Leica’s new camera puts skill back into focus

The new M11 camera may be from a different era. The technology inside of it makes it feel modern. The M11 has a high-resolution sensor, sophisticated metering tools, and even some of the usual digital accoutrements of cameras in our age. It works the same way as the film cameras your parents owned. It doesn't capture video, and it's perfectly happy to accept old ones.

The Leica M11 feels like an old one. The M series camera went digital in 2006 and the new M11 is very much in line with that. It is a box to which you attach a lens.

When it comes to price, the M11 is still true to its legacy. The retail price of a camera is more than most of us will ever spend. The camera body is the only thing that costs that much. I think this is a device we should notice and talk about, even for those of us who can't afford it. It deserves more discussion than a simple review.

This is because the M11 shows that the engineers at Leica are trying to keep something alive, something that I think the rest of the camera world has forgotten: that the camera doesn't matter, but rather the photographs matter. The camera is just a tool, and any tool is only as good as the person using it. Advertisement

A wrench is not a tool. If you want to use a wrench, you need a person who knows how to use a wrench. There are different forms and guises for that skill. I know what I am doing with a wrench in an engine, but I have no experience using a plumbing wrench on the pipes in the basement.

A camera comes to life when a person with the skill to use it picks it up. Chances are you will end up with a great image if you put an outdated digital camera from the early 2000s inMaggie Steber's hands. The odds of getting a great image are less if I put the new M11 in my hands.

I shot with an M11 for a week. The reason the M11 feels like a film is because it has been engineered to be used in conjunction with human skill. Your skills as a photographer.

The act of taking a picture is being taken away from us by cameras. The engineering effort of most camera manufacturers has gone into replacing the learned choices of the individual photographer with algorithms with the addition of features like auto white balance adjustment and auto light metering. The act of producing a great image can be turned into something that is no longer a challenge, but a series of options you can choose between.