Leica M11-P thoughts after 6 months

There’s a few issues… but it’s still my favourite camera, Let me explain.

It freezes.

Yeah, it freezes. Maybe twice a month. I use it 3 or 4 times a week. It’s manageable, in terms of I’ve never missed anything crucial because of it.

But it should not happen at all, ever.

To kick things off with a problem that bad and say this camera is still my favourite camera Ive ever used… does prove how much this excels in every other catagory.

I’m not going to talk about image quality.

Take a picture on a Sony A7R62, Nikon ZS24 or a Canon PRO MAX - they will look great, it just doesn’t matter anymore.

What I want to emphasise here, with a camera like the M11 is about how it feels to use.

There’s a couple factors that influence this in my opinion:

How seamless is fits into your workflow (convience)
How much it makes you want to use it (pickupability)
How fun it is to actually use (user abiilty)

On that last point specifically - if you’re choosing a camera for a hobbiest reason or for a work reason. I would replace how fun is it with how effective it is.

I use a canon R6 for video and photo work. because it’s effective.

It ticks all the boxes for work. it gets the job done.

BUT I don’t think that canon systems are fun.

Compared with the Leica M11-P which I use for street photography (because it’s fun.)

I do also then shoot with the M11-P for work when appropriate, but it’s a manual range finder… of course it’s not as effective as a typical hybrid work horse camera would be.

Effective and fun are not mutually exclusive, if you have both with whatever camera system you choose then bingo.

But back to my other points that influence how a camera makes you feel.

How seamless does it fit into your workflow?

This conveince factor is something I don’t think many people really talk about, maybe because it’s boring. I’m talking about the size of the lenses, the body - does it fit in your pocket, your sling, your bag, how will you manage files? what about the outputs or customiseable buttons do you need?

I’m talking about the things that will make your life easier or harder when using this tool.

Because things you’re going to prioritise will be different to mine.

A studio photographer and a landscape photographer will have different quality of life issues to think about and I don’t want to pretend some random guy on the internet can simple say “yeah it’s great for me. So it’ll be great for you!”

Being specific to me here. This fits my needs for street, travel & documentary style work absolutely perfectly.

The weight, size, lens choices, battery life (I always have 2 with me) the manual focus, the simplistic stripped back experience is precisily what I love about it.

This is zero faff, which also means it’s encouraging to use.

Removing friction from wanting to take photos and actually just going outside and taking photos is so important.

Which leads me onto talking about my 2 point in the list. Pickupability.

I’ve written a full blog about this point specifically as I think it’s the most important aspect to think about when discussing gear.

‘Pickupability’

If we’re talking about the everyday setup, the camera we use to document everything and anything with, it’s not just about convience and ease of use. we can go one step further and actually be inspired by it.

Look this might get a little artsy fartsy so click something else if this gets too nerdy for you.

But you know that passionate shef that loves using a certain crafted knife or a car enthusasits who obbsesses over the type of leather stictching on the seats or fashion expert that knows loves the specifics of where when and who sourced the materials…

These detials might not effect the end result, the image quality, but they massively effect the experience.

Whatever detail it could be about the Leica M11-P, maybe it’s the german engineering, the design or the brands history… all of that encourages me to pick this up.

All of this could be masquerading as consumerism.. but all I know is…

I want to pick this up and take pictures.

Here’s an example of this exact thing. I was hanging out with someone recently. They had the newest Hassalblad. Something that is surely impressive to any camera nerd.

But when I picked it up, took a photo, pressed a few buttons. I wasn’t inspired.

It just wasn’t for me. it was too big and clunky. Maybe a studio or landscape photographer would be in their element with it… but I couldn’t wait to put it down.

I had no interest in using it.

It’s almost an un measureable factor when talking about cameras but it’s pickupability is arguably the most important factor.

Getting specific with the M11-P then, I could talk about all the sexy stuff and reasons I think it’s great but is there much value for you guys in that? I’m not sure. But here’s some honest issues i’ve encountered.

The Issues:

The Auto WB is not good. I used the Q2 for a year and that was waaaay worse. So much so I never used Auto WB. I stuck it on cloudy or a custom k rating and off I went.

I kind of do the same on the M11.

Most of the time I’m actually in high contrast B&W so my jpeg previews and on screen and are all B&W until I start to edit the raw file.

As unreliable as the auto WB is… the high contrast B&W is soooo good.

It’s slow to wake up. I mean, it takes a good few seconds to preapred before you can take a shot, which is a little annoying for street.

I learned the hard way and I rarely switch it off if I’m walking around. I just keep it ready because swicthing it off could mean i miss something. This also means I do carry 2 batteries with at all times.

I mentioned at the start that it freezes and locks up.

It’s typically if I’ve just turned it on and quickly i need to it take 5-6 pictures in 60mp all at once.

I’ve tried different SD cards & speeds etc etc it still occasionally happens.

It happens much less in 36mp than 60mp but it still accurs. Like I said, maybe once or twice a month. And yes, I’ve updated the firmware, which seemed to be a fix for awhile but when I was in NYVC last week for 8 days, it happened once.

Other than a $7500 camera not working.. it’s an absolute dream to shoot with.

Which sounds very odd given the issues I’ve mentioned but it really is a joy to use, I love the manual focus, I love the material, I love the image quality, I love the user experience as a whole.

So much so that since owning this, i’ve taken my much loved fujifilm x100v outside about twice… and I thought that camera was perfect. (at least the Fujifilm doesn’t freeze for no reason.)