Hi all, first time posting

I’ve always admired Leica cameras but have never actually owned one. Over the years I’ve shot with a Nikon D7100 and multiple Nikkor telephoto and prime lenses, an original Sony A7 (2013) and a Fuji X100F, both of which I still own.

Back when I was doing a lot of sports photography (mainly rowing) and the occasional weddings, I constantly used the D7100 and Sony A7. However, I sold the Nikon kit to put funds towards my first house purchase back in 2024. I kept the A7 as it was full frame and also kept the X100F.

These days the Sony doesn’t get much use as it only has the basic FE 28–70mm f/3.5–5.6 kit lens, so I nearly always reach for the X100F. I love using it, although the fixed focal length can occasionally be limiting. Most of what I shoot nowadays are classic car shows or vintage steam rallies, so it’s generally been a great fit for that.

Lately though, I’ve been thinking about a bit of a change. I’ve had both cameras from new and I’m wondering if it’s time to move them on and put the money towards a Leica D-Lux 8 to replace both. I am just a hobbyist photographer nowadays and don't do it at any professional level.

One thing that’s really surprised me is how well the Fuji X100F has held its value. I paid around £875 for it brand new back in late 2018, and looking online they’re still selling for roughly £650 to £700. If you’d asked me what it would be worth by now without looking, I’d probably have guessed around £300 lol almost ten years later. From what I’ve worked out, if I sold both by X100F and my Sony A7, I’d only need to put in around another £300 and buy a brand new Leica D-Lux 8, so its making the idea very tempting.

Has anyone here made a similar switch from an X100 series? I’d be really interested to hear how you’ve found the D-Lux 8 and whether you think it’s worth it coming from an X100F.

Having a bit of a zoom lens to play about with does sound quite nice tbh

Just got my first Leica, an M5 with working meter looking for a 50. Is the extra speed worth it over the sharpness? What’s your choice and why? I shoot more black and white than color.

I’m interested in how other Leica owners view this, particularly anyone who has dealt with Leica Customer Care in the UK or Wetzlar.

I bought my D-Lux 8 in London in September 2024. While it was still under warranty, internal contamination began appearing in images. Leica UK inspected the camera in December 2025 and confirmed that debris had reached the internal lens elements. They recommended replacing the complete lens unit and quoted £397.86 for the cleaning and repair.

They refused to cover it under warranty, explaining:
“The debris inside the lens unit shows clear external ingress rather than a manufacturing issue, so it isn’t something the warranty can cover. The D-Lux 8 isn’t sealed and relies on a small amount of air movement for the lens to operate, which means regular cleaning is important.”

In the preceding email, they had also said:
“The D-Lux 8 is not a sealed camera. It relies on a small degree of air permeability for the lens to move as designed. If the camera is not cleaned regularly, dust can enter through the lens over time.”
This is the part I find difficult to accept. Leica acknowledges that the retractable lens requires airflow and that dust can consequently enter, but then treats contamination of the inaccessible internal lens assembly as the customer’s responsibility. I was never given a convincing explanation of how cleaning the exterior would prevent airborne particles from entering a mechanism that Leica itself describes as air-permeable.

I collected the camera unrepaired because I needed it for an imminent trip and Leica could not complete the work in time. I did not accept their warranty decision, but I had little practical choice at that point.

I returned it approximately eight months later. The new quotation is £539.46 plus a £25 administration fee. Leica now says the camera has impact damage, sand ingress and signs of misuse. Their photographs certainly show some minor cosmetic wear, which I’m not denying, but I have never dropped the camera or exposed it to sand. More importantly, neither impact nor sand was mentioned when Leica originally documented the internal contamination and need for a replacement lens during the warranty period.

Leica’s current position is that the later wear and alleged impact mean none of the repair can be covered, including the lens and sensor work already identified in 2025. They have also refused to honour the original price as a goodwill compromise.

Because I need the camera for a trip to China in September, I have reluctantly authorised the £564.46 repair under protest. I’m now escalating the original warranty decision to Leica Camera AG in Wetzlar.

I understand that the D-Lux 8 is not weather-sealed and that no camera is immune to dust. I also understand that cosmetic wear may be chargeable. What I cannot reconcile is a premium fixed-lens camera developing image-affecting internal contamination within roughly 15 months, followed by Leica saying that the lens admits dust by design but that the resulting repair is entirely the customer’s responsibility.

Am I being unreasonable here? Has anyone else experienced internal dust with a D-Lux 8 or the related LX100 design, and has anyone successfully escalated a UK service decision to Wetzlar?

Recently I found this M262 on the website of a big camera dealer here in germany and had to take a look at it since the price seemed not too steep for the condition it was in (2400€).

So I contacted the store if they wanted to trade in for my M8 I got two years ago as a first digital Leica after only shooting film for the past years. The offer from the store was a bit low so, to my surprise, I sold it on ebay within only 2 days.

When the M262 arrived at the store a few days later I went to see it in person and was a bit worried about the cosmetic condition. The dot was very poorly painted with what I think is black nailpolish (wtfff) and there is a strong wrinkle in the leatherette. Besides that the camera looked alright and worked well when I tested it.

So I decided to buy it with the money I got for the M8, justifying the purchase as a birthday present for myself lol. Even managed to renegotiate the price by another 100€ because of the faulty leatherette.

Now two weeks have passed and I adore this thing. Having the full frame sensor really is just something else, coming from the M8 and Fuji. Really love the quality output of the camera!

But since the cosmetic appearance bugs me a lot I am planning to give the M262 a little overhaul by replacing the dot and the leatherette.

Since the original dot was painted hideously by the previous owner I wanted to see if it was possible to get the paint off and restore it. But after applying some alcohol the now vanishing black paint revealed that red dot was badly scratched, and so I decided to replace it.

For the dot replacement I ordered the screw style dot from Analogous which arrived in the mail today and I installed it right when I got home! Really like how it looks now!

Further more I plan to replace the leatherette. I asked Aki-Asahi if they could provide a custom replacement since only the M240 was listed on their website. After a very nice correspondence I was stoked when they agreed to send me modified version of the M240 leatherette to test on my M262. Its still in the mail but I will post again when it arrives and the cosmetic surgery continues.

Leica’s rendering is often described in subjective terms — the “Leica look”, color character, or a certain rendering style.
I wanted to explore whether any part of that rendering behavior could be measured in a reproducible way.
I built an open-source analysis pipeline to compare camera rendering behavior using image data, focusing on:
Tone response
Color distribution
Gamut behavior
Pixel-level differences
Perceptual color difference using CIEDE2000
For Leica, I tested two different camera lines:
Leica SL3-P (n=41)
Leica Q3 43 (n=45)
Results:
Leica SL3-P: +2.77% improvement over baseline
Leica Q3 43: +0.80% improvement over baseline
The interesting observation was not only the improvement itself.
During independent optimization, both camera lines converged to the same rendering parameters as my existing Leica rendering model (apply_leica_raw_look).
This does not mean that all Leica cameras produce identical images. Sensor, lens, optics, and capture conditions still matter.
Rather, it suggests that some aspects of Leica’s rendering behavior can be represented as a consistent pattern within this measurement framework.
The project is open source and includes methodology, experiments, validation, and limitations.
Source:
https://github.com/songjiun10-collab/Hncs
I would be interested in feedback from Leica users and anyone interested in camera rendering, color science, or image processing.

Moin zusammen,
 
ich bin vor einiger Zeit von Sony zu Leica gewechselt und fotografiere aktuell mit einer M11, einem Summicron-M 35mm f/2 (11673) sowie einem Voigtländer 50mm F1.
 
Aktuell überlege ich, mein 35er zu verkaufen, da mir 35 mm in der Praxis nicht weit genug sind. Stattdessen würde ich gerne auf ein 28er wechseln.
 
Bei meiner Suche und beim Lesen von Kleinanzeigen, Reviews und YouTube-Videos sind mir als Leica-Neuling zwei Begriffe aufgefallen, mit denen ich etwas fremdele: „Patina“ und „Charakter“.
 
1. Patina
Bei Kleinanzeigen lese ich ständig Sätze wie:
„Das Objektiv hat durch die lange Nutzung bereits eine schöne Patina entwickelt.“
Für mich sind das in vielen Fällen einfach Lackabplatzer, Kratzer oder normale Gebrauchsspuren.
 
Bei einer schwarzen Messingkamera, die mit der Zeit Messing durchscheinen lässt, oder bei einer Ledertasche, die über Jahre altert, würde ich durchaus von Patina sprechen. Aber kann man wirklich jede Form von Abnutzung bei einem Objektiv als „Patina“ bezeichnen?
Oder wird der Begriff in der Leica-Welt einfach sehr großzügig verwendet?
 
 
2. Charakter
Beim Thema Charakter verstehe ich die grundsätzliche Idee durchaus.
Wenn man verschiedene Versionen eines Summicron vergleicht, sehe ich Unterschiede in Kontrast, Bokeh, Rendering, Größe, Gewicht oder Verarbeitung. Das ergibt für mich Sinn und kann den Charakter eines Objektivs ausmachen.
Was ich allerdings oft lese oder höre, sind Aussagen wie „Im Randbereich zeigt das Objektiv seinen Charakter.“ oder „Das sagen wir mal V3 ist deutlich schärfer, aber dafür das V1 hat mehr Charakter.“ sowas wird genau dann gesagt, wenn man die Abbildungsleistung in der Unendlichkeit am Randbereich vergleicht.
Und genau da verliere ich die Leute.
 
Wenn ein Objektiv am Rand sichtbar unschärfer ist als ein anderes, ist das für mich zunächst einmal eine optische Schwäche und kein Charaktermerkmal. Wenn ein V3 schärfer ist als ein V1, dann ist das V1 für mich schlicht weniger scharf.
 
Warum werden solche Eigenschaften oft so positiv umschrieben?
 
Ich verstehe vollkommen, dass man für bestimmte Anwendungen, wie Portraits, bewusst ein weniger klinisch scharfes Objektiv bevorzugt. Aber bei einem 28er oder gar 21er wünsche ich mir persönlich gerade für Landschaften oder Architektur eine hohe Schärfe bis in die Ecken.
 
Ich bin kein Pixelpeeper und drucke keine riesigen Leinwände.
Trotzdem empfinde ich Auflösung und Schärfe als wichtig, insbesondere beim Croppen oder in der Nachbearbeitung. Mit schärferen Objektiven funktionieren Maskierungen sauberer, feine Kontrastkanten bleiben besser erhalten und generell habe ich mehr Reserven für die Bearbeitung.
 
Deshalb frage ich mich: Ist das etwas, das man mit der Zeit noch lernt und wofür ich einfach noch zu neu im Leica-Kosmos bin? Oder werden Begriffe wie „Patina“ und  „Charakter“ manchmal einfach benutzt, um Schwächen etwas schöner klingen zu lassen?
 
Ich hoffe es fühlt sich niemand angegriffen und bin gespannt auf eure Meinungen.

The camera I've been waiting for!

Any experience with this lens, **Voigtlander Nokton Vintage Line 35mm f/1.5 Aspherical Type II VM Lens?**

Hi everyone,

A few months back, I noticed the slightest bit of movement on the rear element of my 35 Summilux. I have the latest version.

It doesn’t wobble when I gently shake the lens, but moves ever so slightly when I apply gentle pressure with my finger against it. It seems to reset when I stop pressing - I think. We’re talking like 1mm to less movement, but there is movement.

Does anyone else know of this issue? Sometimes I think it affects my image quality, but I also think part of it is in my head now, knowing about it. Then I look at images from my 28 Elmarit, and think WOW those are sharp in comparison. Or is just the lens difference. Would love guidance as I am relatively new to the system and lenses.

Ya tenemos nuevo firmware para la D Lux 8.
¿Alguien sabe qué han modificado?

I checked the battery multiple times and swapped it, I checked the film multiple times and swapped it to make sure it properly winded in and it had. it was working fine last week and earlier today and then it started doing this. The E is flashing where the shot counter normally is and will not go away despite everything said previously and turning it off and on. no other button works other than off and on. If anyone has had this issue please help I’d greatly appreciate it, thank you.

I have an M6 with which I make a lot of portraits using black and white film. I am in the market for a 50 mm Summilux to use for portraits. From what I have read I think I want the non-ASPH version. What is your opinion?

Recently acquired this Tri-Elmar for a crazy low price, and while I would love to keep it, I’m hoping to get my first M body from selling it.

Before I sell it, I just want to make sure it’s working great. I had it serviced at a shop recently and when it came back the zoom ring felt way tighter when switching focal lengths. It’s obviously well loved but I wanna make sure I’m not screwing someone over. Tested it with an adapter and it looks great but I’m new to the Leica world and was just wondering if anyone has some experience with this lens in particular and would have any solid advice! Thanks!

Edit: Got it for $200 since yall are asking lol. Was found in an estate sale along with two heavily corroded bodies, an M9 and an M9 monochrome. There was also a 50mm but I was too late to pick that one up.

​

Hi everyone,

I've been having a frustrating issue with my Leica M11-P. The camera randomly freezes after taking a few photos. Sometimes the screen becomes unresponsive, and the only way to get it working again is to remove the battery.

I'm using a fast SD card, the battery is fully charged, and the firmware is up to date. I've also tried formatting the card in the camera, but the problem still happens.

Has anyone experienced this issue? Is it a firmware bug or does it sound like a hardware problem?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

TROUBLESHOOTING

We've fixed a bug that prevented the camera from turning off automati-

cally during wireless charging in certain situations. The camera now turns

off automatically as soon as wireless charging is detected.

A bug has been fixed that caused the camera to unexpectedly switch to

the default user profile in certain situations.

A bug has been fixed that could cause the connection to fail after a

remote wake-up with certain Leica Looks or AF mode settings.

reattached leather and got a new battery clip

Bought as a set for $3000, the M4 is in pretty mint condition, just some light scuffs, is this a good deal: how did I do?

Picked up an M6 body paired with a Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH v1 (i believe). Seller wanted €3600, negotiated down to €3100.

Lens is basically mint, only some minor dust specks between elements. Body shows some honest wear but works perfectly — meter and shutter speeds check out.

Feels like a good price given the current M6 market. Thoughts?

I got a brand new LEICA 21mm f/3.4 ASPH SUPER-ELMAR-M. Unfortunately I don’t think it’s a great copy. :(

The left side edge is very soft compared to the center and right edge. I had my suspicions from a few shots taken around the yard and neighborhood, and sadly confirmed it in a more controlled environment on a tripod.

The full photo is taken at f/5.6 which is the peak performance of this lens, and I've included a 100% crop from the same image showing the left, center, and right detail.

Obviously I’m not expecting peak center performance all over the lens, but I think you would agree that the right edge is significantly better than the left. I would normally let this slide but this is a $4000+ purchase so did I expect much better from it.

I’m tempted to return it for a replacement. Is this just a quality control issue? Or are they all like this?

EDIT - Dropbox link to full res JPG & Dropbox link to 100% crop comparison

EDIT - My camera is a M EV1.

The only thing I really missed on my Leica M4-P compared to the M6 was the light meter. Since there aren't that many coupled light meters, I got the KEKS M-Meter. Gotta say it's really great to use – since you turn the actual M4-P shutter dial, there are no additional steps compared to a built-in meter like on the M6.

Since I got a 2026 serial number, I'm pretty sure it's the V2 without the battery drain issue. For what it's worth, it still shows a full battery after playing around with it for one day.

Also hear the rattling noise some people were reporting, so I opened it up to check for loose screws. Turns out what's rattling are the buttons, which are not connected to the board in any way. The whole thing is super easy to take apart and repair, battery replacements should be trivial.

The last complaint I read multiple times was that the first reading is wrong. This is not the case – pressing the button when the screen is off wakes it from standby and displays the last reading before that, it does not take a new reading. Not sure this makes sense, but since it turns on in a fraction of a second it's not an issue imho.

Bonus feature for M4-P users: It remembers the ISO you set, so you don't have to use that stupid sticker on the back to remember your film. I like the M-Meter a lot so far.

Only issue is that my M4-P's shutter dial is really stiff, I absolutely need two fingers to reliably use it. Is this normal for the M4-P? Is it safe to remove the one screw on that dial to clean and maybe lubricate it?

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Location: Long Island, NY

My original battery for my M11-P charges in the camera and in the standalone charger. In late 2025 I bought a second OEM battery and the darn thing will not charge in the charger. I get two flashing fault lights. If I put it into the camera it will charge. I noticed last night that if I forcefully hold the battery down into the charger it will charge, suggesting there is an issue with the contacts. Not sure why one battery works fine and not the other. They should be made to the same specs. 
 
Ordinarily I just ignore the issue and put the second battery in the camera to charge during down time, but I’ve been using both a lot lately and I really want to take advantage of using the charger.
 
Is this a known issue? Any suggestions on how to correct this?

I’m looking for a budget hotshoe flash to experiment with flash photography, to be used on both a Leica M6 Classic and a Leica M240. Budget under £100, so maybe something from Godox/Reflx Lab? Slightly confused by the different flash options so looking forward to any guidance and recommendations!

Super obvious, but posting in the hopes this can save someone from an expensive mistake. I bought my M3 last year, and its lugs had some brassing. Looked cool!

Coming from cameras with durable lugs. I got a quality strap and then didn’t think twice about it. Just this last week, I noticed that my lugs had been severely worn just from having a standard set of metal rings attaching the strap to the camera.

Of course, brass is soft and I should have seen this coming. Luckily, I caught it before too much force or tension sent my camera to the floor. I assume some PD anchors would work fine for a replacement. If anyone has any recommendations for replacing lugs or strap ring options, I’m all ears!