Lessons
Class Introduction
05:39 2Welcome to Leica
15:06 3Basic Controls
05:27 4ISO
05:58 5Shutter Speeds and Apertures
08:45 6Accessory Shoe
08:45 7Back Side Controls
37:00 8Bottom Controls
07:07Front Controls
06:39 10M Lenses
18:53 11Menu Functions & Lens Detection Menu
25:05 12JPG Settings Menu
03:44 13Capture Assistants Menu
07:27 14EVF/Display & User Profiles Menus
03:54 15Customize Control Menu
04:57 16WLAN & GPS Menus
09:02 17Date & Time & Language Menus
03:29 18Sensor Cleaning & Camera Info Menus
04:18 19Camera Operation
08:26Lesson Info
Accessory Shoe
Next up we have the accessory shoe on the top of the camera. This is obviously a place that we're gonna have a number of different accessories. The most obvious of which is flash. And so Leica does make kind of a small, medium and large flash. The numbers do have a reference to the power of the particular flash. And so they have little kicker flashes and more powerful flashes. Flash is one of the most complicated areas of photography in my mind. And it's something that a lot of Leica users are not real big into. But there are some that are passionate about it, and it gives them a lot of capability and opportunities that you wouldn't have without the flash. And so if you need it, there are some good flashes here. The Leica flash system is a little bit kinda behind the technology curve of where some of the other companies are, so if you are coming from another company that's been doing this a lot, they may have some more advanced systems. But if you do need to pump out that light they do...
have the flash system here. Once again, 1/180 of a second is the top shutter speed when using these flashes. And they do have a warning in there about mounting those flashes, and turning everything off before and after you do those mountings. Now the accessory shoe isn't just a hotshoe for adding flashes. It's got electronics in there, and so you can add a viewfinder. The Visoflex Type 020 electronic viewfinder is the dedicated viewfinder for this camera. It's also working with a couple of other Leica cameras out there as well. And you can control the way that this works by going into the menu system. There's a number of things that we'll talk about in there. So I do have one of those here. Let me go ahead and grab one of those for you, because I think it changes the dynamics of the camera. And there are a number of people that do have strong opinions about using something like one of these on here. Let me show you the back of the camera as I mount this on. And so this is the viewfinder right here, and you can see that there's electronics in here that are gonna connect right up with the electronics up in there. And we can just line this up, push it forward, and we now have a little different look. We can tilt this up so you have a 90 degree angle of view, so if you do want to have an angled finder to hold the camera in a lower position. And it does lock in right there. It does have a little automatic sensor in here, so that when that I do.. let's turn this camera on, put in live view. And so when my.. hand gets right up in front of there it switches, and let's see if I can line this up so you can see it a little bit more easily. And so you can see it's turning on in the viewfinder. And it's very responsive. It does a good job of this. Now, there are certain people out there that see this look of a Leica with a big ole viewfinder on the top and it's an abomination. It's a horrible thing. And it destroys the whole purpose of a Leica, because a Leica is intended to be used with the rangefinder. And yeah, I can kind of understand that, because the Leica's got a really nice look. It looks good like that. It's small, it's simple. It's easy and it's quick. But if you do want to use a strong telephoto lens, if you want to use a wider lens, wider than 28 millimeters, this is gonna allow you to focus and frame your subject very, very carefully. I have been a big fan and I've got kind of addicted to the viewfinder here, and that's because I'm really fussy about composition. Now on the subjects that I'm shooting that are not moving too quickly, I am really fussy on my composition and if I line this line up here, I want it to be exactly there. And the viewfinder lines are pretty close, but they don't show me exactly what the camera is recording. And something like this allow me to see it, allows me to focus and compose very, very accurately. Having said that, I don't always use this. It's a tool and it's very valuable for certain things. And so if you are fussy about composition, if you're gonna be using lenses wider than 28, longer than 90 millimeters, it becomes very, very easy to use. And if you are gonna be using adapted lenses, which we are gonna talk about, because Leica makes an adapter, and you can hook up their "R" lenses and use longer telephoto lenses, you can do so very, very easily on here. And it comes on and off very, very simply. Over on the side is a diopter on the side of it. Let me see if I can show that over to you here. And so there's a big ole dial on the side. And this is for controlling the focus of the viewfinder for your eyes. And so once you get it set, you want to be looking at the numbers and information in there, and dial that so it's nice and sharp. It does get bumped a little bit easy. There isn't a lock on it, so you may need to readjust as need be when you are using the camera. But I think it's a very valuable tool for a lot of different types of photographers. And you can go in and you can control the brightness of this finder as well. You can have it set on automatic. You can have it set to a specific setting that you think is comfortable for your eyes. Now just adding a viewfinder is not the only thing it does. It adds GPS to the camera as well. It puts the GPS housing in a place that it's a little bit more easy to receive a signal. And so when you are.. when you have this on your camera, the camera will be recording your GPS coordinates into the metadata of your photo. So you can use a variety of programs to see exactly where you were, and how many pictures you were taking in a particular location on maps for instance. And you'll see additional information in the viewfinder, or on the LCD on the back of the camera about the status of the GPS signal, because it is not instantaneous. If you turn your camera on, flip this on real quickly and take a photo, it may not have those coordinates picked up at that time. And so if you do want to have that information, you'll need to make sure that you turn your camera on, and give your camera a little bit of time to find those GPS satellites. So there's a lot of cases where GPS just is not possible, and that is simply, places where it doesn't have a good signal. And it just can't reach out and find where those signals are. And so around buildings and tunnels and things like that, where's it's gonna be physically obscured from the sky. Now this is a standard hotshoe size, and so you can add other accessories on to this. So Leica, before they had the electronic viewfinders, had these Briteline finders for different lenses. So they have 24, 21, 18 millimeter lenses, you need to be able to frame them up properly so you would use and optical lens like this. They also have a universal wide angle finder that is something that you can adjust. If you have a variety of lenses, and you want to have just one uniform finder for all of it. And those will mount right on top. It's just a physical connection, there is no other electronic connection with these. Also on the viewfinder, something that you can add is the thumb support. If you do walk around with your camera quite a bit, and maybe you don't use a neck strap or a handgrip, this is gonna give you a better grip on the camera. There is another one made by Match Technical, which is very similar to this. And let me show you what that looks like. Now one of my complaints is that sometimes I like to use the viewfinder, but if I use the viewfinder I can't use the thumb grip because I have to take this off, so that I can add on this little thumb grip which is designed, and these are specifically designed for a lot of different companies out there. And so this is gonna go up in here. It's gonna slide in nice and tight. There's gonna be a very nice tight fit as it fits around the dial here. So this doesn't move a lot. And so if you've not used one of these, you would be surprised at how good a feel this has on your thumb. Putting your thumb in here, just gives it a rock-solid feeling. And you are very unlikely to drop a camera when your thumb is in here. And so it's just a very, very comfortable place to rest in there. And if you want to take it off, it comes off very easily. It doesn't slide off too easily. It's got just, you know that German engineering. Perfect amount of friction so that it stays in there and doesn't wobble around any more than the camera does. It's very, very steady. And so it's a very nice device in there. So you kinda have to choose which one of these two you wanna use at any one time, because you can't use them at the same time together. And so I'll go ahead and leave that thumb grip in there 'cause it's got a nice little feel on it, and I don't like to offend those people who don't like that viewfinder on there too much. Alright on the top of your camera is a serial number, just barely etched in there, and so record that for your insurance purposes of course.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Guy Neal
I am migrating from the Leica Q to the Leica M10. Though I know my way around a Leica digital camera, the Leica M10 is my first rangefinder. I wanted someone to quickly walk me through the front/back/top/bottom of the M10. John Greengo was the perfect guide. This class is "as advertised - a "fast start" for those who prefer not to page through a fairly dense owner's manual. I especially appreciated that the lessons were broken into small chunks - so I could skip the lesson on the wifi setup, for example. And kudos to the person who prepares the amazing slide decks. While there are two dozen free Youtube videos that review the M10, they do not convey the helpful information you get in this excellent class.
Simon Johnson
John does a great job of going through every aspect of using the M10. There's not a dial, stitch button or menu item that isn't comprehensively covered. He uses simple, but effective graphics to explain what's happening. He also touches on the fundamentals of photography and throws in some tips and secrets. I can't imagine anyone doing a better job than John. I'm a Leica Q owner, that's just about to upgrade to an M10 so this course has been very useful indeed.
Sylvia Hoke
John is an excellent teacher. I am so amazed how thoroghly he goes through everything in the menu, about the various lenses, how best to use them and so much more. I am keeping my fingers crossed John gives a class on the Leica SL2-S as there is not much out there at all about the camera and is very much needed. I would be the first to buy the class.
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