The Leica M-D (Typ 262) ($5,995) is the camera for photographers who wish that digital didn't happen. Its marquee features are omissions rather than additions: the M-D doesn't shoot JPGs, it doesn't have autofocus, it doesn't have menus, oh, and it doesn't have a rear LCD. If you love fast-shooting, autofocusing, 4K video recording cameras, look elsewhere—the M-D isn't for you. On the other hand, if you miss the feeling of loading a roll of Tri-X into an analog rangefinder like the Leica M-A ($5,195.00 at Adorama) , but don't want to have to go back to dealing with darkrooms and labs, the M-D is right in your wheelhouse. Minus the need to advance the film after a shot, using it is a lot like using an M7 or MP, without the need to process and scan or print film.
Design
The M-D ( at Amazon) looks and feels just like a black Leica MP—it's only missing the film advance lever and rewind knob. Its design and shape are in line with almost every Leica rangefinder manufactured in the last six decades. The fixed optical viewfinder sits in the top corner, with the shutter release and shutter speed dial on the top plate, and an ISO control dial on the rear. Aperture is controlled via the lens.
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The camera measures 3.1 by 5.5 by 1.7 inches (HWD) and weighs about 1.5 pounds without a lens. The M-D is compact, but heavy, a testament to its solid construction—it features a magnesium alloy body along with a brass top plate. The body is wrapped in a leatherette covering, while the top and bottom plates are painted in high-gloss black paint. With enough use, the paint will wear through, showing the brass underneath.
The Leica script logo is engraved and painted in white on the top plate, along with the text "Leica Camera Wetzlar Germany." Likewise, Made in Germany is engraved at top center of the rear of the M-D. Aside from that, there are no logos or branding elsewhere. The M Edition 60, a limited edition camera that also lacks a rear LCD, has a similar amount of branding, but its design is distinctly different. Its body is stainless steel, and it doesn't have standard strap lugs on the body—instead the strap attaches to an included case.
The power switch surrounds the shutter release and has Off, S (single release), and C (continuous drive) settings. The shutter speed dial sits next to it and can be set from 1 second to 1/4,000-second, with Bulb and Automatic settings available. The shutter release is threaded, so you can use a mechanical release cable to keep it open for Bulb exposures. The rear ISO dial can be set from ISO 200 through 6400 in third-stop increments.
There's an unmarked button on the top plate. On an M that records video, like the M-P (Typ 240) ($4,519.95 at Amazon) , it starts and stops recording. But with the M-D it's used to dial in positive or negative exposure value compensation. Hold it down and spin the rear wheel to the left or right, and you can see the amount of darkening or brightening of a scene displayed in a red LED in the optical viewfinder. Values from -3EV to +3EV can be set in third-stop increments, with a 0 value indicating that the camera will expose a scene as metered. A press of the button shows the number of shots remaining (up to 999) on the memory card in the viewfinder, and a second shows the battery's charge percentage.
The top plate also houses a standard hot shoe, which can accommodate an external flash (there's none built-in) or an add-on optical viewfinder. On the front of the body, next to the lens, is the frame line preview lever. It's used to preview what the field of view of different lenses will show. If you have a 50mm mounted and want to know what the scene would look like with a 28mm or 35mm instead, the lever comes in handy.
The battery and SD/SDHC/SDXC memory card slot are located on the bottom. You'll need to remove the bottom plate to get to them—a throwback to the days of film where you'd remove the same plate to change rolls. You'll also need to remove the plate if you want to add the Handgrip M, as it replaces the bottom plate entirely. Note that the M-D is not compatible with the Multifunctional Handgrip M, as it lacks the data connector on the bottom that is required for the accessory.
The lens mount does have an optical reader, so it can identify M lenses with 6-bit coding and add that information to the EXIF data stored in image files. If your lenses aren't coded you'll simply have to keep track of which lens was used for which shot, if that's something you care about. You can set the M-D's internal clock and update firmware as needed; instructions on doing so are in the manual.
From an image quality and performance perspective, the M-D is identical to the M (Typ 240) ($4,799.99 at Amazon) . You can refer to that review to see how images hold up at each ISO—just remember that the M-D shoots in Raw format only, so you can disregard JPG image quality. The M (Typ 240) and its near twin M-P (Typ 240), have more buttons than the M-D, as well as a rear LCD, menus, JPG shooting, and video capture.
Shooting Experience
If you've shot with an analog Leica in the past, you'll feel right at home with the M-D. It features the same basic shape and size as the M3, M2, M6, M7, MP, and M-A that have come before it, with a few key differences. The frame lines, which are optically projected on a film body and can appear faint in dim light, are lit by internal LEDs here, so they're always bright. A light sensor on the body adjusts just how bright they get, so they won't kill your eyes. The frame lines are always displayed in white; there's no way to switch them to red as you can with other recent digital M cameras.
Depending on the lens attached, you'll see a pair of lines—one wide-angle and one telephoto—in the 0.68x magnification viewfinder. These lines are your guide for framing a shot, and correspond to the field of view delivered by the attached lens. The pairs include 28/90mm, 35/135mm, and 50/75mm. If you wear eyeglasses you may have some trouble seeing the 28mm lines—my approach is to just think of the 28mm frame as the entirety of the viewfinder, but you can always opt for an external shoe-mount finder. If you're using a lens wider than 28mm that's going to be a necessity, regardless.
The M-D is a pure manual focus camera. There's a bright patch in the center of the frame that shows a double image when the lens is not focused properly. You'll know the shot is in focus when you're no longer seeing double.
You'll see some information in the viewfinder, projected by red LEDs, at the bottom center. If you have the shutter speed dial set to the A (automatic) position it will display the shutter speed that the meter has determined appropriate for the current ISO and aperture setting. If you have a manual shutter speed enabled, an arrow pointing to the right indicates that a scene is underexposed with current settings, an arrow pointing left says that it's overexposed, and a circle indicates proper exposure. You may need to tap the shutter in halfway to get these to display; they disappear after 30 seconds of idleness.
Even though I still run the occasional roll of film through a vintage camera, like most photographers I've been shooting with digital models for so long, it's simply second nature to pull the camera away and peer at the rear LCD after making an exposure. That won't do you much good with the M-D.
Pulling the camera away to try and see what I had just shot wasn't the biggest adjustment I had to make after years of using a digital rangefinder. Leica has opted not to support automatic ISO control with the M-D. It wouldn't have taken much to included an Automatic position on the dial, and I'm of the opinion that not having to worry about the ISO while shooting gives you more time to concentrate on aperture and shutter speed, which control the depth of field and amount of motion shown in images. If you're absentminded about ISO control, it's best to set the shutter speed manually with a moderate ISO that's going to do well indoors and out. If you find yourself with an image that's underexposed, you can always push it by a few stops in Lightroom ($9.99/Month at Adobe) or the Raw converter of your choice.
Conclusions
To say that the Leica M-D (Typ 262) is not meant to be a crowd-pleaser is an understatement. It's a niche version of a camera that already has a narrow appeal in the market based on its manual focus design and high asking price. But if you're one of the people for whom the M-D is made, you'll no doubt find the camera a breath of fresh air when compared with modern digital SLRs with pages of menus and more functions than someone who is purely interested in photography will ever want or need. You're not going to miss capturing a moment with the M-D because you're too busy ogling your last photo to notice what's going on in front of you. Now, if only Leica would give the unique Monochrom (Typ 246) ($7,995.00 at Amazon) the same treatment, so shutterbugs who wouldn't think of capturing images in color could also have the option of a distraction-free digital rangefinder.
The Leica M-D (Typ 262) rangefinder handles like a film camera but offers the convenience of digital capture.
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