Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168765 in Books
• Published on: 1994-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

Customer Reviews

Still a Solid Leica M Reference
This is a fine book by Jonathan Eastland on Leica M cameras and lenses. It's a little out-of-date: it doesn't include the M7, or the M8 and M9 digital cameras. Nevertheless, it's still an excellent resource and will remain so for many more years. Besides, if you're looking to get your first Leica, you should consider the less expensive, older M models. In which case, this book will be very useful.


Chapter Highlights
The 'Leica M Compendium' is reminiscent of an old text book with black and white photos and its style of layout. There are ten chapters and a few appendices. Weighing in at a little under two-hundred letter size pages and a list price of fifty-dollars, you get a hefty book at a chunky price. However, it will be worth it when you start buying Leica equipment.

When buying an expensive Leica film camera, you can expect skepticism from friends. Therefore, you need to be able to converse about the attributes of a Leica if only to defend yourself. Chapter 1 covers the history and attributes of each Leica camera. For instance, despite what you might think as a newcomer, the M3 came before the M2, and it before the M1. Chapter 2 goes through the Leica lenses made, listing the attributes of each lens and suggests situations in which each would be useful. These first two chapters account for about a third of the book and they alone make it worth having.

Chapter 3 basically explains how to use a rangefinder. This includes not only the built-in viewer, but also viewers that you can purchase and attach to the top of the camera. The last couple of pages of this chapter introduce Visoflex attachments, used to convert a Leica camera into a reflex camera. This is useful with long focal length lenses. Chapter 4 explains how to use a Leica with a Visoflex. Most readers can probably skip this chapter.

In Chapter 5, Eastland covers many of the accessories available for the M system. This includes the Leicameter (a separate light meter) and some of the film winding attachments for faster winding. This chapter also discusses lens hoods, filters, and flash guns. You probably can skim this one, slowing down to the parts in which you're interested.

After Chapter 5, the book becomes more of a tutorial and less of a historical and factual reference book on the Leica M cameras and lenses. Chapter 6 involves the basics, a 'Getting Started' booklet of sorts on the M camera, explaining how to load the film--a very different experience with a Leica camera--and all that relates to that subject. It also explains how to focus the camera--also different with a rangefinder--and how to take pictures with a Leica M camera. Photography is all about exposure of the film (or the image sensor) to light. To that end, Chapter 7 explains the light meter system of a Leica M camera.

Chapter 8 is a nice chapter on photograph composition (but not too basic) and selecting the proper lens for various situations. It also has some good text on street photography, something that makes the Leica popular among photojournalists. Following this, Chapter 9 explores some practical considerations related to photojournalism. In Chapter 10, Eastland provides an afterword about Leica cameras and great Leica photographers.


Summary
If you're new to Leica cameras, especially if you're thinking of buying your first Leica, you should consider buying a used, older M model Leica from a camera store (e.g., Adorama) or from ebay. It will cost you a few thousand dollars less and, since Leica cameras are so durable and change very little between models, it will probably work just fine. By the way, don't confuse a Leica III with a Leica M3: it uses a different type of lens. If you think you might buy an on old Leica M camera, you definitely should get this book. Even if you're going to get a new model, you'll still find value in it. So, get a copy before you buy your first Leica camera and put some time in reading it carefully, referring back to it as you shop.

Given the nature of the Amazon culture, this review is shorter than I'd prefer. However, on my web site I have a longer version of this review, which includes a reading guide for the book. You might want to check that out once you buy a copy. See the left margin of my Amazon profile for the address of my photography related web site.