so what do you do if you love shooting film but you maybe can't stand the cost
or the idea of spending 2 000 pounds on a film camera particularly a leica if you're that way
inclined just does not make sense to you at all and on top of that you know when you're honest
you appreciate the benefits of digital you appreciate being able to shoot as much as you want
whenever you want however you want any light condition push the iso you hate the faff
of some modern digital cameras with endless menus so many options fairly obtuse controls
what do you do is there really a camera out there that can kind of do both that can kind of give you
the best of film shooting and digital shooting i think there is so i've been shooting at leica
in one form or another for about six or seven years i originally had an m6 ttl which i sold
then i bought the m262 hoping that it would revive my personal photography it totally did
and then thinking i wanted to revive my like a film passion i thought i had last year
just before the pandemic got serious i bought an m7 but i sold it and i kept this the m262 delivers
and i used to think that the only way to get a film vibe
that kind of look and that feel of shooting a film camera i thought the only way to do it was
get a film camera shoot film but i've been proving myself wrong these last few years
so now let's talk about the features on this camera or rather the lack of features maybe let's
start with what it doesn't have it does not have an electronic viewfinder does not have in body
stabilization it does not have live view video it doesn't have autofocus it's an incredibly basic
camera and leica has done that on purpose but in its simplicity i think lies its strength
because what it does have is the classic leica handling feels amazing and dense in the hand
the operation is simple and streamlined once you've set the auto iso and auto
white balance and if you just are happy to live with that all you have to worry about
is putting it in aperture priority that's the minimum and it's wonderful to shoot that way
the viewfinder itself is very clear makes composition easy and finally the image
quality is stunning as you would imagine for a 24 megapixel camera that's been recently produced
so yeah i hear you saying okay fine it's got a bunch of features that other cameras have
just fewer you know you can buy a fujifilm camera with a rangefinder like viewfinder
those cameras are also fairly minimal they've all got shutter speed dials all right cool whatever
i've shot with fujifilm cameras i used to have two xt3s i had like two x100s they don't feel as good
to shoot as this to me and actually one of the reasons is not to do with the viewfinders or the
image quality or the size because you know clearly the fuji's have all that it's a very small thing i
didn't think i'd care about but i find completely changes how issues and the speed with which i can
operate the camera and that's the auto review of the images bear with me this is a really weird and
unique feature i haven't seen it applied this on any other camera i've used from either sony
canon fujifilm or nikon and that's once you take a photo and you've gone through the two stages of
the shutter if you just go up one stage it will keep the image there for you so you can look at
it check your focus right check your exposed right check you've got everything where you
need it to be and then when you finally let go all the way image disappears you're back to shooting
and that makes the process so smooth you can check if you got the focus right you can check
if you got the exposure right if you weren't sure if it was a challenging situation if maybe
stuff was moving or you can just crack on and shoot as if you're
shooting film without any review just in the moment shooting enjoying yourself
it's a very small thing but i think it makes a difference and i think it's what people buy Leicas
for that sort of unique intangible weird not a spec sheet kind of vibe that you get from Leicas
that you don't get from any other cameras i certainly don't get from any other cameras
i think it's very telling that the thing i want to spend the most time talking about
is the auto review function on this camera because there really aren't that many other
functions that are notable there's nothing in the menus to find other than lens selection for
non-like lenses or formatting the card or jpeg functions but really you set those once
along with auto iso and you're basically ready to go and shoot any condition any time
but this camera still slows you down enough to really force you to think about composition
in the way that we all know we feel when we shoot a film camera that sort of slowness that
deliberateness that if you don't get the focus in time you just don't take the shot and to be honest
with the high iso performance of this camera you really can shoot in any condition and get
a very nice if a little grainy shot i think the grain's quite nice it's i dare say it's filming
now when we're talking about Leicas there's always this question of value for money though i think
this does justify its cost in a way because it delivers a unique experience for those who want it
i think there are some areas where Leica perhaps at the time i haven't actually used an m10 so i
don't know how it is now but at the time dropped the ball a bit technically and i think you can see
that most in the screen the back lcd and the card speed and write speed of the camera the screen
on the back is not great it's not as bad as say a first generation 5d screen but it's definitely not
something you'd expect on a camera this expensive from a brand like this often you have to tilt
the screen backwards and forwards backwards and forwards trying to get a few different versions
of the exposure through the lcd to kind of get a sense of whether you're exposed correctly
it's not particularly sharp either although you can usually still tell if you've got it in focus
and the write speed of the camera because it can only accept very slow cards is slow and you are
not going to be shooting in burst on this even though it has a dedicated function on the top
here for burst those limitations i don't think are particularly relevant to this camera i don't think
you buy this camera for speed i think you buy it for the exact opposite you buy it to slow you down
you buy it for the exact reason you buy a film camera to practice more deliberate photography
i think with leicas a lot of focus ends up being on the physical interface of the camera so the
dials the buttons but i think a discussion does have to happen about the menu system of these
older digital Leicas it's not great but you have to use it so seldom that it's not really an issue
so i've heard sony menus are fairly hard to use but that's more of an issue with sony's
because you have to use the menus more with the leicas it is confusing in this generation but
you have to use them maybe once or twice a week and so the fact that they're not great is fine
they're not the main part of this camera they're not the thing you're using every
single day to make the camera work in the way you want it to work the fact
that there's three buttons to get to a bunch of information that really should be hidden in one
whatever you know the settings are there if you need them you very rarely need them
so in summary should you get this camera do i recommend the m262
i think if you're budget conscious but you still want to like it then the m262 for me
is a no-brainer if you're someone looking for a unique experience in a digital camera
i think this should be in your top five of unique digital cameras to own and use
thank you for watching this video if you've got any questions about the m262
or film Leicas or the fuji x pros and how they compare to this in terms of experience
please leave them in the comments below i want to say a special hello to my two subscribers
you know who you are and i really appreciate that you wanted to see
what i had to say about other cameras thank you so much and i will see you in the next video