silver M6 with color film and one black with black & white) for grab and go cocktail hour stuff (this is where the Leica’s shined as they were small, discreet and unobtrusive) and a Nikon F3 HP on drive and FM2 on MD12 for reception and dancing- both with potato masher Metz flash units on them.
Also can’t forget about 80lbs of lighting in 2 rolling cases that followed me everywhere.
Yes, I loved all of these cameras for their merits and the gear fetish- but each one made me money and each one was suited for their individual jobs.
Is Leica a good camera- yes. Do they make great optics, yes. Are they the absolute be all- absolutely not.
 
dsio
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JwRosenthal JwRosenthal
As a professional photographer, a camera is a tool to do a job. Yes, there is the gear fetish aspect of it- and Leica does well in that department. But every tool has its application. I was exclusively large format (5x7 Linhof) for my architectural work during the first half of my career. I used 4x5 Linhof for aerial work.
For the 9 years I shot weddings, it was 2 Hasselblads with 4 backs and 5 lenses for portraits, 2 Leica’s (one silver M6 with color film and one black with black & white) for grab and go cocktail hour stuff (this is where the Leica’s shined as they were small, discreet and unobtrusive) and a Nikon F3 HP on drive and FM2 on MD12 for reception and dancing.
Also can’t forget about 80lbs of lighting in 2 rolling cases that followed me everywhere.
Yes, I loved all of these cameras for their merits and the gear fetish- but each one made me money and each one was suited for their individual jobs.
Is Leica a good camera- yes. Do they make great optics, yes. Are they the absolute be all- absolutely not.
I think it’s more the perception that manual everything is better, and an underestimation of just how exceptionally smart affordable entry level dslr and mirrorless cameras are at this point in time. The vast majority of people are better off letting the computer do most of the thinking so they can focus on the basics like composition and lighting instead of fiddling and getting everything wrong. At the far end of the talent scale they have some great use though maybe not the versatility of others, but among watch collectors the red dot on your camera is a staple of your EDC photo so they have to have it, even if they’re a person who normally struggles using an iPhone camera.
 
Scarecrow Boat
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dsio dsio
These are the guys.

Watching this made me remember
2088314A-CC1D-4BEB-A658-F243A1F554F7.jpeg


I have yet to see any of his photos, but Mamoa is a Leica ambassador
CA882BC6-870D-40B2-8582-D9D45CE8576E.jpeg


Same with Lenny Kravits
1AC27C31-B43B-431F-A56E-54E443E69C0E.png


And many, many, many other celebrities
 
pdxleaf
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dsio dsio
... the vast majority of people are better off letting the computer do most of the thinking so they can focus on the basics like composition and lighting instead of fiddling and getting everything wrong....

The ubiquitous smart phone is more camera than phone. On the positive side, it's made people see like a photographer without having to think like a photographer.

As an amateur photographer (Sony mirrorless given over to Samsung phone), I could recognize the desperation in other amateurs when after seeing a beautiful new photograph, they would ask what camera and lens did the photographer use. We can't help ourselves. Knowing ours is not as good but not knowing how to improve.
 
ghce
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As an amateur photographer with way too much gear and way too many different system ILC cameras it still makes me dispair when I see guys buy the latest and greatest every time a new release comes out hoping to improve their photos when all it really takes is upskilling the grey matter not the peripheral hardware.
I love macro photography and that's where manual settings shine but when it comes to real world photos of real live people That ain't gonna work, they look bored and the moments gone, full auto can be your friend with the appropriate lens.
 
watchyouwant
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It's like with every tool,you use. You have to learn, how to use it. For watch sale pictures I used a small Samsung camera with an F 1.4 lens. I thought, pics are ok. Then lately more questions came for better close ups. So, I just bought a used Fujifilm X-T1 for A$ 400 with a manual Meike 28 mm lens. F1.8. I was interested in the Camera's manual Focus assist function. 4 macro filters and a small sturdy table tripod followed. I quickly realised , that I have no idea, what this camera can do because I have only a vague idea, what I'm doing. To learn more, I paid for a 13 lesson online course for this Camera ( still at lesson 2....) . And to be more versatile, just bought a second hand Fujifilm auto portrait lens F 1.2 . 58 mm. Macro Pictures with the macro filters x4 and x10 show me, that Watch photography has only 1 centimetre tolerance between sharp and only partly sharp on the dial. Much to learn to get off the Automatic setting. Quite fascinating ..... For my teenage daughter, who attended a visual art college and wanted to learn 35 mm film , I found a working , vintage Canon Pellix. The first with an inbuilt light Meter. Fixed mirror. 3 very good Canon lenses. She loves it and everybody, who knows 35 mm, compliments her on the System. Interesting new field.....
 
STANDY
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Looking for a good 1m x 1m landscape for the house and have had a look at a bucket load of photography potentials lately and the amount of professional photographers that use a IPhone is mind blowing.
 
Scarecrow Boat
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STANDY STANDY
the amount of professional photographers that use a IPhone is mind blowing.
Thats silly. While love using my iPhone for photography and pushing its limits… (Both below from iPhone 7)
Low(ish) light
B66AD08B-A8F7-4010-A5F8-3A188E66C292.jpeg


Long exposure
7845833D-84B2-49BB-AEFD-B755E8431580.jpeg


…I wouldn’t ever use it professionally for paying clients. Unless, that is, they paid me to explicitly use only my iPhone.
Edited:
 
YYTIN
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Provocative thread title 😀 but a refreshing reading : thanks.

I was thinking about getting a camera again after more than 10years without doing nothing but using my phones… to take family, travel and watch pictures (the lately ones to be shared here).

Seems I’ll have to think twice about what to get : I had a quick chat with @Risto on that last week. Leica would have been out of my consideration list anyway as too expensive… but not because of not being a good technical choice for sure anyway.

Thanks for casting some lights on this and sharing intersting exposures on this subject.
Cheers
 
gbesq
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Like most these days, I use my IPhone for most on the go photography, but I still have a Pentax ME Super SLR for film (yes, film!) photography and a Pentax K-30 DSLR that are great cameras which are capable of taking spectacular photos.
Edited:
 
Waltesefalcon
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dsio dsio
These are the guys.

That was hysterical, I'm sharing this with my photographer friends.
 
Stripey
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This thread should really be retitled. It's not the camera that's taking terrible photographs.
 
Jones in LA
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dsio dsio
You know who you are, go buy a Fujifilm or Olympus or something.

Heck, a pinhole in a box will work just fine 😀

PHC_2048.jpg
 
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