LEICA M10

SHOOTING WITH LEICA’S NEW 24MP RANGEFINDER DIGITAL AMERA IN BERLIN.

- George Schaub

IN THIS DAY AND AGE OF CROSS-TYPE AF SENSORS and AF tracking in high-speed shooting modes, a rangefinder-focusing camera might well seem an anomaly, if not a downright anachronism. Indeed, manual focusing has in large part become vestigial among photographers and their ability to focus without AF has atrophied. Yet, venerable and famed practitioners of the art and craft of photography used rangefinder cameras for a good part of the 20th century. Street, documentary, photojournalistic, candid, and even nature and landscape photographers somehow got along without the need for focus lock, AF zones, and the modern view provided by EVFs and LCD finders.

My field test of the Leica M10, which follows, allowed me to revisit my earlier work with a rangefinder camera, a Leica M3 that I photographed with for almost 20 years. I was curious about this melding of manual focus with digital functions; I also wanted to see if the M10 provided the same visual experience and engagement I experienced with rangefinder shooting in the past.

RANGEFINDER FOCUSING 

First, though, a quick primer on rangefinder focusing. When viewing through the optical finder, a rangefinder gathers and displays two images of the same object via a transparent overlay: with the Leica M10, a “split-image” rangefinder, moving the focusing ring on the lens via a small handle makes the object “whole,” with one image sitting atop the other. It is judged as one of the most accurate ways to get precise focus because of the eye’s innate ability to recognize an offset and then reform straight lines.