When I said I was drawn to B&W images last week, it didn’t take me too long to take the plunge as I recently acquired a Leica M Monochrom Typ 246 camera.
I’ve been thinking about getting one for a while, especially since Leica came up with this brilliant marketing campaign where Zack Snyder (the director of Batman vs. Superman) posted an incredible photo on Twitter showing off the Dark Knight in incredible depths of grey.
Since I bought the camera, my habits have been shaken but for the better: manual focus gives me much more control on my composition, using the rangefinder allows me to keep monitoring the scene while the camera is taking photos (so that I do not miss a photo opportunity while the shutter is opened), shooting in B&W forces me to focus on the direction of light. I’ve also learnt not to review my photo on the LCD immediately after taking the shot, as it is a waste of time that may cost me a good shot.
Overall, the learning curve was not as steep as I expected and I feel super enthusiastic about shooting in the street again, something I barely dared doing with my DLSR before.
Finally, using a Leica gives me access to some of the most incredible lenses I’ve seen. It’s quite amazing to see how some of the old lenses have braved the test of time and still remain better than most products today. To top it all, the Leica M lenses are super compact and light so I won’t have to carry several kg of camera gear around that I didn’t really use when walking in HK.
If you can, give it a try. I thought shooting with Leica cameras was overrated but I couldn’t have been more wrong!