Welcome to Leica M world! As a photographer (Nikon guy), I always wanted one from the mid 90s, when I started studying photography. I even bought a Leica R5 in the early 2000s, but I later got the chance to get an M8, my first M ever, in 2011. And you're right and my friends don't believe me when I say: Once you try a Leica M, there's no going back. Now I shoot a M-240 with 3 Leica lenses (and an M3) and it's my travel gear. Perfect! I still use Nikon for my work, sure. :) And I'm about to get into SL system, as I also do some video work. Thanks for your content!

Great interview!

great video, looks like an amazing location. Between the medium formats I would have to see some decent sized prints and could nit pick, not a fan of 35mm above 200iso except maybe with B&W. Grain on B&W can and depending on the subject and how it was processed you can bring it out even more to suit the subject...almost thin I like "grainy" B&W because of using super clean digital for so many years. FYI For the last 15 years I shoot motorsports for a living so its digital, high volume, and large camera lens combos. and caused my desire to shoot for fun to drop off tremendously, 2-3 years ago I bought a used fuji X Pro 2 then two Mamiya 1000s 645 bodies and 3 lenses (medium format film gear is CHEAP now :O ) both have been a blast think for me it was more about the process than film vs digital, think I just needed to slow way down and with the digital shooting JPG and having a little to no edit workflow made it fun again.

Whoa have you too been offered an X2D for a video ? really ? God this is crazy. Nice pic thus

When is this coming to capture one. This is my favorite look

I can’t seem to find the video link on how capture one presets are different that you talked about

No menus- to worry about or benefit from - in film cameras. 😊

You are very solid on camera. Respect 🫡

The photos you took on film did you print them with an enlarger Or are they a scan of the film? If so, aren't they considered as digital too? And so you compared two digital files... Color Films need to be printed on an enlarger to get the real color of the emulation. When scanned you can do whatever you want, a fuji proh400 could look like a Kodak gold in 2 clicks...😅

I shoot a combo M2/M240 so I can swap lenses and get the best of both worlds. I've shot every brand under the sun, this combo works for me and I didn't need to sell a kidney to shoot Leica.

Both are great! We need film and digital 👌

The Q‘s 28mm 1.7 is insane sharp. You can pull the sharpness slider of LrC to 0 (zero) and it’s still sharp. Independent if it’s a Q, Q2 and Q3. The AF is also that tiny little bit more precise as your eye on the rangefinder (no offence). I have it and above 50:50 I use it with the 50mm Summilux 1.4 (the last version closest focus range is 0.7m) amd the APO-Summicron-M 2/35. The Q’s Summilux 1.7/28 beats them all. But shooting M isn’t about precise max sharpness, is it?

May I ask what strobe / light do to use during the photoshoot?

Doesn't the body matter for AF? I have been considering upgrading my body because the AF on it is pretty bad, but I am hesitant because if I really wanted the best AF, I already have an amazing digital Sony a6400, and I'd really rather spend that money on better glass.

Very nice video, thanks for sharing

I can say lens is everything, my mother bought me a Pentax K 1000 with the kit 50mm lens. When I got a Leica M3 with a Zeiss 50 planar the color rendering and sharpness was night and day. Truthfully the only reason I ended up with a Leica body was that I could find a M mount to K mount adapter. I would add that you need to make sure your body is in good working order(shutter speeds are basically accurate)- if they are off then it will affect your final image.

Role or Roll in your titles..?

Hi Dave, nice video and topic. I have a M10 and M6. In my experience the film look is more about the lens. Presets (like your which I love) only get you so far, but a vintage lens on a digital camera gets you further. As an example I use a 35mm Summicron ASPH on my film M6 and a 35mm Summicron v3 from 1976 on my M10. So much easier to get the "film look" on my M10 once I got the older lens.

Great vid man. Love how you emphasized that the camera body literally doesn’t matter in terms of the image output!

you can adapt leica m lenses to any modern mirrorless camera, you don’t need a digital leica body

Really cool and informative! Variables that are so overlooked!

Great info here for those getting into film. Nice job Dave.

In the final sample images, do the difference in color and saturation have to do with some sort of SOOC JPEG processing in camera? Or is it more about how both sensors simply render differently? Those M8 files do look amazing and film like. Not sure if they're on the Ektar or on the Ektachrome side of things.

Hi Dave - thanks for another great video. Always look forward to your videos each week. This was a very helpful one for me as I add film photography to my skillset!

"The hype is real". That´s all I needed to hear 🔥

portraiture absolutely film, unique tonality, high light, digital can't beat. landscape will be digital, much more convenience and economical. I always regret for not shoot by film once it turn out looks good.

Wow look at the color shift from theTakumar 50 to the 28! Super valuable points for consideration: shop the lenses, that will inform what film camera system you might want.

Thanks Dave! This was fun! I really want to get into film but the increasing price is holding me back. I'd love an M6 to complement my Q3 though😊

PS, what are a couple of M lenses that you particularly like for shooting film?

Great video Dave! I have to say that the color grade on this video is killer! Thanks for all you do!

Leica lenses are not always the way forward, Voigtländer and other 3rd party lenses can produce a similar result to a Leica lens which cost 10 times more.

Retro lenses are sooo fun! Great breakdown Dave. Having a 3 and 6 stop ND filter in the bag helps with faster film in the day to avoid the every shot at 1/1000th or stopped down aperture dilemma. I sometimes wish Leica made their Ms with 1/2000th sec. Hope you’re doing well. Sorry I can’t make the meetup. Have a blast out there. Still working extra hours here.

B&W on film is the one, looks lovely and much nicer than on digital imo. I also prefer the feel of the m6 colour shots to the m11p but the X2d shot I saw in colour looked great, had that larger sensor pro look that works well for this type of work.

film dude, always have something different

I've made the same experience. The reason could be, that the Noctilux wasn't designed for those massive sensors. It's from around 2009 or something and at this time Leicas M9 sensor had 16MP.

Late comment. I think based on watching interviews with Peter Karbe from 2020, the typical digital sensors are designed to have light hit the surface of the sensor perpendicular to the sensor. But the M-lenses can’t do that, since they are so small in the rear element (optimized for film). Leica had to put micro-lenses in front of the sensor to direct the light from M-mount lenses to be more perpendicular to the sensor (and hence the sensor on M cameras has been optimized for M-mount lenses). Sony would not have these micro-lenses built into its sensor. This might and likely explains a bit of the difference.

Being somewhat older than you I started shooting film as it was the only available media on a Rolliflex when I was 13 in 1967 & shot fit, transparency until around 2001 when I basically went digital completely. In those days I wasn't welcome in camera clubs or doing outings with a digital camera . I much prefer to shoot digital TBH it is a lot quicker processing than film & printing. Many a time I spent doing & burning images especially in mono & come out of my darkroom check the print in the morning & find a brown spot of dust in the print. I always admired the Transparency pro as it had to be right out of the camera & some of the guys I knew then were good in the 70-80's so I focus on printing more. I still shot occasionally film on my Pentax ME super but have to say I prefer the M11M for mono 7 either my M11 or SL3 for street & landscape my main subjects.

I can’t wait to save up for the Sofort 2! It’s absolutely stunning with its sleek and modern design-way cooler than those bulky Polaroid cameras! Plus, the fact that it takes both Sofort film and Instax Mini film is just the cherry on top!

Hi Dave. I wanna do photography as a side hustle and not really a job and I'm not expecting to make much I am fine with like more than 40 bucks a month. My questions are if I should actually invest into buying a camera at first or use my phone camera and also I'd I should listen to a recommendation I heard which said I should take photos and publish them to stuff like shutterlock and Adobe stock and as I slowly build up my portfolio I get more passive income. What should I do, should I listen and try it out?

Hi Dave, I have an M6 (1st Leica) next a FujiX100 F, then a LeicaM10 M, and a Leica Q2 Reporter .I also have a 21, a 35, 50 and a 90 .I am thinking of another M10 24mp (which is affordable and shoots color)or an M10 P or R which are more.Thought it would be great to have another body for 2 lenses on the ready. Problem is to keep the Q2 or sell to invest in the 10 R and keep the Fuji for something small.I shoot 80% bw and color never printed over 18x24.What do you think?

Thanks Dave - this was great. Any thoughts on sharpening film photos, or the use of the clarity/texture sliders? And how about a separate video on editing black and white film photos? There's very little out there on this.

It's surprising how the medium format film pretty much looks the same as the digital in 4K video. The 35mm film has noticeable grain though. Very nice.

Film vs. Digital - from the results' perspective, I really don't care. It is the photographer and his style to give them the real vibe. From a photographer's point of view however, film is a totally different animal and requires a different approach - I certainly love your idea to lock your M11 for a while. Since I have my MP, I find myself preferring the MP over the M11 - maybe because the the challenges of the media. From your images, I like the square format results from the Hasselblad most. Although the Cinestill XX seems to be very contrasty and operating at it's limits in the environment (probably a good old Tri-X or HP-5 would have been better), the square format allows for different perspectives and "marriage" between location and models. In Scott's images I like the competition between sharpness and depth, something that is not unique to digital at all.

I've always loved the Canon menus because they stay fairly much the same, and you can normally pick up a 20 yr old camera and a new Canon with not have a probkem.

What a great set of top notch photos. I really love them and their, or rather your, stories. They make these beautiful shots even more compelling. Thank you for sharing them with us. My fav is Jackson Hole. The one without the Elk. It’s simply magic. Kudos.

I just watched your video why you chose the M10-R over the M11. I am confused to say the least.

These presets look beautiful but I just don’t have the right photos for them.

a sideways take: the success of a picture depends on your process, if you are used to ambient light then you can probably do either film or digital interchangeably, although digital will be easier obvs. But as soon as you put up a light, continuous or strobe, that's another thing altogether, and we like to think we can "see" continuous light like we "see" ambient but we can't, and so unless that is our process, and we're used to it, we're gonna needs some help- we used to have polaroid to dial things in, and if I make a rule up to not "cheat" by looking at a digital preview then you better know continuous light or you are going to make mistakes. I think in this case Scott's images work better not because they are digital but because he finessed the continuous light more. And Dave's would have been better if he had allowed himself a preview to dial in the light to his liking more. But I like film and digital equally as mediums.

I really like the black and white I feel that the dress attire and place really lean to that. great video btw.

I think the film has a nostalgic vibe to it-at least the the Leica that you don’t get with the digital. Sometimes I’m in the mood for that and it reminds me of the old masters. But I have both the m11p and the X2D and I have to say I get soooo excited reviewing the image quality, color, and mailability of those raw files. My problem is I can never decide which one to shoot with! It’s an embarrassment of riches! Also, would love a video talking about when you like to shoot medium format vs 35mm. Sorry if I missed one you did already. Good stuff!