The Leica M10 – A review based on pictures and history
By Tomer Vankin
As a street photographer, my favorite place is Germany. I am visiting Germany at least twice a year especially to take pictures. What attracts me so much in Germany? The feeling of freedom in the air, the warm people, the old buildings and its reach culture and history that is found in almost every corner, especially in Berlin. I also love the German cuisine so much that I proudly also hold a German restaurant in Israel. At the same time, Germany has a dark history with my people, which is not only hide in the history books but is shown almost everywhere, especially in Berlin. In my opinion, Germany understands that cannot change this horrible past but can try to correct the present and create better future.
This was my first time in Munich. Furthermore, my knowledge about this area is limited to the following two main issues:
• The sacre of the Israeli delegation to the 72. Olympics. On September 1972, during the 20th Olympic Games in Munich, the largest sporting event in the world to bring countries together from all over the world, 11 Israeli athletes, coaches and judges were murdered in cold blood. This shocking massacre has left an impression on all of us Israelis.
• Along with this shocking story there is another side that everyone knows and it is the famous Oktoberfest. The Oktoberfest is a beer festival held every year in Munich and is one of the largest festivals in the world.
This year I had the opportunity to visit the festival as guest of the Israeli branch of Paulaner Brewery and I want to thank them on this great experience. The festival starts every year in mid-September, when the first glass of the first leger was served to the Bavarian prime minister and he shouted in German, “The beer is poured out of the barrel.” The festival continues until the first Sunday of October, during which time huge quantities of beer are brewed from breweries located in Munich alone, and of course a lot of Bavarian food such as sausages, cabbage and Spa.
A little about the Leica M10 (the camera is no less interesting than the festival) I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised with the ease of use, consider the mass amount of the people, the poor lighting and the amount of alcohol that flowed in my blood. I managed to operate it wonderfully.
I can definitely say that this was my extremist situation with the Leica M10 and I managed to operate it wonderfully. It was very easy to handle the camera, the battery lest through out my time in the event without the need to use my extra battery. The Rangefinder proved itself as ideal for poor lighting conditions. Finally the photographer was not in the most focused state after drinking a lot of German beers J.
I hope you like the short story and the pictures and I am looking forward to read your comments. For more pictures from this event and others you are welcome to follow me on Instagram: @itomervaknin
Finally, I want to thank again to Paulaner Brewery for the opportunity and to you Steve for giving me the platform to share my work.
Thank you all,
Tomer Vaknin
A few more…
Hi all! Recently I have been struggling with a lot of personal issues. Friends and doctors keep telling me I should consider taking medicine, so I may as well link and see how it goes. Problem is, I haven’t taken it for a while, and don’t wanna get back to it, we’ll see how it goes.
Very nice tomer
Loved your photos
Great images and good combination to work with .
I agree. Great images and many do look cinematic (like what a lot of movie color images look like). Not to mention paintings as well. Very close. It’s nice to hear that you got these with the 50mm Lux, which by itself is not known for that kind of image. That suggests that the new sensor is contributing to that effect unless you also found a way to manipulate the raw file to achieve this effect. So, are these original jpg’s, which would also imply that the in-camera software plus sensor is designed to create this effect. This is important to me because very often we are looking at M10 images that were taken with the 50mm cron APO (expensive) lens which most of us cannot afford if we can find a good substitute to get a similar effect. You seem to have done that. The light played a role as well inside, but even outside the cinematic effect is still there. One reviewer of the SL, M10, and perhaps the M9 thought that the M10 produced the most cinematic images (close call with the SL, however). Cold, technically excellent images with high resolution won’t do it for me, and you’ve helped us see a nice pathway. Thanks for sharing. Now do a wine celebration for us.
Yours is a wonderful set of photos. I felt the celebration. I too noticed the wonderful colors, almost soulful.
That M10 can be impressive. May I presume we are viewing jpegs from the camera?
Extraordinary photos. The rendering from that lens is unmistakably Leica. It’s too bad that lens cannot be adapted to the X1D 😉
The dog and men’s pants look great than jar of beers to my eyes.
This camera and lens seem to lend themselves incredibly well to everything that is warm, spontaneous and fun. There is a also a crispness and colour that to me seems out of the ordinary. Really good work – thanks for sharing.
cool stuff…i love the color out of the M10…also super fun to shoot with.
These might just tempt me to upgrade
From the 240?
Great set. Thanks for sharing 😉
The 9th photo down reminded me of an Animal House clip:
“Fat drunk and stupid is no way to go through life son”
~Dean Wormer, Faber College
O’zapft is! Great pictures and short story – worth a read. It’s hard to pick a favorite picture… I like them all. May I ask what lens you used?
Thank you for the kind words. I use only my 50mm Sumillux.
Wonderful work my friend
Thank you