Leica M-A (Typ 127) Rangefinder Camera (Black)

Anyone who is willing to pay the price for this camera expects nothing less than the best rangefinder. This camera feels incredibly well built. It's just beautiful. The film advance feels superb. However, when I finished my first roll, I noticed there was a grease mark (or a scratch) near the number 40 on the counter. Should I return the camera because of this? No. Does it affect the performance? No. Is it annoying? Yes! I know it's there and it drives me nuts just to think of it. I paid a lot expecting an immaculate camera. Leica left a hair in a very expensive soup and it just takes something away from the experience :(

I did not buy this camera through B&H but will do a review here. With the release of this fully mechanical film camera in an age where everything is digital I cannot else but say that Leica totally get it. Leica understands that real photographers don't need a lot to take good pictures, basically an understanding of light and exposure an aperture, shutter and some light sensitive material aka 35 mm film. How else did all the masters of the 1930's through to the 1960's take their pictures? They did not have any of the bells and whistles that modern digital cameras have. Simplicity sparks creativity. Less is more. Few companies seem to understand that concept anymore. Don't be fooled by thinking that a digital M is the same as fully mechanical M, they are not. They ... MoreI did not buy this camera through B&H but will do a review here. With the release of this fully mechanical film camera in an age where everything is digital I cannot else but say that Leica totally get it. Leica understands that real photographers don't need a lot to take good pictures, basically an understanding of light and exposure an aperture, shutter and some light sensitive material aka 35 mm film. How else did all the masters of the 1930's through to the 1960's take their pictures? They did not have any of the bells and whistles that modern digital cameras have. Simplicity sparks creativity. Less is more. Few companies seem to understand that concept anymore. Don't be fooled by thinking that a digital M is the same as fully mechanical M, they are not. They may look the same but in terms of quality, feel and responsiveness, the digital M's don't even come close to this Leica M-A or the 2003 Leica MP for that matter. The digital M's are basically expensive computers with a piece of glass destined to be outdated in 5 - 10 years from now, as overall digital technology will improve. Despite the high quality materials that Leica uses, they still are digital cameras or commodity electronics. Who would buy a 10MP digital Leica M8 from 2006 today and for how long will it continue to work without problems ? For the Leica M-A, there is nothing to improve. It's fully mechanical. Nothing to upgrade. No screens, no megapixels, no firmware. It produces negatives that cannot get corrupted on faulty hard drives. It uses zone focusing on the lens and allows you to focus faster than the fastest DSLR available. You can make traditional darkroom prints but also digital inkjet prints if you want to. It will not be obsolete in 10 years from now as, contrary to what they want you to believe, film is not dead. Not at all. It will never be dead either. The joy of holding and using this camera is something you have to experience. If you have the funds, go out and buy it. It will be the best and most pleasurable camera you have ever owned. It rises far above ANY digital camera ever released. It's just about the image and the fun of taking pictures. All else is secondary. Thanks to Leica for understanding this!

Leica first introduced the M-A in 2014. A moment in time when many thought digital was poised to bury film once and for all. In the years since its introduction, countless technical reviews of the M-A have been written by those far more experienced than I, so I'll not talk about the technical reasons I love this camera.As digital was settling into its presumed place of perpetual dominance, preparing to relegate film to history, something unexpected happened. Somewhere along the way analog became a parasitic meme. Slowly spreading from one person to another. This began not only with film, but also audio (with a renewed interestin vinyl) and print (with specialty bookbinding).It feels truly liberating to return to the simplicity of the fundamentals in photography ... MoreLeica first introduced the M-A in 2014. A moment in time when many thought digital was poised to bury film once and for all. In the years since its introduction, countless technical reviews of the M-A have been written by those far more experienced than I, so I'll not talk about the technical reasons I love this camera.As digital was settling into its presumed place of perpetual dominance, preparing to relegate film to history, something unexpected happened. Somewhere along the way analog became a parasitic meme. Slowly spreading from one person to another. This began not only with film, but also audio (with a renewed interestin vinyl) and print (with specialty bookbinding).It feels truly liberating to return to the simplicity of the fundamentals in photography and there is no better way in my opinion to do this than a simple rangefinder. And who better to offer such a tool to the contemporary photography enthusiast or professional than the company that started it all with Oskar Barnack 99 years ago?My first experiences with photography were half a century ago with an Olympus SLR and one prime lens. I had a darkroom within a couple years and was developing my own chrome. At that time for me, every shot was purposeful. Most of those photos are now cherished memories.Fast forward a couple decades and an early Nikon D series is now in my hand. I took some twenty thousand photos over the span of one year. Maybe half a dozen of these were actually worth capturing. The D died the next year, I bought a smaller, higher resolution Lumix to replace it and the trend of indiscriminately capturing images continued.Another decade passes and I get a Sony Alpha 6500 “mirrorless”. It’s a great camera as digital goes. I equiped it with a very capable Sony G 4/18-105 lens. Now each of my random images can take up even more space. The quality of the stuff I collect with this camera has improved but the creative process and forethought I once exercised is still missing. The ‘cost’ of each shot is too little to matter.All through this process there was a nagging voice in the back of my mind. It tended to get particularly raucous whenever I perused folders of my digital pics. “Gee, I could, should, delete most of these. Maybe one out of a thousand is really worth printing. The rest are pointless. Have I lost my ‘eye’ for this craft?”So I started thinking about the things that had changed in the decades that my ‘craft’ should have been improving, but was in fact not. At some vague point in the process, I realized the single biggestdifference was the time devoted to each shot. And the answer was clear: “slow down. Be deliberate again.”I tried this with the digital tools I have. I can’t articulate why it was so difficult. And I’m sure relatively certain the fault is not the tools themselves. Only a poor craftsman blames his tools for his own mistakes. But in the end, I decided to eliminate the distractions, and minimize my ‘tookit’ to the barest of essentials. That’s where the M-Acomes in. I feel in many ways as if I’m starting all over again. And along with that comes a renewed sense of discovery, and not just the patience, but the desire, to slow down.If you treasure the craft of photography, and want to be solely responsible for the outcome of your work, I can’t recommend this camera highly enough.Thank you Leica for keeping Oskars dream alive for generations, and for reigniting my passion. I can only hope the revival in the interest in analog continues with enough vigor to keep companies like Kodak, Fuji, Illford, Foma, and the others interested and motivated to continue making 35mm film.