Using a Leica M 240 for Fashion by Isi Akahome

July 11, 2017 Fashion, Guest Post, Leica, News, User Reports 13
Using a Leica M 240 for Fashion
by Isi Akahome – His Instagram is HERE
Hi Steve,
It’s been 5 months since I got my first Leica, the M240, and I have loved using it to shoot models, and fashion work on location in Chicago. I love the simplicity of the system, and the way it makes shooting a more romantic experience. I have only shot natural light photos with the camera, and It has made me make an effort to look for better light, and better planned shoots. I am totally in love with this system. It’s not perfect by any means. I really don’t like how slow the buffer is when I shoot about 10 frames back-to-back, review the shots, and try to shoot again. It takes about 5 seconds before the camera allows you to take another shot. It can be frustrating especially when you miss a nice pose. That’s about the only complaint I have. I don’t miss having autofocus, and my rangefinder skills have vastly improved in a very short period of time. I also like how understated the camera is, especially when I’m in the streets and in crazy locations shooting. I know Leica M’s are known for street shooting, but they make awesome cameras for shooting fashion too.
I attached a few photos for your viewing pleasure. You can find more on my Instagram page: @isispiks.
Thanks Steve, I wanna be balling like you someday so I can get an M10.

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13 Comments

  1. Great work!! Love the photos. I just got my Leica M 240. I shoot portraits as well. I’m looking forward to using it. this is the second Leica I’ve used. The simplicity of it and the end result of beautiful photos is what I love about them. Happy Shooting.

  2. Hi Isi!
    So i have a question for you. I bought some months ago a Leica M Typ 262, which has the exact same sensor as the M240. I am mayorly a people photographer, i shoot street too and just my daily life but my main thing is to photograph people. My problem is the skintones. i’ve been having some mayor issues with them to a point that recently I decided to put my M262 for sale on ebay. Sometimes skins look too orange, sometimes too red, sometimes too magenta … is a little bit of a lottery.
    How you manage that issue?

    • Are you shooting RAW? I always shot RAW with any Leica and adjust colors if they are off there. Never had any major issues, only the 1st M 240’s that were shipped had awful AWB performance. They had several FW updates to address it but some still think the skin tones of the 240 leave some to be desired. I was fine as I never had issues with skin tones but maybe I am not as picky? If you are not shooting RAW, do that 1st and foremost.

      • Yes. I always shoot RAW+JPEG. Most of the time JPEG is in black and white.
        What I notice is that skintones look alright if I overexpose the photo slightly. In a correct exposure they look “not right”. I tried underexposing too, just to see what happens and to see how much could I recover from the files … eventho I can recover a lot from the shadows the skintones go to hell in an underexposed photo.
        I know I’ve been spoiled with how good the skintones look on my Fuji, but even with my old trusty Nikon (D700) they look way better than with the Leica. You could imagine than being the later a more modern camera, they would have thing already figured out but that is not my experience …
        And i wanna say I’m not a hatter, I really wanted to love the LEica so much. I’ve been dreaming about having one for the longest time. And also was a perfect ecosystem since I could share the lenses with my M4-2 making my life simpler. But at the end of the day if the files look that bad, I can’t keep it.

  5. Very Nice. Love the work.
    Completely agree with you. the simpler the setup, the more you are pushed to focus on the subject.

  6. nice photos
    weird unnatural colors intended to highlight “fashionism”?

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