The Feldgrün Fotoapparat

on April 01, 2019
No, I'm wrong. Leica call this shade Olive Green and attach the word Safari to it. I should have said Olive Drab...but it is dangerous calling anything Leica makes drab. Not at their prices... It is a Leica M10-P body. Full-framed, of course and with the controls reduced to a very sleek ergonomic minimum. There are Leica flourishes, of course. The ISO dial occupies the position that was a knurled rewind knob in the M2 and M3. Frankly, that's delightful. I did not click it over to see if there were in-between sensitivity settings but i'll bet there are somehow. Had I been designing this retro dial I might have been tempted to mark in the DIN numbers. But look at the other controls. Chrome and real chrome at that. This camera concept with the olive green might originally have been conceived as a camouflage colour for military orders, but the chrome brings it back from the battlefield and makes it a fashion statement. The theme is continued on the viewfinder angle selector and the function button. Even the D pad/joystick button, rear control wheel, and menu buttons are hard-wearing chrome. Altogether a fine palette upon which to work. And it would not be a Leica if we did not see this. I admire the design team for continuing all the motifs of the past - but this particularly is the most fun to play with. Now that we do not have to try to change 36mm films in Leicas under pressure, this sort of latch and a separate bottom cover is great. For the older cameras and film work I think it is fair to say that Leica has trained more professional jugglers than any circus school. The time taken to rewind and change a 36 exposure cassette was the measure of your professionalism and if you could do it hanging upside down over a pit of angry snakes you passed with distinctions. Getting the snakes to give you back the cover if you dropped it was the tough part... Oh - If you're worried about not getting a red dot on this Leica we have a roll of Avery stickers you can have for free. Treat yourself - put a fresh red dot on every day for a year.
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