As I mentioned, my Leica M9 and Leica Monochrom have finally met their maker, quite literally since I traded them back in at Leica Ginza. Those cameras have treated me extremely well over the past 7 and 5 years, respectively, and will be missed. I've been shooting with the Leica M10 for a few weeks now. The short answer: I love it.

For those that read ShootTokyo know I am not a technical photographer. I don't like to debate the technical details of cameras or which camera, lens or settings is better. My philosophy is simple; what you choose to shoot and how you decide to shoot it is a personal preference. There is no right or wrong answer but rather what you are comfortable with and what helps you to create the images you desire. If your camera does that, then you made the right choice.

Leica Cameras are something that I can easily carry with me as I travel around Tokyo and the world, and as I transition from business to my personal life throughout my day. The size and shooting style fits my lifestyle well. You can read more about my views on this in my Leica M9 Review.

I always have my camera around my neck as I'm going about my day and shoot what I shoot what I come across. The images in this post are my 'daily images' over the past few weeks. Lighting conditions weren't always perfect. It wasn't always golden hour, but I shot with what light was available at the time. The scenes are not all optional, so they should give you a reasonable expectation of real-world conditions shooting with the M10.

The images are all straight out of the camera except for cropping and adjustments to brightness. Any vignetting is the signature of the Summilux 35mm being shot wide open at f/1.4. None of the images have had color, saturation or other adjustments made to them.

I know some people will ask technical specifics regardless of what I said above so here are the technical details as best I could figure them out:

Megapixels: a bunch

Frames per section: enough

Weight: a bit more than my M9

Dimensions: thinner than my M9

Battery life: seems long

ISO: more than my Monochrom

Please enjoy my Leica M10 Visual Review...

Today's Configuration: Leica M10 with a Summilux 35mm f/1.4 and 50mm f/1.4. Note all but a few images were shot with the 35mm.

Meet Naoki. He is the customer service genius at Leica Ginza. He is like a surgeon but focued on Leica cameras.

I've joined the world of reading glass wearers. I have come to that age, but they make a difference, and I find I can work for much more extended periods without my eyes getting tired. I also think they look pretty good.

Photo Credit: Steve

Meet Steve.

Steve and I first met in 2011 when he was visiting Tokyo. We went shooting and to dinner in Yurakucho and Ginza. We have become good friends since meeting up a bunch of times. Steve and his wife Laura were in town from Taipei for Thanksgiving. Mayumi and I always try to find a chance to catch up with them when they are in town.

Meet Laura...

With the always beautiful Mayumi. Another great shot by Steve. I need his focusing skills. He was letting me try his M9 strap. I really like how it looked on him and how it hangs the camera low. I ultimately decided I like my regular around the neck variant. I think I would constantly be banging my camera or lens against things and that would drive me crazy.

My favorite place in Jiyugaoka, News Cafe, had a turkey plate with pumpkin pie available for takeout on Thanksgiving. I just checked and it looks like they are having a honey baked ham plate for Christmas for ¥1,300. If you want very traditional American dishes done really well stop by this place when you are in Jiyugaoka. You won't be disappointed. Have a look at their menu.

I really like how the colors in this one came out. I have shot this building a few times but always later at night where the light wasn't as balanced.

Looking at this older post got me started on going through all of my old blog posts and cleaning up links that were no longer valid and doing some general housekeeping. I've gone through about 400 posts in the archives so far. It's interesting for me to go back and read old posts. I can remember some of those days like they were yesterday.

I also made some changes to the image size of on the site as viewers were needing to scroll on 13 inch laptops to see the entire screen. The images should fill the page on a 13 inch and scale up nicely on larger screens. If you hit any problems please let me know. Try casting your Google Chrome browser to your TV screen if you have Chromcast. It is especially nice if you have a 4K TV.

I wanted to make sure I got a few test shots of cones as well given my responsibilities. Getting the 'orange balance' correct is essential.

I had a few people ask me if I could shoot some side by side so they could do comparisons between the old and new sensor. I don't have an M9 anymore so I can't shoot side by side shots. I did shoot some familiar scenes around Jiyugaoka so if you are interested to explore my older Jiyugaoka posts please feel free.

I would say this; they are different cameras. If you like how these look then go for an M10. If you don't then stick with your M9 or Type 240. I really like the more simplified M10 design. The ISO can be accessed via a nob so now you can access aperture, ISO and shutter speed without going into the menus. The buttons on the back were significantly reduced down to 3. I like that you can connect to the camera via Wifi and transfer images to your phone with the M10 app.

I headed to the US two weeks ago to see my parents. I haven't seen them in too long so it was great to spend time with them. This is one of the challenges living on the other side of the world.

I love my drives to the airport. First off, I love driving my car. I think I'm going to drive this car until it dies. After 2.5 years I only have 18,000 kilometers on it so I'll be driving it for a while. I also find this a great time to listen to podcasts. I started listening to Tim Ferriss's new podcast Tribe of Mentors.

In the intro of the podcast is telling the story of how he came to write the book Tribe of Mentors which the podcast is based upon. Tim was struggling with some questions in this life and trying to figure out how to get these almost impossible questions answered. When he finds himself in times like this he steps back and asks himself a deceptively leveraged question "What would this look like if it were easy?". That is to say, if I approached this differently how could I achieve a similar, or better result, without the same level of effort. He talks about how we fool ourselves into believing that things need to be hard. If we are not pushing or redlining, we are not trying hard enough. This can be especially true for type A personalities who have a high pain tolerance and try to tough things out. It's a fascinating question which I have used a few times since.

In Tribe of Mentors, Tim wanted to get 11 life questions answered so he reached out to his wish list of people from world leaders, business leaders, professional athletes, and so many other fascinating people. It's amazing he gets all of these people to respond to him. The Tribe of Mentors podcast is a bit different than the long form 2-4 hour interviews on the Tim Ferriss Show podcast as rather than a conversation with Tim it's people talking through their answers to these questions. Tribe of Mentors is next in the queue on my Kindle.

For the 100s of times I have flown through Narita Airport I have never stopped to have the sushi. I was a bit early for my flight so I figured I would take the opportunity. It was pretty good!

I like how this came out. I wish his pen and paper weren't on the counter.

The look of dreading a full day in this seat. I flew Tokyo to Chicago, layover, Chicago to Tampa. The trip about ~22 hours or so door to door. I had my kindle loaded up so spend the flight reading and watching a few movies. I finished reading Wild Ride on all of the craziness that is Uber and Hit Refresh on the rebirth and transformation of Microsoft. Both were very good reads. I've moved onto Sapiens which is completely fascinating. In general I want to read more and this has been a good start.

Anna Maria Island. One of the beautiful places near where my parents live.

My mom goes walking before sunrise every morning and she wanted me to go with her. At first, I was worried if I would be able to. get up that early then I was reminded of jetlag. I was usually up a few hours before sunrise each day.

I swung by Guitar Center and picked up a few books to bring back with me.

Meet my Mom! We went to watch the Army vs. Navy game. My dad went to West Point so he loves watching these games.

My brother Mark flew down to surprise me. I haven't seen him for even longer than my parents so it was a great surprise. I took some photos for his LinkedIn profile. This was one of the runner ups.

My Mom and Dad. One of the best things we did while I was down there, other than just spending time together, was we went to see the musical Evita. It was so great to spend time with them. I look forward to my next trip.

I'm continuing to build Grown Man Shave slowly. Creating an online business is hard work. If you are shopping for someone for the holidays but not sure what to buy? Give them the gift of choice with a Grown Man Shave Gift Card. Gift cards are delivered by email, contain instructions to redeem at checkout, and can be stored in Apple Wallet. They give an excellent gift, and you help your favorite photographer!

Thanks for taking the time to read this very long post today. I hope you found it interesting, even if you aren't in the market for an M10. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Happy Holidays

Be well.

Dave