What do you DISLIKE about your M9?

[x-ray]

I try to resist the M9 but I have to admit I love using M's. Since my first M kit in 1968, I've loved the system and only for short times in that period have I not owned at least one.

Now I rarely shoot film even though IMO B&W is best done with film. No problem with digital, it's just a different process to get to the end point. I've been mostly digital in my commercial work for over twelve years and am now warming up to shooting it for my personal / documentary work.

I know the M system well but not the M digital. I know all the issues common to the film Ms an digital like inaccurate frame lines but what do up NOT LIKE about your M9? I know theyre not perfect and i understand the aesthetic about M's.

Talk me out of wanting one. If I do buy one it could be a used one.

[ChrisN]

Resistance is futile!

[kbg32]

Talk is cheap. Owning a M9 is not. At least initially!

[sepiareverb]

That the ISO only goes down to 160 is my main gripe. I've been shooting with 2 stop ND filters on from sun-up till sundown lately.

Winter battery life is also quite poor for me- but it does get very cold here. When the warm weather arrives I have not found battery life to be a problem. I carry an extra but have never gone through two of them on a warm day. I don't look at the screen much tho, and have Auto Preview turned off. Wintertime I've had batteries go after three or four shots, and twenty minutes outside. That is pretty pathetic. I don't mind changing a battery every now and again, but that gets almost like loading film holders.

[kbg32]

M9 goes down to ISO 80.

[kbg32]

I would never go on a trip without some kind of backup camera. Shutter failure or sensor issues can be a problem. Reliability is my main gripe. I love the camera though!

[Phil_F_NM]

The light meter stinks. It's too easy to fool with too-wide of a pattern.
It's too expensive.
Repairs are extremely expensive.
Aside from that it's the best digital tool for an M user. It makes amazing raw files that continually impress me even after owning mine for almost 2 years.

Phil Forrest

[Avotius]

My friend just got back from a motorcycle trip in Africa, he rode from the very bottom to the very top with a M9 and its came through without a hitch. The only problem he found was it is hard to use one hande while riding, but after I explained.zone focusing he got it. I was looking at his photos and the colors are stunning. If I had that kind of change I would be tempted!

So I guess th only problem is the price.

[furcafe]

ISO only routinely usable up to 1250-1600, which is too slow for much of the available darkness work I favor.

I also have a minor carryover gripe from the M7: the inability of the VF LED display to show shutter speeds when shooting manual.

[hlockwood]

Originally Posted by Avotius

My friend just got back from a motorcycle trip in Africa, he rode from the very bottom to the very top with a M9 and its came through without a hitch. The only problem he found was it is hard to use one hande while riding, but after I explained.zone focusing he got it. I was looking at his photos and the colors are stunning. If I had that kind of change I would be tempted!

So I guess th only problem is the price.

I shoot one-handed easily with the Thumbs-Up.

Harry

[__hh]

Price and rate of depreciation.

Oh, and those fanboys that come out to defend the camera whenever something negative is said about Leicas

[porktaco]

wish the shutter were quieter

wish there was less chroma noise at 1600 and above

wish the lightmeter was more like my RD-1, or my M6

wish it had been a lot cheaper

[x-ray]

Cold isn't a problem where I live in the south. Today and yesterday the temp hit 105f. Winters are warm generally. For 99% of my shooting cold is no issue.

I've read sever complaints about files not being written to the card. Tis is disturbing. How much of a problem is this?

If I buy one I'll most likely buy a used one from a dealer like Popflash where I can return it if I dont like it at least within a grace period.

Price, yes it's nuts. I just bought a Nikon D800 and will take delivery this week. I shoot Hasselblad digital and Canon but will phase out and sell the Canon if the Nikon meets my expectations. It in my opinion is a far superior camera to the M9 but there's something about an M. It's a mental illness I know. Therapy may help but like most disturbed folks I don't want help.

Keep telling me the dark side of the M9, I can handle it.

[raid]

I hesitate making the Leica experience a digital one.
I am glad the camera is so expensive.
This way, I may stay away from it.

[Benjamin Marks]

I recently went to NYC and Boston with an M9 and XP1 -- this was the Fuji's first trip and I was eager to see how it would perform. The M9 is still the ISO 160 champ, for me. If there is a "weakness" it is performance at ISO's higher than 1600. The low-ISO files have a level of detail that I could only get out of medium format film. The XP1 is a nice backup though. I have another trip this weekend and will take the M9, XP1 and Nikon D3. The XP1 and the M9 compliment each other nicely for how I use them. I think that the XP1 is the natural camera to reach for in very low light. Unlike others, I rather like the EVF on it. I certainly like knowing what's in focus with some of my "shiftier" lenses.

Ben

[x-ray]

What about color issues with wides? If you don't code your lenses are there menu selections to deal with lens issues?

What reliability issues are we talking about?

[x-ray]

M9 or set of Zeiss primes for the D800? I do love Zeiss glass but love using an M.

[benmacphoto]

I wouldn't say high ISO is its weakness.
If you expose the image properly, 2500 ISO is great.
No noise reduction, shot at 2500.

[x-ray]

Do you think a lot of the complaints are over blown? For me image quality and reliability trump the M experience.

[Richard G]

First the standard gripes with which I don't agree:

The LCD. When I first got it I noticed it was inferior for checking focus or motion blur compared to my Fuji X100. But I now cannot see what I was complaining about and have no trouble with the LCD. Maybe it's run in......?

Battery life. Very good in my experience.

The high ISO. So it's no D3 but regularly having 800 ISO for colour and some useable ISO to dial up at a whim up to 1600 and even greater, maybe, in B and W is still better than the HP5 plus regularly in my Hexar.

My own gripes:

Total collapse using SanDisk cards. I'm fine since switching to Lexar.

Inferior frame line of the 50mm frame line is next to non-existent, and there seems no good reason. Really affects my enjoyment and ease shooting 50. I'll get used to it but haven't yet.

Louder than I would like, but in discreet mode not bad.

Having to take the baseplate on and off to get to the card. The cable no longer works for me and my Mac and Lightroom. It sort of works but I just get generic DNG preview images instead of the pictures.

Needs a thumbs up to hold but I don't want one or any such equivalent. I am managing.

Otherwise I love it. I use the Zeiss lenses down to 21, the f4.5. There is purple vignetting. I code the lenses to the nearest Leica equivalent and that works well. I have taken shots at 35, 50 and 90 and 135 while forgetting to recode and it mostly makes little difference.

I have no real problem with the meter. I shoot automatic and often continue after the first couple of automatic shots with manual settings.

The finders were so stiff going in the accessory shoe I was worried I would break something. Never had a new Leica before.

Do I regret blowing the money on this? No. It saved me buying a whole slew of Fuji lenses. Complaints on forums are always more noticeable. There are a lot of M9 users quietly enjoying their camera. A pro who shot me and my team for work was surprised I asked about a 50 1.4 on his EOS. We got talking. His own camera for the weekend: the M9. There are lots of accounts of how rough you can treat it, and we're all babying ours anyway. If it last ten years I'll be more than happy. I suspect it will last longer. And I have all the lenses I need. And I won't be buying 3 Nikon DSLRs in those ten years, or nearly so many rolls of film.

[swoop]

I've owned my M9 since it was released. And owned an M8 for years before it as well. I've used both cameras for hundreds of assignments while working for magazines and newspapers and the occasional wedding. Not every gripe I have is a big deal, but they are all issues I've run into every so often that really limit or just annoy me.


-Max ISO of 2500.
Sometimes I just need a little more. 6400 would be ideal.

-That image quality is absolute crap beyond ISO 1600.
I really don't care all that much. But editors and clients do and I have to deal with the complaints when they notice all that grain/noise.

-The rear LCD is worse than what you'd find in a $200 P&S.
For $7k, it's really just one of those things you'd expect.

-That the sapphire glass wasn't made standard after the M8.2
If it was as awesome as they were trying to make it out to be they should have just included it.

-The small memory buffer makes the camera useless after 5 frames.
There are maybe a hand full of scenarios when I just really need to lay on the shutter and it's really frustrating when you see an awesome moment and the camera does nothing but blink.

-Using the lens profiles is needed for accurate color rendering of lenses.
They should just be right, there shouldn't be a need for special profiles to get accurate color.

-Using the lens profiles sometimes brightens up the corners of images causing the opposite of a vignette.
The fact that you need them for accurate color is one thing, but that they dodge the corners at small apertures making them brighter than the rest of the frame is really annoying. I'd rather have the vignette at f2, than have dodged edges at f5.6.

-That the batteries only last for about 300 frames and cost $130 each.
It's really a value thing. If I'm only going to get 300 frames out of it don't charge me fortune for the battery.

-That there's no self sensor cleaning when $1000 budget DSLR's offer it.
The sensor gets dirty quick and I hate cleaning it. If even cheap DSLR's offer sensor cleaning why can't Leica squeeze it in somehow.

-That the camera won't automatically add my name to the EXIF/IPTC of images.
This is a feature I was spoiled by on the 5D mk2. To automatically have my name added to the metadata is fantastic. It's one less thing to worry about, to know that I'll always be credited for an image, especially now that facebook reads and posts the metadata.

-That I need to use the Thumbs Up to hold the camera comfortable, but then can't use a flash on/off camera.
I love the Thumbs Up. It makes the camera feel so much more comfortable and secure to hold. But sometimes I need to use some flash, and I hate that I have to take the thumbs up off to do so. Sometimes I won't even bother lighting because of that.

-When the battery is low the camera becomes unreliable sometimes not even writing images to the card at all.
It's awful to take photos and never have them write to the SD card. And this only happens when the battery is low. Which is even worse because I don't even get the full use of the battery, I have to change it out when it gets to like 10% because I know when the battery is low the camera may as well say the battery is dead.

-That there's no live view, which I would only like for the sake of screen focusing with long (90mm/135mm) lenses.
I don't use long lenses often, and the only reason I even own a DSLR is to use long lenses. So it would be nice if I could use a 135mm lens on an M9 and use live view while zoomed in to focus because focusing a long lens on a rangefinder is a gamble.

[ricnak]

It is interesting reading all the comments.

My only gripe is that I do think the shutter is noisy. You can go SOFT mode, but then you loose your metering memory lock.

I think if you like film M's then you will probably like an M9. I think it comes down what other digital cameras you have used along the way and if you can accept that the M9 is just an M9 and not some whizz bang DSLR.

[jmarcus]

Software is a little buggy.
I wish it was as thin as other M's
Buffer is not big enough, most people will probably roll their eyes at this.
I wish it had a fold away screen, I was an R-D1s guy.

[Shade]

Maybe it's just me, but I feel my M9 is less film-like than my M8. and I like that film-ish look..

[Doug]

Wish it had a top-deck OLED like the S2 with exposure count, battery level, and ISO.
I don’t like that it’s all too easy to accidentally move the On/Off switch past On to the Continuous and Self Timer positions; a mechanical latch would be good.
I don’t like the overly traditional-like bottom plate removal to access data card and battery.
I don’t like the (usually mild) red edges and weak IR filter both of which are improved by use of external UV/IR filter as on the M8.
I don’t like the 1m framelines which also should really adjust for field size while focusing and fine if this would require lower (or better yet variable) viewfinder magnification. With a diopter adjustment.
I don’t like cleaning the sensor or cloning out the dirt spots on images, but then I don’t much care for spotting dust on prints from film either...
I don’t like having to manually reset the folder number to make the frame numbering start with 000 after card formatting, as this should be a user preference setting.
I don’t like the thought of others around me assuming the expensive M9 is overcompensation for inferior skill, evidence of more money than brains, or a bid for higher status, though I haven’t sensed any such attitudes.
I don’t like the lack of competition in this niche; there’s simply nothing else like it.
I don't like wracking my (feeble) brain for more M9 negativity, as I really like mine a lot. I appreciate the simple user interface. It's been very reliable, with good battery life, no trouble with SD cards (I use smaller ones anyway), and the image quality is just exquisite.