Leica M9 – hands on

The guys at Leica Meister Berlin have been so kind to let me play with the brand new Leica M9. You will find some sample shots on my flickr stream. There are better folks out there for doing camera reviews, so this is just my personal impression. For comprehensive M9 reviews check my earlier posts.
The M9 feels very nice and the menus/buttons are much intuitive and usefull than with the M8. In terms of picture quality i am not really convinced. At least on my pictures there were some very obvious CA’s and i also wouldn’t recommend to use something beyond ISO 640. What i see in LR is in no way comparable with the 5D mk2 or even the old 5D – but then again the 5D is a clunky DSLR while the M9 as a Rangefinder shares all the advantages of my MP or M6. I don’t think i will buy the M9 any time soon but i’am glad it exists. This time Leica did everything right and i am sure that the M9 will be a good deal for them.
Michael
After you have tested all those cameras, I would like to know which one you would choose for steet photograhy (black and white) if you could only use one of them?
Sep 12, 2009 @ 7:14 pm
guido
Hello Michael, to answer your question is quite easy: If i could only keep one of my cameras it would be the M6. Even the MP is not better as it does the same but costs 3 times as much as the M6. Get a used M6 and you are set. Hope this helps, Guido
Sep 12, 2009 @ 7:24 pm
Michael
Guido, thank you for your fast answer! Do you have any experience with the new Summilux ASPH. 24mm and 50mm in combination with Kodak Tri X?
Sep 14, 2009 @ 11:38 am
guido
I use the Summicrons 50mm and 35mm ASPH, both with Tri-X (most of the time). I had a look at Summilux 24mm last week in the Leica. That’s very nice but big lens. For me it’s just way to expensive ;-)
Sep 14, 2009 @ 1:39 pm
Michael
Maybe you can borrow this lenses from Leica for some hours for a test?!So we can read on your block how this tool work for a full time profi.
Sep 14, 2009 @ 2:37 pm
guido
Full time profi ;-) I do have a day-time job that pays for my photographic adventures
Sep 14, 2009 @ 2:39 pm