Laika photography studio

A hundred years later, Leica has an unshakable position in the hearts of photographers, not because it is expensive, but because users who know photography can feel that it is not a wave of fame even in the digital age when they use real cameras and lenses designed and manufactured by Leica in Germany. Leica is also celebrating a century, and has launched the Leica T system, which can subvert consumers' established impression of Leica.

This Leica T system, a centennial commemorative machine, has several important breakthroughs. First of all, it adopts brand-new design and operation logic, and at the same time, it is much more approachable than the interchangeable lens digital camera operated by Leica in the past.

Jump to introduce this century-old model that subverts Leica.

The change of Leica T system is from the inside out. It's hard to believe that this product comes from Leica, which stubbornly insists on the traditional camera operation and design even in the digital photography era, from the minimalist design body that cooperates with Audi design to the novel touch operation interface that also starts from the origin of photography. However, after playing for a while, I can still feel that this Leica T system is still from the lovely and stubborn hand that has always emphasized returning to photography.

The main body of Leica T's aluminum alloy fuselage is made of 1.2kg aluminum block, instead of the common die forging method of most mass-produced cameras, and finally it is made by hand grinding. In addition to being time-consuming and laborious, the fuselage designed by combining the main body shell and the internal skeleton mechanism also has the robustness of the fuselage structure. The production process can refer to the previous article (please click here). You may feel too melodramatic, but this is also Leica's insistence on workmanship.

In addition, I have to mention the appearance technology design of the knife designed and operated by Audi. The appearance of Leica T is not only as simple as the minimalist lines seen on the surface, but also the seemingly simple grip highlights the radian and width, which has an unexpected comfortable grip. The distance between the shutter and the physical turntable is also properly planned, and it will not be bound or pressed by mistake during operation.

Leica T system has only five simple physical buttons, including shutter, lever combination switch and flash, video recording and two turntables, and the rest of the control is entrusted to the virtual buttons provided by the 3.8-inch touch screen on the back of the fuselage. Open the side cover, there is no complicated I/O, only a microUSB and memory card slot. The hot shoe covers on the top of the machine are also made of aluminum alloy. In addition to flashing lights, hot shoes can also be extended to the electronic observation window Typ 020 with GPS.

At first glance, it seems to completely subvert Leica's way of planning several function keys according to the needs of photography, but it tries to recall the traditional mechanical camera, where only the shutter button and shutter speed knob of the body operate together with the aperture ring of the lens. Leaving only these buttons also tells us that Leica wants the photographer to focus on adjusting the aperture, shutter and the moment when the shutter is pressed. As for other electronic settings, you should be prepared as much as possible before shooting.

Some design details also show some ingenious ideas of Audi design. For example, the towering oval pop-up flashing lights are usually stored in the fuselage in an arc similar to the fuselage. There is no battery protection cover, but the design of the bottom of the battery is unique. In order to prevent the battery from accidentally falling after exiting, after exiting the battery, it is necessary to gently press the battery down and see the lever originally stuck in the half of the fan-shaped groove to the bottom, so as to really take out the battery.

In order to keep the design of the camera simple, Audi design goes to great lengths. Just got the Leica T system, and it doesn't know how to install the strap. Just like the iPhone, you need to insert the left and right circular holes through the pin, pull out the protective sleeve of the strap fixing ring, and then insert the buckle of the strap into the pin. As for removing the strap, it is also necessary to pull out the buckle of the strap with a pin. The accessory strap of T system is made of rubber, and the length cannot be adjusted. If you need a strap with adjustable length, you need to buy it separately.

The logic of Leica T's touch screen is very simple. Like the button configuration of a general camera, the function keys are arranged on the right to switch shooting mode, menu and information display from top to bottom.

Click on the top right corner, and P, A, S, M and scene mode will appear. At this point, the icon in the lower right will change and return to the previous page. Since Leica T's lens has no aperture ring, the aperture and shutter are controlled by the body.

Click the camera pattern in the middle, and a custom nine-grid shortcut menu will appear. Some functions with few items, such as toilet light, * * * and hand shock prevention switch, can be switched by clicking the icon, and if 9 function keys are not enough, they can be added to the second page; The way to add functions is just to click the+in the last box, and you can put more commonly used functions from the menu into the shortcut menu; As for the unnecessary functions, just like the mobile phone, you can drag the functions into the trash can pattern to remove them.

Click the wrench in the upper right corner again under the shortcut menu, and you will enter the complete function menu, which is also operated in the form of nine squares and sliding up and down. The whole touch interface is just like operating a mobile phone, which is much more intuitive than the current Leica camera interface. As for touch or physical buttons, which is better? Vegetables and radishes have their own advantages, but this system is not difficult to use.

However, it seems that there are fewer buttons for photo preview. How does Leica T preview the photos taken? The original method is very simple, as long as you drag from top to bottom, you can bring up the photo preview function. However, the reaction of judgment is a bit slow, and it is easier to succeed after a few habits at first.

Perhaps considering that the preview can only be called up by sliding up and down, although the T system provides touch AF in focus mode, it does not provide the design of touch focus shutter linkage to avoid triggering the shutter by mistake when calling the preview function. In addition, the T-system only provides focus amplification with manual auxiliary focus, and does not provide peak focus function, which may be difficult for users who like to switch focus.

Five color styles can be selected, and the contrast, sharpness and saturation of the five modes can be fine-tuned. The style effect is the performance of the following five photos in similar situations, arranged in turn.

Leica T adopts APS-C CMOS components, effective pixel 16MP, continuous shooting 5fps, and has a physical shutter mechanism. The focusing system uses contrast focusing. The T system has built-in WiFi connection, but since the current app only provides iOS version, the Android version has not been officially launched, so this time there is no function of testing remote shooting.

As for this match, the price is slightly cheaper than the fuselage? Leica vario-elmar-t18–56mm f/3.5–5.6aph. Although it is a little cheaper than the fuselage, it will cost more than 60 thousand Taiwan dollars. This lens is a standard zoom lens with seven groups of ten lenses, equivalent to 35mm lens width of 27-84mm. The nearest focus distance is 30cm at the wide-angle end and 45cm at the telephoto end.

This mirror is made in Japan, with the shortest storage length at the wide-angle end, the lens at the telephoto end protruding as shown above, and the focusing ring at the front end is electronic. The following photos were taken for this group of photos.

The dimensions are Leica vario-elmar-t18–56mm f/3.5–5.6aph. This kind of resolution is hard to imagine, which shows that even if the lens is made in Japan, it still maintains the characteristics of small size and high resolution of Leica lens. However, the hair color is not as strong as the M and X2 I tried before, and the gray scale of high contrast black and white is as distinct as the first two. Because there is no other lens, I am not sure whether it is the lens or the system color.

If it is because of the characteristics of the lens, does it mean that it is only produced in Japan? Leica vario-elmar-t18–56mm f/3.5–5.6aph. It has some old-timers' comments on several German mirrors produced in Japan, which is the consistent resolution and rich color of German mirrors and the delicate style of Japanese lenses. I think the photos taken this time are not rich, but the colors are quite rich.

However, the high ISO performance is a headache for the authors of T system at present. Compared with Japanese models trying to improve the usability of high ISO through calculus logic, it is unacceptable for the authors of T system to use more than 1 600 ISO. The noise control ability seems to remind me of the performance of the last CCD APS-C DSLR, so I can only choose high-contrast black and white shooting to cover up the performance of high ISO.

Leica is writing a new chapter for it with T system, showing the world that this century-old brand is changing and focusing on the essence of photography in a brand-new way. After nearly a week of getting along, I think I can't control the characteristics of my electronic system at all, but I already feel that this system is not as difficult to use as my first impression. He can understand this mode of operation as long as he returns to the mechanical negative camera and focuses on the pursuit of light and shadow and composition.

Although based on the electronic performance of Japanese mirrorless system, T system still needs to be strengthened in focusing system, operational response and high ISO noise suppression. However, after all, it is a Leica, which combines contemporary minimalist design and high-standard production technology, and also symbolizes Leica's persistence in photography for a hundred years. It is not only a camera, but also a contemporary minimalist design handicraft.