The Leica Monochrom (M9) and M10 Goes to Greece by Dan Bar

Hi Steve

Got back from southern Greece , the Peloponnese this morning, As always I took my loyal Leica M9M and my M10 + the 28 Elmarit and the 50 LUX which stayed on my M9M.

Greece is a beautiful country with lovely friendly people only problem was the heat. Between 35-38 cel. which is about 104 F. This is really hot so we stayed at our hotel most of the day and went out shooting after 5:30-6:00 PM. For some odd reason I took out the MM more than the M10, Shooting B/W makes me feel better, different and the M9M in my humble opinion renders better shots than the 246.

As you know I always look for shades in the light, a problem in such weather. CLEAR sky with not a trace of clouds most of the time, so I had to look for shades created by buildings, trees etc.

The Greecs are very nice and did not mind me taking their photos even from a close distance. I keep sending my photos to you as I love this site, only thing I am sorry is how Leica articles became so rare, you know how much I love this brand!

Thank you

It is our new year now

So HAPPY NEW YEAR my friend

From Steve: Thanks Dan! There WILL be more Leica posts coming! They may be more spread out but some are in the works. Thank you! For everyone else, I am thinking of buying a used MM again. Anyone looking for Leica products, I recommend Ken Hansen (khpny19@aol.com) or PopFlash.com

37 Comments

  1. Hey there. A question here.. I use the x-pro 2 but I’m not completely satisfied with it..Do you think it’s a good trade for the M9M? I worked with film leicas before, soh the manual focus is not an issue.Would like to know your opinion. Thanks!

    • I am not Dan but can give my thoughts…The M9M is AWESOME, and my personal fave B&W only camera (over the 246). But it’s a different kind of camera from a X-Pro 2 in every single way. Only Manual RF focusing which the Fuji doesn’t have or offer (the Fuji is not a RF), the M9M tends to blow highlights so takes some getting used to and it’s also going to feel about 3X as solid in the hand ; ) It will provide a image quality that nothing else matches for true monochrome images.

  2. I looked again, OK study your images.
    They are great, my comment “too dark” seems brighter and clearer!
    Maybe looked on my old HP laptop, here on Dell 10.
    Again great images and easily viewed.

  3. Dan,

    Some well framed stuff here. I look at all your posts, but the darkness (I know, I know, it’s your ‘style’) makes me want to turn up the brightness. Just hard to look at. I don’t expect you to change it, but I’d really like to see some of these images properly exposed.

    • Thanks. I understand but than everyone does his best to expose properly, I can do that too. Thing is I like it underexposed, it fascinats me. I get a more interesting result.

  4. Thank you, dan, for your latest posting. Your style grows on me, and your excursion this time into mono is especially rewarding. I know at a first glance it is easy to say: you got the exposure wrong, but it seems to me there is a mysterious quality to your images which I have to linger over to discover all there is to see. I look forward to seeing more of your work and learning from it.

    • Thank you John, that meens alot to me. It is not always easy to get bad critics but that is my way. I love underexposed photos like “film noire”.
      Comments like yours make me go on
      So thank you again

  5. First Dan L’Shana Tova!
    Your “dark” is way too dark..
    Maybe see what it looks like on other screens..
    I was hesitant to write and say!
    I like the basis of framing, moments and your style bar the “You want it darker”.
    I used a friends Mono and truthfully was Totally “UNDERWHELMED” by images!
    Look forward to more posts.
    All the Best over the Fast.

  6. Leicas are stiff tools nowadays. Too expensive, too heavy, too poor in many of the wonderful possibilities other brands offer

    • It depends on who uses them. If you shoot leica because it is Leica then yes it’s not the best of choice.
      If it’s under your skin then those are the best tool available.
      And compare zeiss/canon/nikon/…. vs prime same focal same aperture. M glass is what 1/3 of the size of the others?

  7. The 50 Lux doesn’t have vignetting like that, so I assume that the vignetting is something you added with software? I know that photography is a matter of personal taste, but to me there’s a difference between finding shadow in light (which can be visually appealing and make a photo pop) and adding darkness in post-production, which may or may not work. But thanks for sharing. The M9M is a great camera.

  8. Really nice set of images Danny. Full of subtlety and atmosphere and far from mundane in my opinion. I often wonder what the fuss is about when it comes to the Leica “look” but when I see these, I think I understand.

  9. nice set of pictures
    I can see the underexposed-look is part of your style, thanks for sharing

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