Lessons
Class Introduction
05:58 2Welcome to Leica
15:54 3Shutter Speeds
12:38 4Apertures & ISO
06:30 5Accessory Shoe
06:46 6Back Side Controls
25:30 7Bottom Controls
06:24 8Front Controls
04:56Lesson Info
Accessory Shoe
Next up is the accessory shoe on the top of the camera, and this if formerly known as the hot shoe. But there's a lot of other things we can put on there besides flashes. The flashes are the first thing we think about. Leica makes a number of flashes, kind of a small, medium, and large. The numbers of the flash actually are reference to the guide number of the flash. And so you can add these on if you do need additional light. If you are doing a lot of flash photography, the SF 64 is their most powerful flash. It's a little overwhelming on this camera, but if you need the flash, it's a tool, and it's there for solving problems. When you are using flash, you'll want to be at 1/80 of a second or slower, so that it synchronizes properly with the shutter curtain in the camera. There is a warning on here that you should be turning things off when you are mounting lenses, or excuse me, when you are mounting flashes on and off on the camera. There's a lot of electronics going through there. I...
haven't really heard of a problem, but it's potential that you could have a problem, so just be careful and turn things off, turning the flash off before mounting it on the camera. Taking a little peak on the back of the camera, there is what is known as an Accessory Shoe, and this allows you to plug in additional items into the top of the camera, and mount it there, but also to connect it electronically with the camera. So, I've already mentioned the microphone set, so it has power, connection, and all of that audio gets directed right to the video file that you are recording. But they also have a Visoflex, which is an electronic Viewfinder that you can add to the top of the camera. They've used this for a number of other cameras that are out there. And this is going to allow you to see what the lens sees. You no longer have a parallax problem. This is going to help out with ultra wide lenses, macro lenses, and telephoto lenses. So any sort of lenses outside the normal range. If you want to, you can go in and control the brightness of the electronic Viewfinder that is attached in the menu system. And what's kind of interesting is the EVF2, from Leica, is essentially, or maybe identical to the Olympus VF-2, which was made for a lot less money. So, both of these are available for the camera. The Olympus is no longer available new. Now, I happened to find one available for sale used, for a pretty good price. And I wasn't planning on picking up the Viewfinder for this camera, but it was just such a good deal I decided I would give it a try. So let's take a look on the camera, and you'll see the finder, here, has the electronic plug that plugs into the port on the camera. It has a 90 degree flip to it. So just line it up. Line it up and just push it straight in. You can adjust this as necessary. It has a diopter, by turning this piece right here. Now, if I want to use this, what I would do is I would press the live view button. Live view on the back of the camera. If I want it up here, I would just press this button on here. Now, it does not have a censor to automatically go back and forth when your eye is in front of this, you will just need to turn this on and off. So, once you hit that, that just actually turns that on and off, and turn this live view back on here, and we can go back and forth between these. Turn the camera off. Turn the camera on, and then hit this to turn it back on up here. And so this is really handy if you're very fussy about your corners and your frame lines around the edges. If you want to see exactly what the final image is going to be. And if you want to use one of the adapted lenses for using a larger telephoto lens, which I will show you in a little bit, when we talk about lenses, this can be really handy. Now, I know that some people think of this as an abomination in two ways. Number one, it's this big old wart on the top of the camera, and it destroys the sleek, clean lines of the Leica. And, you know what? I can understand that, but you know what? It's a tool, and it's a useful tool for solving certain problems. The other things is that it's not Leica, so yeah, I did put some black tape on the front. That's mostly just for toning down the style of the camera. But, it works just as well and does a very, very good job. So I don't have a problem putting it on my camera. Now there are other things that you can mount in the top Accessory Shoe as well. This is a standard optical finder, and in this case, we have different finders for the different ultra wide lenses. They do have one that handles multiple different lenses, so if you have multiple lenses, you don't have to keep switching finders out as well. And in the hot shoe, you can put a grip. Now, there are other companies, like Match Technical, that have made a Thumbs Up Grip for the camera that gives you a nice grip feel for it. Now I do not have a grip for this camera, but I do have one for the M-10. Let me grab that one, and I want to show you, because it almost works on here. Let's see if I can find it. Pull it off the camera. It gives you an idea for what this is like. Alright, so let's look at the back of the camera, here. So, these are really finely machine brass. Now, this is the one that is designed for the M-10 camera, and the hot shoe is identical in size. That's a standard. So this slides in here with just the right amount of friction. Now it doesn't work totally right on this camera, because it's not designed for it. And you can see there's a little gap right here. It doesn't go all the way forward, because this body is a little bit thicker than the M-10. But the idea here is that it gives you a nice thumb grip, it cradles the wheel over here on the side, so it doesn't really move around. So you can use this grip on this body. I wouldn't have a problem with it. The fact that it's sticking out ever so slightly here, it's not perfect, but it's a very livable situation. So now, when you hold the camera, this gives your thumb a really secure grip on the camera. So if you're the type of person that doesn't like using shoulder straps, or hand straps, you can hold on to the camera, and it just gives you a really good purchase on holding that camera steady right there. And so, if you are interested in a better grip on that camera, this Match Technical, and the one that is made for the 240 is going to have a little bit better fit than this one, but this one does work as well. So lots of fun, little accessories that you can put into that Accessory Shoe. You'll also find the serial number listed right there on the top, so make sure you jot that down for insurance purposes.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
nancy mercury
This class was very helpful as a new owner of the Monochrome 246, even though there are some parts not applicable, most of the basic "get around" the menu and set up was extremely helpful. Very complete overview.
a Creativelive Student
call a really good class. I just bought a Leica M Typ-240 and it is my first time ever using a Leica. I have learned a great deal about how to use the camera. I do want to note an error though. In the Back Side Controls lesson at 21:52 he states to scroll through images in the magnified mode to press the menu button and the trackpad. On the M240 it is the Play button and the trackpad. I found it by trial and error after trying the menu button as instructed.
user-def74a
Very thorough and easy to follow! I have a Leica Monochrom M246, and this helped tremendously. I've taken other classes from John Greengo, and have always learned so much from him. Highly recommend!
Student Work
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Camera Guides