The Leica M and NEW 28mm Summicron! By Tomer Vaknin

June 21, 2016 Guest Post, Human Condition, Inspiration, Leica, Mirrorless, Must See, Street Photography, Travel, User Reports 18

The Leica M and NEW 28mm Summicron!

By Tomer Vaknin

Hello Steve,

A new trip makes a new story. This time I was in Greece for the first time (Rhodes island). A country that is only one-hour flight from my home country Israel. I was really looking forward to this vacation and caused me special enthusiasm for the following reasons:

First and most important, it was a family vacation. My further in law invited us all. Furthermore, this was the first trip abroad with my two years old daughter Emmanuel, to whom it was first time on an airplane.

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Secondly, visiting new country gives is an opportunity to catch great pictures of different people, culture and views. So I packed with me my Leica M9 Monochrome and Leica M-P (Typ 240) and also borrowed from my friend his new Summicron-M 28mm f/2.0. I also took with me the APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0 ASPH.

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My intention was to test the black and white photography. Therefore, most the time the 50mm APO stayed on the M-P240 and the 28mm Summicron on the M9 Monochrome because in my opinion the 28mm lens are more suitable for this purpose.

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I found Rhodes is a very nice place to do street photography, especially the city of Lindos (White city), that lies on the east coast of the island. It has a special unique atmosphere. Also the old city of Rhodes has a unique beauty and charm. It lies just beside the new town and an ancient wall separates between the two parts. I had the pleasure to understand the local way of life and the city history through a vivid conversation with a taxi driver. Interesting to mention is that according to the local driver, Rhodes has population of 180,000 but during the peak of the tourist season, 260,000 stay on the island.

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And for the gear that I have with me…

Leica M9 Monochrome, in my opinion the best camera Leica and even any other camera manufacture ever created.

This camera has magic that it is hard to explain with words. If I compare only the specs, the M9 and the M9 monochrome have many disadvantages against all the full frame cameras and even the APS-C camera of the past five years. But the magic of operating these two cameras is something unique to these two models. The strong point of the M9 monochrome is the very good ISO that is more than enough for my use of black and white photography and the amazing RAW files that it produces. Leica will release the Next M soon and thy have a new great SL. However, usually after the dust settles from any new release, the best photography experience and the joy I get is from the M9 monochrome from the M9 family.

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As a result of my experience with the new Leica Summicron-M 28mm, I can say with great confidence that It has great lens, very small for fast f/2.0 28mm and very comfortable to carry around all day. The contrast and the sharpness are amazing and the Bokhe are soft and creamy. I’m not a professional lens reviewer so I can only say that I am really satisfied with the photography experience and with results of this lens.

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I hope you and the readers will enjoy my article and my photography and I am looking forward to get your feedback. Also, you are welcome to contact me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/tomer.vaknin.5), where I share my photos frequently.

Finally, I want to thank you Steve for all the hard work you put on this site. It is always interesting and educational to read your reviews. It is also great thing that you give us, the photographers who don’t have the time or the will to maintain their own website or blog, the opportunity and the platform to share with your readers their art.

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Thank you very much and hope to post some new experiences soon.

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18 Comments

  2. Great shots! I was with my family on Rhodes before 14 days and the whole island looks like it was made for photographers 🙂 So many photographic opportunities. I traveled with A7r II, Tamron 15-30, 135L,55/1.8, Contax 100-300 and with CV 35/1.2 II with TechartPro AF adapter. With the updated FW the CV 35/1.2 II come alive shooting wide open. It works very well. Talking about Rhodes I can recommend night photo walk through the old town of Rhodes. It´s simply amazing, those streets without people, atmosphere, light only from street lamps and the moon.

  3. I recently received my M240 and love it, your article summarizes my feeling exactly on this camera, I enjoy your pictures every day.

  4. Hi Tomer, your pictures transmit the feeling of being there. I like them a lot. One question: Having not used the Monochrome, how much did you postprocess the pictures and in which software. I am toying with the idea of adding a monochrome as well….
    Thank you,
    Oliver

    • The post process is really simple you don’t have a lot of work with a Monochrome files.
      i start with LR playing with the shadows, contrast and if need i move to SilverEfex for extra punch for files

  5. Even though most of these pictures are nothing special (I understand that quality time with the family was more important) they accompany the story very well. In addition, one can really tell how much you enjoyed using these cameras and that the photos are special to you. I therefore enjoyed looking at them very much. Thank you for sharing.

  7. Seldom see wide angle pictures that are involving and ‘picture perfekt’ — like what you did with it, displays beauty, concentration in view and street photography at its best with some artistical elements … keep on traveling 🙂

  8. The people I know who shoot Leica are nearly all travel photographers and I see loads of wonderful images which makes me want to Max out my credit cards and head off. These photos are having a similar effect. I love the one of the man looking at the cat best.
    The little girl is showing us that using a Leica is child’s play!

  9. Really love your pics. Specially the sleeping child and woman. (Your family i suppose?)

  10. What can I say you don’t already know ? I love your pics – color and BnW and I fully agree the M9M has some magic (CCD?). The two lenses are superb and obviously you enjoyed your trip !

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