My First Camera Review

I want to begin this review with a disclaimer. This my first camera review. Therefore, this review won't be like ones from Ken Rockwell, Steve Huff, Thorston Overgaard, Dan Bar or any number of other reviews you can read on the web. They are great reviews, so I thought it would be silly to try and compete or copy them.

This review is about what I think of the M10 and how I think it compares to the M240 that I have loved for the past 3 years. The Leica M system is the perfect travel camera for me because it is small and light and produces great photos.

Before we get started, let me tell you about my photography style. There is a saying that to understand history you first need to know the historian. I think the same is probably true with camera reviews.

My Photography History

I have been a photographer for much of my life. I first was bitten by the photo bug in 1973 when our high school class went to Washington DC for the inauguration of President Nixon. My dad let me bring his SLR to capture the experience. It was a Konica film camera. I shot 15 rolls of film in about a week. I remember my favorite image was of the White House at night. The way the White House was lit was impressive.

Exposure was not easy with that camera, especially for a White House night shot. With no tripod to hold the camera steady, I put the camera through the metal rod fence surrounding the White House grounds. Somehow, I held the camera steady with the help of the fence for a long exposure. I didn't understand f-stop but I did understand that there was a control of the aperture and a wide open aperture was probably better at night. I took several shots with different shutter speeds hoping that one would be properly exposed. It turns out that one of these images looked really good. I was hooked.

In High School I continued to shoot. I developed my own film as the photography club's dark room. When I left home for college, I also left photography behind.

I kept thinking of getting back into it but I wanted to wait for digital photography. It seemed like digital photography was the future plus I could save money on film and developing. I had a couple small Canon digital ELF cameras. They were ok for snapshots but not real photography. Finally in 2006, I felt the quality of Digital SLR's was good enough to make an investment.

A friend helped me with the purchase and explained that a digital camera is basically a computer and will become obsolete like laptops within a couple years. But optics never really change. Invest in great glass to take exceptional photos. Sound advice. I bought a Canon 20D with 24-70 f2.8 and 70-200 f2.8. The lenses were more expensive than the camera. It seemed like a lot of money and I guess it was. But I wanted to get back into photography so I made the investment.