Low T on Leica T
I must be Low T. My month is packed and for more reasons that I can say, but call it a very uncolorful reazon [sic]. So I just don’t have time for dilettante toys. So here’s my review of the Leica T, everything a serious photographer needs to know.
I can’t stand the T. Intensely frustrating grip with badly-placed twiddly toy controls and tiny type on a touch screen I can’t see because my finger is on the spot containing the 5-point text I’m supposed to read (try reading “JPG + DNG” if you’re anywhere close to presbyopia).
The T is far larger than I expected, a brick-solid 710 grams with 23mm lens and EVF, and rubber strap that precludes any other strap or my favorite wrist strap. Form before function design that looks beautiful and has nothing in the right place. Oh and the bottom is uncomfortably sharp-edged, go figure—but could be useful for lopping off an ear on a red-dot thief, given decent force and a glancing blow.
It’s 3X the weight of the 240g Ricoh GR, which has a razor sharp lens and is far more functionally designed, better featured, and fits easily into a pocket, which the T won’t do unless you’re a fan of baggy cargo pants (sorry supermodels, even a small purse won’t hack it). But the Leica T is ideal for a champagne and caviar reception (but I have no way to field test this idea).
Maybe in a fit of insanity I’ll do something with it, but right out of the box I find it intensely irritating, including how the heck do I keep from changing the ISO by accident with that twiddle button I keep hitting while trying to change aperture. Or even how to reassemble the fall-apart box it comes in.
Translation of the above: economics are a critical part of any camera. It has to start there, and this T is absolutely unlike an M and makes very different demands on the user, which is how it feels to me. As for image quality, I have little doubt that the lens quality is very fine, that being necessary but not sufficient.