A Technical Push and Pull

This originally appeared as part of my weekly Prime Lenses Newsletter. You can sign up for a weekly update here.

I’m in two minds this week. Pulled away from and equally towards modern technology. 

On the one hand I’ve recently moved away from making notes on my iPad. After over a decade, using my it to write hand written notes before Apple Pencil and iPad Pro, using wonky Kickstarter styluses, making drawing apps behave like notebooks, I’m in search of fun and a fresh notebook plus nice pens and pencils is doing it for me. 

A beautiful MOO notebook

But then Leica went and released the M11-D, the latest in their lineup of digital cameras that don’t have a screen. Leica have done this before, this is at least the third iteration of this formula. A traditional film-like experience but with all of the convenience of modern cameras, like insanely high ISO performance, internal storage in addition to a memory card and most importantly for their target photographer, distraction free image making without the cost of film. Settings beyond shutter speed, ISO and aperture are accessed via an app on your phone which you’ll want to hold on in anticipation of a future where we may not have a modern iOS app that supports it. Or even iOS for that matter.

M11-D featuring a control dial instead of a screen.

This makes it a product of its time in a way that the older digital cameras like M8, M9 and 240s of this world are not. Pick up old film cameras like the Canon AE-1 or Leica’s own M6, M5 and older and you can still put a roll of film through them. As long as there’s film or a working battery being made, you’re good. 

Now, for the avoidance of doubt I respect it. I spoke with Stefan Daniel of Leica the day before the release, stay tuned for a future episode, and love that Leica very much do their own thing but as I let go of a very practical technology in one aspect of my life in search of an improved experience, I actually feel that in this case, losing the screen is a much bigger loss to a photographer than it might sound. 

Imagine you’re developing one of the first digital cameras in the world. Everyone shooting professionally regards your hard work as a bit of a toy. 

“That’s nice but it’ll never shoot the Super Bowl!”

As a frequent early adopter I’ve had many of those sorts of conversations. Constantly told something is “too slow/ too expensive/ too buggy” I’ve learned to look past shortcomings, sometimes adopting something too soon as a result but feeling directionally correct enough of the time to trust my instincts. In this case I am trusting my instincts again and saying that adding a screen to a camera is one of the biggest innovations ever made in image making and it has been around so long and felt so natural that we don’t even think about it anymore. There were no guarantees that a screen was ever going to be added to a camera in fact, many very early digital cameras didn’t have screens. You couldn’t see film in 35mm camera so why would you assume you could see a digital image on device? Plus, small screen technology was power hungry, dim and not very high resolution. How much were you going to get out of it anyway? And it’s more items on the bill of materials! More parts to source, qualify, test, the reasons not to include one are lengthy and convincing if you want to ship on time. 

But. Then someone did include one. And suddenly everyone had to have one. 

You could see straight away whether you got the shot at least framed correctly and could instantly show those you were with. That’s a big deal. On device capture and review. Involving your subject in the process if you choose is huge and relates back to why I used to prefer an iPad at work. It lays flat on the table and encourages you to collaborate. Scribble on it in a very naturalistic way and show people you’re with.  

Which brings us back to the M11-D. There have been times in photography where we’ve demonised the practice of checking your images at the point of capture. 

“No chimping!”

But actually, I’m seeking tools that are less about me as an individual (am I correct, am I doing it right, what will people think of me) and more about enabling communication and connection. It’s why I make a podcast about image making. To connect. 

So I’ll stick with a camera with a screen on the back. I think it’s the most under appreciated feature of the whole dang thing.