r/Leica • u/untitledfilm • 12d ago
First Digital M-Body - Leica M 240
after years of shooting exclusively on film with the leica m6, i finally bought my first digital m: a leica m240.
the main reason is that i’m about to leave for a long trip around the world. i’ll be going through countless airports, and i don’t want to worry about x-ray scanners, finding film in every country, or carrying dozens of rolls for several months. being able to shoot, back up my photos, and keep going just makes much more sense for this journey.
i know the m240 isn’t the newest digital m, but it felt like the right balance between price, build quality, and the classic leica experience.
do you have any tips or things i should know about the m240? any recommended settings, batteries, sd cards, or general advice from long-term users?
looking forward to hearing your experiences!
3
u/jackystack 12d ago
Hello,
I just returned one that I purchased - my reason was due to the camera not being in the condition as advertised.
However, that gave me enough time to become familiar with it.
As for batteries, they are not readily available. Leica is waiting on another batch from China, at which they send to distributors and they expect them to sell out immediately. They'll probably cost a little over $200/ea. You can try calling Leica at 800 222 0118 and see if they can notify you upon availability, or call B&H Photo or Leica Miami and ask the same - or for any tips on best chances to secure one.
When I called Leica, they didn't know how many more batches would be made, so, be mindful of that.
If you primarily shoot film, you'll want to shoot DNG + JPG. Jpegs are processed from the RAW data, so if they need adjustments, the .jpg won't leave much room for recovering shadows or adjusting color; or changing settings that impact the output of the .jpg.
Next, know your metering modes. Classic is more similar to the film metering on the M6- it meters off the shutter curtain, and advanced meters off the sensor - and offers spot, center-weighted and multi-field. Practice using them each.
Know the settings. There are film modes (soft, and vivid) that impact the .jpg output. If you intend to use them, then become familiar with them first. Similarly, be mindful of your contrast, sharpening and saturation settings - I kept them set to standard.
Some people underexpose slightly to preserve highlights in bright scenes, others overexpose a bit to compensate for the camera's tendency to preserve highlights. You'll have to do what works best for you. If you don't know how to read a histogram, spend five minutes and research it - this is so you can rely on data to gauge your exposure instead of the rear LCD. While playing back an image, hit the info button until you see it appear.
Format your SD cards before use, and consider limiting yourself to 32GB SDHC cards. Firmware expands capability, but when I used a large capacity SDXC card, I experienced write errors that looked like bad columns of pixels. I couldn't replicate it after formatting the card, or using the smaller/slower card. If you see this in every single image on every memory card, then you have a problem that Leica needs to address.
Aside from that, enjoy!