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How I Found my Perfect Digital Leica M Setup… With a Mirrorless Sony
On choosing a digital camera to shoot my analog-era lenses
About a year ago, I was looking for a digital setup to use my analog Leica M glass. I was preparing for a multi-day hike and wanted to bring along a digital camera setup for landscape photography rather than my coveted analog Leica M6 body. I further wanted to make use of as much of my existing gear as possible. Of course, going for an M10 very briefly crossed my mind. It would have most likely provided the most consistent shooting experience across both film and digital. There was one problem, though: I wasn’t willing (or able, for that matter) to shell out upwards of 7k for a product just as affected by digital rot like any other digital camera.
So I set out in search of a setup option that would ideally suit my needs while not busting the budget too much.
Considerations and contenders
First, I wanted to get away with spending less than 2k and needed something with a feasible M adapter option. Second, I needed the setup to remain relatively compact, which essentially ruled out any DSLR options. Third, I wanted the shooting process to stay as close as possible to the analog process. Finally, suitable high-quality adapters needed to be available for whatever I chose.
You already know I got a Sony Alpha in the end, so I’m going to start with what it was up against. Uninformed as I was at the time, I first mainly looked into options with an APS-C sensor, as I had falsely thought that a full-frame setup was out of reach for my price range. The first contender in the APS-C race was the Leica CL because of its compactness and, well, I like shiny things. As you can guess, my rational mind soon dismissed this option. The second contender was the Fuji X-ProII because of its range of manual dials on the camera that would have closely emulated the manual analog shooting process.
Much like Bradley, shooting on Fujifilm made me a better photographer. Albeit for different reasons and on a different Fuji system. The Fujifilm X100S was my first professional-grade camera. I loved its vintage look, small size, and the fact that I could virtually emulate complete manual control. It’s the digital camera that…
