The pictures

The Fuji natura black at f1.9 is faster.

Probably the world's best compact camera.

Incredibly high contrast lens, wonderful feel, beautiful leather case.

Incredible pictures.

A perfect tool for social reportage or photojournalism.

Similar Products Used:

Contax t2

Deutsche Quality, made in Deutschland by Deutschers. Looks expensive, impressive, and professional. Makes images almost as good as many high-quality SLR cameras. Easy use. Easy place in jacket pocket, women's handbag, hunter's shot shell bag, fisherman's tackelbox. My five year olde daughter able use it with surprising results.

A little hard get zip the separately purchased ( 120.-US) leather camera bag whence placed in its leather cradle. Not as small as the olde Contax T3.
Making that one easy payment of purchase price.

Basically a rather good little camera one should think. Purchased for Mummy use as a handbag camera and one keep at her desk. Her Nikon SLR is too bulky and heavy be kept in her handbag and thus left behind more often than not. My Contax T3 is smaller and perhaps more pocketable, yet this camera certainly able be tossed in one's jacket pocket. Overall integrity is decidedly good, impressive even. The images made with this little cracker-jack is nothing short of outstanding.
This is not a Leica MP, a Hasselblad nor a Rolleiflex, it is a high end pointe-and-shoot pocket camera that is well worth owning. When a man, his wife or any family membre pulls out this camera at a dinner party, restaurant, holiday or any where in the world he is not shamed as being a chump with an El-Cheapo throw away, but as a connoisseur with taste. Shall it make you a better photographer; absolutely not. Shall it make technically better images that most others; probably. Shall you feel better about yourself as a man: priceless.

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*Contax T3: owned two,now one: drunk and lost one or either it got nicked somewhere.
*Kyocera /Yashica: Cheape replacement for T3.
*Olympus: wife dropped it off grande Canyon.

Superb Lens.Superb Metering.Superb build quality.(Titanium and Leather), Leica have NOT cut corners with this compact.

Non that I have yet found.

I have just had the first film (Kodak HD200 Print) from this little gem developed and the results are just jaw dropping! Contrast, Sharpness, correct exposures throughout. My regular equipment is the Canon EOS1V (2 of)with "L" zoom lenses, but the little Leica CM with it's astounding F2.4 40mm Summarit lens almost equals the best that the Canons can do. I bought it to use as a useful unobtrusive discrete camera for popping out for the day somewhere or other. It may be expensive but in my opinion it is worth every penny!

Customer Service

Not needed.

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I used to own a Konica C35 Automatic.

Physically a cute minature 'Replica' of the Leica M that is solidly built and shows quality construction. Very easy to use, particularly campared to p&s digital cameras with their complex minus. That little Summarit lens is almost as good as the bulky Summilux-R l:l.4 lens I have on my Leica 6.2R and that lens cost me $1200 used. Actually on 4"X6" pics you can't tell the difference. Is this a bargan or what? Very quiet and silky smooth shutter release.

When compared to a digital camera, turning the camera on and popping out the lens would be rated as slow. The manual dial for distance should have a lock button as the MiniLux does, or at least click stops because it's too easy to move the camera into an out of focus postion. If you are photographing in a noisy environment, the silent shutter can be a negative, because you can't tell if you actually took a picture and if you hold the shutter down, you are continually taking pictures and your not aware of it.

I came upon the CM in a round about way. Previously I owned a Contax T2, which, unfortunately I traded for the new rage, a digital camera. After returning from a vacation trip, my wife and I compared photographs. We both noticed that that her little Leica Mini pics were much sharper and detailed then my digital camera shots. So I began wishing I hadn't sold my Contax T2 and Contax is out of production so the T2 was no longer available and the last T3 at the dealers was sold. All they had available was a used Leica MiniLux Zoom, and new Leica CM Zoom and the CM. First I tried the MiniLux, which I liked very much and eccept for the noisy zoom, was very enjoyable to use. However, before making the final decision to buy it I though I should at least try out the CM. I found that the images were far sharper then the the MiniLux Zoom so I decided to keep it inspite of it's much higher price. This is a compact camera that is the size of most compact digital cameras which is what I wanted for vacation trips with out lugging around my large and heavy Leica 6.2R. Infact it fits very nicely in a Tamarac size 2 digital camera case with a pocket for spare battery and film. Over all I would have to rate this camera higher then my previously owned Contax T2. This camera would have to be rated as the very top in the compact point-and-shoot catagory. This includes both film and digital.

Customer Service

None

Similar Products Used:

Contax T2, Leica Mini, and Leica MiniLux Zoom. Leica 6.2R.

Lens quality. Ease of use.

I don't know if there is any.

You can buy a true Leica for less than 1K. That's great! The 40mm lens on this camera is a true Leica quality lens. Clarity and contrastyness of this lens makes pictures almost 3D-like. Just when I thought about going totally digital, I realized that with a reasonable scanner, you can make 16mega pixel digital photo from high quality (or any quality) film camera. 40mm lens is very close to your eyes' perspective. I like that too. This camera at $899 is a great deal because the cheapest Leica lens is well over $1,000. For just $899, you get a true Leica quality lens and a great auto/manual camera with flash. What a bargain!

Customer Service

none so far.

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Ricoh GR-1 (wasn't that great)

Versatility, sharp lens, great meter, solid build quality, top-notch compact flash unit, quiet operation.

A bit expensive for a point-and-shoot. But the CM is really more than a point-and-shoot. I don't know of any point-and-shoot that gives you the amount of control as the CM, together with a perfect lens and first-rate flash.

Excellent metering, excellent lens, very quiet shutter and film advance, accurate flash, ability to directly control exposure compensation, focus distance and aperture setting.... The CM has just about everything you could reasonably want in a compact camera and is worth the price. I just got some photos back from a shoot of an outdoor christmas light display. The CM does beautiful work in metering such scenes. Particularly since the little rectangle in the viewfinder essentially functions as a conveniently sized spot meter, I can meter exactly the area of the scene that I want to be my middle tone and everything else in the scene falls into place. The camera is very steady for handheld shots down to 1/30 of a second and, when I'm extra careful, I can even get sharp photos at 1/15 hand held. I'm thinking that if I carry a lightweight monopod around with me, I'll be able to do even better. The 40mm lens is very nice and appropriately contrasty for nature scenes and street scenes. It performs excellently with color films and really shines with black and white. A few months ago, I shot a roll of Ilford XP2 and a roll of Ilford Delta 400 on a dark, rainy day and the CM metering and lens captured the mood perfectly with both films. I love what this camera does with black and white film. Nice flash! I've used compact point-and-shoots and digital cameras in the past and have not liked the harsh results from their built-in flash units. The CM's flash unit is in a completely different league and usually produces very pleasantly balanced, subtle results.

Customer Service

Never used yet

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Olympus Stylus Epic. (For the price, a very nice camera, with a 35mm fixed lens that compares favorably with the quality of the CM's lens. (Other features, such as the flash, do not compare so well.)

* The lens performance * Aperture priority automatics * Autofocus * "Program shift" (Aperture/Shutter) * Many flash options

* Dark and quite small viewfinder * Exposure locks with focus * A bit difficult to hold steady (blurs pictures)

The CM is a high performer considering it's small size. The lens is sharp and handles difficult light situations good. 40mm focal length is very versatile. f/2,4, 1/1000s, aperture priority, autofocus, and exposure shift is very impressive on a camera of this size. The viewfinder is a bit dark, though.

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Hexar AF

1-The lens, at least as good as the 50mm you may have in your SLR 2-Nice materials (metal, leather) and good craftmanship 3-An excellent flash control, but the light quality is better with the optional SF24D than with the built in flash (same for all built in flashes). Many flash modes. 4-Good exposure determination. 5-Possibility to choose the apperture, the distance, to memorize the exposure, to have an external flash and many others

It is a compact camera, not a LEICA M in reduction. Which means that you have sometimes to biaise to have the camera do what you want.

An excellent lens with a good body, well built, with many manual settings possibilities.

Customer Service

Excellent. The first series of CM suffered from electronic defects. My CM was exchanged 2 times under guarantee. The current one is working fine.

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Minox 35, Rollei 35S, Olympus Myu 2, Nikormat EL, Mikon F801

-solid construction,feels very good in hand -razor sharp lens -poverful flash+hot shoe,so you can use outside flash -viewfinder information -shiftable program mode -easy to use mf for such a camera

-lens hood would be nice -af/mf knob slips easily out of place,but when it happens once you knw what to look in wiewfinder.

I have now run about ten rolls both print and slidefilm through this little camera,and i must say i am very pleased with results,very sharp lens.When i saw first ads of it i thought i must give it a try,i have long searched a first class camera to carry on my outdoor and flyfishing trips.Finally i have found a camera that i can carry always with me withaut losing anything,but read the manual very carefully,so you can have most of it.Sold my Contax G2 outfit after using this one.Don´t think it is point and shoot,instead it is very good small camera.

Customer Service

-

Similar Products Used:

-Leica M6 -Hexar AF -Contax G2 -Rollei35

1. solid construction. 2. excellent finish. 3. the lens is very sharp, even at f2.4. 4. colour is very good. 5. smart flash. 6. munual focus is very easy to use. 7. smaller than the Minilux. 8. +-2EV adjustment in 1/3 step 4.

no manual shutter speed set up

When I firstly saw the introduction of CM in Leica website several months ago, I decided to have one since then. After few months long waiting, I've finally got it last week. The finish of this camera is first class, better than Contax T3. The operation is smooth that keeps reminding you it is a Leica. When I got the pictures of its first roll, I was truely amazed by its sharpness and colour. The image quality from CM is no less than my M35/2 ASPH and M50/2. The manual focus is a big plus and easy to use. Now, I always carry the CM with me. For $1,000, I think it worths every penny.

Similar Products Used:

Contax T3, Ricoh GR1V, Minolta TC-1