Yesterday I made a post about 5 day old M11D locking up. I thought today I could provide a couple of honest thoughts about my experience using it up until that point.

Let me preface this by the fact that, despite my D locking up and returning it, I really do still buy into the philosophy. For me, it’s ideal.

However, after getting to use it for a few days, there were some real downsides that hinder the user experience that you might not realize until you really get to use it outside of the showroom. It’s also worth emphasizing that these downsides were design decisions made by Leica, and not a function of the philosophy itself. It’s particularly frustrating bc these issues cannot be remedied by a firmware update. You’ll just have to be comfortable with them wen you made the purchase

The camera relies WAY too much, in my opinion, on the app. While from an outside perspective it might seem like a set it and forget it situation, the lack of ability to adjust basically anything from the camera itself means that you actually interface with the app almost as much as you would with the screen-this time it’s just more inconvenient. It would have been great if they, instead of just willy nilly got rid of buttons, knobs, etc., actually added a few of these so that you could change important settings without having to use the app. It’s counterintuitive, but by stripping it down to the degree that they have, they have actually forced the user to rely more on electronics than they would have if they just kept the original knobs and added one or two more buttons.

I think that the lack of a screen was the most frustrating thing when my D locked up, and I think it was ultimately this which made me decide to ditch the D. It’s insanely frustrating to not have a screen when there’s something wrong with the camera and you can’t diagnose it. Chimping aside, there are real benefits to a screen when you are relying on electronics to the extent that this camera does.