goodbye old friend - lecia m240

Lets cut to the chase. The time has finally come for me to let go of an old friend..... My Leica M240. We have been together through thick and thin for a long 4 years now and its one of the few cameras that got my youtube channel off of the ground. The main problem is I just don't get the enjoyment out of it anymore, and in todays post I'm going to share some of my favorite images from its last few outings and explain why this often loving relationship has finally come to an end.

First up its worth us covering a little background on why I purchased this camera in the first place. And the short answer is.... documenting life and enjoying doing so. In the beginning and to some extent recently this is the camera from a digital perspective that used to come with me everywhere, from trips away, family occasions, to dog walks you name it. Its has however never been my only camera its always been in a collection with what I guess you could call a more typical mirrorless camera, these range from the Fuji xt2, to the canon m50, canon 1dx, sony a7ii. These other cameras have always covered the professional/video requirements leaving the M240 to fill out its single requirement.

Long time supporters of my youtube channel might remember a very old video from 2019 where I outlined that it was being sold, which not long after I changed my mind. But honestly.... this time its going and its up for sale as I type this.

Lets kick off with the good as I have loved using this camera. Its small and portable, and has a build quality like no other, which makes this camera such an joy to use. I am someone that often values the experience of taking photos over results! which especially considering its use case of documenting my life really helped my to take this camera everywhere. I really didn’t care if things weren’t pixel perfect if I was having fun in the moment.

One of the biggest pros of Leica will always be the lens choice, I’ve shot a mixture of Leica and 3rd party glass, which resulted more recently in me settling with a collection of voigtlander lenses. All of which are a joy to use, and in the world that strives for perfection these lenses often come with flaws or characteristics depending on how you view it.

One thing that highlights how much I’ve enjoyed using it, is how long I’ve owned it. I’ve owned it for 5 years at this point. Which is pretty odd for me! I’ve had multiple different mirrorless cameras during the same period of time. And that alone speaks volumes. There’s something about Leica’s which stops them from feeling obsolete quickly, maybe the crazy price tag, but they do genuinely feel like they are built to last. Its most likely due to the slow upgrade cycles and the lack of new features on newer cameras where the aim for the pursuit of pure photography.

One of the huge appeals with the M240 has been the Leica M6. The M6 is my pride and joy, and being able to share lenses across digital and film has always been a big bonus. Its easy to pack the two bodies and a couple lenses into a small Billingham Hadley bag which has meant that they have both seen their fair share of use! There are not many ways of being able to have both film and digital in such a small package.

So then why on earth did I sell it, this all sounds good and positive. First up this camera is old and in a world that moves fast its starting to show its age. It’ll be 10 years old this year! And my most of my biggest issues with this camera are somewhat age related. Newer cameras are raising the bar at a rapid pace and even as someone who enjoys the process, its starting to raise the bar of what i can live with and find acceptable.

One of the obvious ones for me is the boot up time, it takes literal seconds to switch on and fire the shutter. This alone means I miss a lot of the candid opportunities that life throws at you, back in 2012 this is something that would have felt acceptable, and I know its the world around us that now craves speed. But there's nothing worse than missing an opportunity

Next up is color balance, this camera struggles in somewhat complex scenes to set the right color balance. This is something that I’ve only really started to notice more recently. A while back i did a straight out of camera JPEG challenge comparing the Fuji X100V to the M240 and often the biggest difference was the complete miss of color balance from the M240. This is easily corrected in lightroom but forces you down the road of having to edit.

Like above some of the negatives you can work with but come with their own consequences, another example is that the highlight retention on this cameras is to put it bluntly horrendous, you’ll often and I mean often get pure white areas in your images. This can be countered by setting the exposure compensation down a bit. You now get protected highlights but generally darker images that you then again HAVE to edit to even back out.

I also often wish the camera was weather sealed taking this camera on a day trip where it ends up raining means getting out the trusty iPhone, and as someone that lives in the UK. This can be very frustrating.

One last thing, and I probably talk for a lot of photographers out there with Leicas, is that its not that easy to hand this camera over too other people for them to take a photo for you. If I look through my lightroom library at the period of time where it was one of my only cameras there's something missing from documenting my life.... me.

I think what I’m trying to say here is this camera is an absolute joy to use. The physical build quality, the amazing lens choices, the small package and ability to combine with the M6 is what has led to this camera surviving 5 years in my camera bag, considerably longer than any other digital camera of mine. The downside is that its old, and technically showing its age.

But why now then? why sell it in 2022. Arguably this camera has been old for a while now! For me something happened a year ago with marked the end of the M240 for me,

The Fuji X100V. Now for some people this isn't a comparison worth making but for me the M240 and X100V fill the same role of documenting my life and having fun while doing so.

The M240 has the more premium feel to it, but the X100V isnt too far behind. The M240 also offers a closer to analog feel with its rangefinder, whereas the x100v has a hybrid viewfinder that isnt same, but again its close.

Beyond that the X100V is smaller, lighter, doesn’t miss white balance, doesn't have a tendency to over expose, boots up quickly, is considerably cheaper, weather sealed, has a built in ND, has a very useable close focusing distance and I can use adapters for the 28mm & 50mm focal lengths that i often shoot.

The X100v leaves me with JPEGs that i do not need to edit, and can really quickly send to my phone and share on social media. This is something that a year ago I didn't even know i wanted. I was so stuck into photography being a two stage process of shoot and edit.

Importantly all this in many cases, means the X100v enables me personally to take better photos, and still get nearly the same level of enjoyment as the M240. The video I created for youtube on this topic resulted in me having to force myself to use the M240 for content, and leave the X100V at home. For me it really is that clear cut, the x100v comes with me practically everywhere and the M240 sits at home collecting dust.

So is this the end of Leica on the channel? I can tell you now that the M6 isn’t going anywhere! And all of this by no means that I am ruling out a digital Leicas. The Q2 and M10 solve a fair amount of my issues but it is at literally comes at a high cost. Who knows with the M11 being released we might see an influx of M10s on the used market and a bit of a price dip but I doubt it. One last good thing about the M240 is that I will likely sell it for the same price I bought even though 5 years have pasted!