You don’t need a screen on the back of your camera to take photos. You only need that to view photos, and that’s what a computer with a properly calibrated monitor is for, right? Leica’s new M-D joins the original M, the logo-less M-P and the innovative sensor of the M Monochrome, but this one is distinctly different because you can’t see what you’re doing — just like a film camera.
Instead, the screen is replaced by one of the “few but essential features” of the camera, the Leica M-D’s tactile ISO sensitivity dial. There’s really not much to talk about in terms of the M-P’s design, and that’s exactly how Leica wants it — “radically reduced to the most important parameters required for photography – shutter speed, aperture, distance and ISO sensitivity – it promotes its users’ concentration on what is essential: the picture.”
Apart from the lack of any kind of digital liquid crystal display, the M-D also omits any kind of Live View (dur) or video recording features. It still has the same beautifully filmic 24-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor as the original M it inherits its body styling from, and it’s on sale now — if you have to ask how much, you’re probably not the Leica M-D’s target market.
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