In this video I break down what the “Leica M experience” actually feels like after shooting a polished silver brass Leica M11 for about six weeks while traveling around Europe. I’ve always been skeptical of Leica—mostly because the price and the whole luxury/status vibe is hard to justify—but once I started using a true M rangefinder, I finally understood the cult following. It’s not that it magically takes better photos. It’s that the mechanical, manual process (especially the rangefinder patch focusing) makes you feel involved in every step, and honestly that can matter more than the final image. I talk through what Leica gets so right: minimal, timeless design, premium materials, and a manual focus system that’s fast and accurate enough that it almost made me forget about autofocus. But I also share the real downsides I ran into—like not being able to see the 35mm framelines with my eyes (and the hilariously expensive diopter “solution”), the parallax/framing challenges when shooting close portraits, and the fact that walking around with an M11 can make you feel like a target. I also touch on editing the files in Lightroom (I use the Adobe Color profile) to get a consistent look across brands, and why, as much as I love the camera, it still might not be for me long-term.