I’m back! Some Leica M 240 pics from my trip!

I’m back! Some Leica M 240 pics from my trip!

My full M 240 review is here

I am back! But some of you had no idea I was gone all of last week because through the magic of blogging I had several posts all set to go live each and every day last week. I had very limited internet access all week as I was on a mini vacation with my fiancée Debby at Disneyland in California. We were there for four days and had a blast though these old feet have taken a serious beating with three days of nonstop morning until night walking and line waiting! If you e-mailed me last week and did not get an answer yet, this is the reason why. I had no way to get to all of the e-mails but I will be doing my best to get back to everyone over the weekend or on Monday.

We spent the week at Disneyland in Anaheim California and I did indeed have my Leica M240 with me and while I only snapped around 40 shots, I had it tucked away in a Think Tank Mirrorless Mover 20 with the 50 Summicron and 50 Summarit. Yep, just two 50’s, OH and a couple of shots were taken with the Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 (which does exhibit the nasty color edges with the 240 just like the M9, but rocks in B&W). The camera with two 50’s and the charger fit neatly into the Mirrorless Mover 20 and it was absolutely perfect.

The camera survived all of the rides, all of the walking and the heat and humidity without one issue or quirk. The RF stayed spot on even with rides on Space Mountain, The Matterhorn and Tower of Terror 🙂 Yea, I believe in using my gear! While at Disneyland I saw countless EOS Rebels and Nikon DSLR’s. I saw maybe three Sony NEX cameras and one Olympus OM-D. A few point and shoots but the #1 camera I saw at Disneyland were SMART PHONES! Yes, those are the hottest cameras as almost everyone has one.

I did see ONE Leica other than mine and it was a D-Lux 5, but that was it. One of the girls at a Cafe thought I had an antique film camera and she was surprised when I told her it was digital..and of course she loved it though she had no idea of the cost 🙂

Anyway…

Below are just a few of the snaps I took. Nothing fancy but just posting them for those who want to see more M 240 real world shots. Some of these have been processed with Alien Skin, others are direct from camera. Most were with the 50 Summicron and a one was shot with the 50 Summarit with a small handful with the 15mm. The one Summarit shot should be easy to spot  as well as the 15mm images.

I hope everyone had a great week! Click images for larger, crisper, more colorful versions!

Coming in the next week or two – MUVI HD review, Ricoh GR 1st look and review, Amy Medina’s review of the SLR Magic 35 T1.4 and a look at the Canon 0.95 on the M 240 as well as the Canon 50 1.4 LTM via Guest Post! Stay tuned!

All images below were taken with the M240 as vacation snapshots..nothing more and nothing less. I only took the M out for one of the four days as I wanted to concentrate on spending time and having fun with my Fiancee 🙂 But the images I did capture look great to my eyes. As for the Leica “Look” that all depends on what lens is being used.

CLICK IMAGES FOR LARGER AND BETTER VIEW! If you do not you are seeing compressed and duller images!

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The image below WAS shot with the Voigtlander 15mm 4.5, at 4.5 lat at night. 

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The image below was taken while in line for tower of terror, in the dark and was an OOC JPEG shot in B&W at ISO 6400. 

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50 Comments

  1. That sucks when other people don’t realise how much our Leica gear costs (being an owner of a humble D-Lux 5) 🙂

  2. Thanks Steve, appreciate the detailed feedback. I have to admit, that 50 APO is a stunning piece of equipment. You only have to look at the MM+50APO output to see that. Will search for some 50APO+240 combos to see if I can see a difference.

  3. Hey guys, Hey Steve

    I’ve been monitoring the new release M with great interest. Never mind the oh-so-slow release of sample images.

    And whilst it has addressed many issues, battery life, cleaner high ISO, video etc, it seems to have lost some of the “pop” we saw with the M9……..either that or my brain simply prefers CCD Leica images. Or perhaps Kodak just did a cracking job which is hard to beat.

    Interestingly, the MM retains ALL this pop and more. The new images [of the new color M) certainly have that Leica feel to them, but I can’t help but feel it is batting lower than the M9. Apologies if this has been discussed at length already – and don’t get me wrong, I love Leica (the M9 and MM are absolute winners), but what’s happening with this new offering?

    Superb work as usual Steve – your site has and will long remain one of my favourite go-to photography blogs.

    The family shot (complete with flare) is awesome!

    Cheers
    Adam

    • This has been discussed many times but the bottom line is that the new M is improved over the M9 IMO, in every way, even IQ. What you are seeing is a much great Dynamic Range, different color signature, and a CMOS sensor.

      It also, by default, seems to put out lower contrast. Of course, all of this can be changed and I can make images from the 240 appear “M9 like” by upping the contrast, brightening the whites and upping the color and maybe even adding a yellowish/greenish cast. But while trying this I much preferred the output as is from the 240.

      The M9 has beautiful output that looks like MF but it is also very limited in many ways such as high ISO, limited DR, off color most of the time and other CCD issues like dead pixels that put a streak through the sensor (have seen this well over 100 times now from readers). The M 240 is much different due to the sensor. Some will love it, some will not. With the right lens it also rivals MF (APO 50)

      Me, after using both side by side I could not go back to the M9 simply due to the fact that I much prefer the M 240 output. It is just as sharp as the M9, still has the “Leica look” depending on lens used and simply has extended DR and much better high ISO and yes, I feel it has much nicer color when you nail the WB, as in much better.

      You do lose the “M9” look but the M9 also lost the “M8 look”. Each camera has been a step in a different direction. When I look back at some of my M9 shots they are in no way technically any better than the 240 shots, and in many cases look worse when it comes to color and when comparing same lenses there is no more pop in the M9 shots, at all.

      I remember being upset by the M9 when I 1st shot it as it lost the M8 POP I was so used to with the 50 Lux lens. Now it seems the 240 lost a little more pop with the same lens but what it gives in return, for me, is more important. Richer, hardier files with more DR and a much nicer glitch free body/shutter/LCD. But when I really look at side by sides, the M has not really lost any pop at all. I think it is mainly the color.

      So it is all personal pref. Those who prefer the M9 have the M-E if they want to buy new, or the MM for B&W (though the 240 can do great B&W n its own and having both, I really do not see THAT much difference between the two). My son did a blind test between the 240 and MM and picked the MM shots as having more contrast and being more “grey” but he said he did not prefer any particular shots over the others. He said the M 240 shots looked “nicer” and the MM shots “harder” – whatever that means.

      I understand those who prefer the M9 look though, as it is indeed different than the 240 but in reality, at the end of the day, there is not a huge difference, just a slight one.

    • I have to agree that the 240 shots seem rather ordinary. Nothing special about them in my opinion, even though they are good. They do seem to have richer or deeper color IMO compared to the M9 but there is something less magical about the new sensor, at least to my eye. I have no doubt though that the 240 is technically superior and perhaps ISO, video and other things will be a hit with most folks. For me, I just remember how badly I wanted the M9 when it came out but I just don’t have that same feeling now.

  4. Great shots Steve! Stellar job at finding moments while at Disney. Last time my wife and I went I used the Nex7 and also the Leica DigiLux 5 which I used for the rides, every ride we did I held it out and took our portraits during the drops and dips, it definitely produced some memorable moments for us.

  5. My favourite is the first photo of the rides. The colours are ever so slightly off kilter. I don’t know if that’s a Leica thing or a Leica lens thing, or if you played around with it in post but it’s a great palette. I have to ask though, in the “Fly Girls” photo, I noticed the guy is waving two Israeli flags. I’m curious what he was talking about while waving those specific flags around. It seems a little random that he’d be waving those flags around. All the best Steve.

  6. The only problem wit the Leica m240 is wb colors .You deleted that problem in your review Leica m240

    • Not a problem at all really. 1st of all, the m9 has worse AWB. I tested them side by side a couple of weeks ago and the M9 had a consistent greenish/yellow cast to all of the images using AWB. Guess what? I had to adjust WB during the RAW conversion. The M 240, in most situations is spot on but in a couple of situations it can be too warm, much too warm. Once again, easily fixable in the RAW conversion. BTW, not only is this talked about in the review, I made a new separate post to talk about the overly warm AWB, so not sure why you use the term “deleted” which makes no sense at all. I am assuming you did not read it thoroughly or see the updated post just talking about the AWB.

  7. Hello Steve,
    Great to see your real world snapshots. I’m curious to see anything from the M 240. I would like your opinion on the colour straight out of the 240 (I know you said that you had run some of these through Alien Skin), I mean in general from the experience you have had with the 240 – including the first one you used.

    The reason I’m asking is that many of the photos I’ve seen taken with the 240, the colour reminds me a little of the old Agfachrome – or horrors, the old GAF film. what do you think? (I’m fine with original digital files being a bit muted – or even a little low contrast.) Just wondering what your gut feeling is of the colours of raw files straight out of the camera.

    • A few of the above images (maybe 3 or 4) have had an Alien Skin filter applied. The rest are all just done in RAW processing with color, WB or contrast adjustments, just as I did with the M9. In fact, maybe 3% of my M9 shots taken over the years (100k frames) were ever just OOC shots. No camera gives really great OOC files, none. They can always be improved no matter what digital camera or format. The RAW processing is just as important to a digital file as the darkroom and film and print processing was and is to film.

      The 2nd M240 I have here seems to be doing better with color, but not sure how that could be. It also seems sharper, which would have meant my 1st could have been slightly off.

      But again, could just be me, or the lenses as well.

      The files out of the 240 can be muted, can pop with extreme color, can have low contrast or high contrast. You can mimick the M9 easily with the 240 but once you get used to all of that DR, you do not want to trash it. The M 240 files, to me, after working with many of them are much more hardy, and nicer to look at than the M9. I had rented an ME for a Week to compare and was happy to send the ME back.

      I can even get super rich and lovely B&W from the 240. But what I have been seeing is that the lenses make huge differences. Some lenses will give a dull output and i feel the 50 Lux actually does not shine as it did on the M8 and M9. I feel the 50 Cron is better on the 240 than the M9 and that some of these older lenses are also quite beautiful on the 240.

      Shooting the MM and 240 side by side, I see a difference in the tonality of the B&W as well as fine details from the CCD sensor but the 240 can indeed do 90% of what the MM does if you just want to shoot B&W. In other words, 9 out of 10 would probably not be able to tell what came from what camera if processed to look similar.

      My new 240 also does not band at 6400 ISO. I have shot maybe 15-20 frames with this one without banding, the 1st one I saw it in maybe 5 out of 15 frames, depending on exposure.

      Both bodies have been rock solid, no glitches or issues. The EVF is great to have when shooting superfast lenses and shooting slow, I use it maybe 50% of the time now. It is slower to use but the results are always spot on.

      But for color right out of the camera, I never ever use a file direct from camera if I am serious about the image. Would not do that with any camera as like I said, no digital can put out superb OOC files, they can always be made better with tweaks during the RAW conversion to suit your style and taste.

      The M files can look however you want them to look. I may do a post with one image processed in many different ways just by using the sliders in the RAW converter and a few with Alien Skin as well. Stay tuned.

  8. M240 in Disneyland, really? Why not take something like the Nikon AW 100 or any other water / splash / shock proof camera which would be more pocketable, lighter, and less ‘sensitive’? I would think you would have gotten many more real world fun shots with it.

    • Yes, Really, you should try it sometime. But the majority of my images were shot with my iPhone 5 so no AW100 needed. Also had a sports cam for video and snapped a few with that as well. I brought the 240 because I own one, and there was zero harm in taking it out for one of the days I was there.

  9. Very clean files lots of detail but I still find the look of the m240 files so normal thanks for sharing

  10. Hello Steve, Great demonstration on your M240. Interesting though, you brought it with you on all rides.
    I always had this question in mind if the Leica M camera (M9-P, MM or M240) can really go through the rides like Space Mountain etc. Will the rides throw away the camera’s RF alignment?
    Michael.

    • Thanks Michael, last time I was at Disney years ago I brought my MP and some film. Took it on rides without any issues. I was nervous on this trip with the 240 but kept it in the Mirrorless Mover 20 and had no issues. It’s in perfect alignment.

  11. I can’t say why I exactly, but I love the 1st shot. I think it’s just a great composition, with the positioning of the Mickey face. Clearly includes some Alien Skin colors, I’d say.

  12. I love the effect of the beard on your jawline. My favorite shot is the Asian family and the conductor.

  13. Nice Photos, and you have a beautiful woman.
    Steve, You are a lucky man.
    All the best
    Matthias

  14. Steve you’re a funny guy,” the camera survived all of the walking and all of the rides”,” the heat and the humidity” and you got 40 shots. Ha ha! Well, I hope you’ve learned your lesson! You don’t need all these super expensive cameras, you just need a phone like everyone else! Ha ha!
    Just kidding, You know a photographers having a great vacation when they are too busy having fun to take pictures. Done the same myself!
    The last one is the best.

  15. Very nice shots, for sure a fun place to be. Two 50s is an interesting combination for a walk around kit. Of course the question of the day is: Will Steve stick to his beard – how about a user experience report 🙂

  16. Thanks Steve. I really like the self shot in the mirror. The light coming off the mirror’s sides really gives the illusion you are in a narrow room at first glance. Took me about 20 seconds to realize it was on a flat wall…even when blowing it up. Very cool. Glad you had a great trip.

  17. Hi Steve. Impressed me most 5th and 14th picture. They are so sharp, so clear and have good color. Much and I like the 2nd and the 15th, have a bokeh my taste. They are powerful images, at least for me. Gladly follow all post. Sorry if I missed the writing (google translate). Greetings from Romania.

  18. Thanks for the share Steve! Good for you to not take a lot of pics and just concentrate on having fun and a nice time with your fiancé. I was wondering, does that Cornerfix software work on the Mac for the 15mm shots?

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