prelude
prelude
“ Pain in the ass to use , impossible not to love ”
“ Pain in the ass to use , impossible not to love ”
Its flaws are real, and honestly, pretty fatal. When I first got my hands on it, it was still on firmware v1.0. Under cheap indoor lights, the flicker, the jello rolling shutter, the random black screens, and those awful black banding lines at high shutter speeds… looking at the footage was physically painful. Later firmware updates smoothed things out, but let’s be real—they were just band-aids, not a cure. Outdoors, away from any artificial lighting, is its only true home turf. Later on, needing a B-cam for quick video clips, I picked up an fp L. Sorry to say, but it inherited every single one of those headaches. The extra resolution barely matters in real life, and outside of slightly clickier buttons, the original fp is still the only real value-for-money choice.
Its flaws are real, and honestly, pretty fatal. When I first got my hands on it, it was still on firmware v1.0. Under cheap indoor lights, the flicker, the jello rolling shutter, the random black screens, and those awful black banding lines at high shutter speeds… looking at the footage was physically painful. Later firmware updates smoothed things out, but let’s be real—they were just band-aids, not a cure. Outdoors, away from any artificial lighting, is its only true home turf. Later on, needing a B-cam for quick video clips, I picked up an fp L. Sorry to say, but it inherited every single one of those headaches. The extra resolution barely matters in real life, and outside of slightly clickier buttons, the original fp is still the only real value-for-money choice.
Set the quirks aside, though, and what you’re left with is pure mechanical minimalism. No bulbous grip, no faux-prism hump, and no labyrinth of menus—just an honest, squared-off brick of cold metal. Thanks to the ridiculously short flange distance of the L-mount, it’s essentially the ultimate full-frame digital back. Slap on a slim adapter, and it happily takes virtually any Leica M-mount lens. A Voigtländer Skopar 35mm or 28mm? Drop it right into your jacket pocket. It’s barely thicker than a wallet stuffed with a thousand bucks in cash.
Set the quirks aside, though, and what you’re left with is pure mechanical minimalism. No bulbous grip, no faux-prism hump, and no labyrinth of menus—just an honest, squared-off brick of cold metal. Thanks to the ridiculously short flange distance of the L-mount, it’s essentially the ultimate full-frame digital back. Slap on a slim adapter, and it happily takes virtually any Leica M-mount lens. A Voigtländer Skopar 35mm or 28mm? Drop it right into your jacket pocket. It’s barely thicker than a wallet stuffed with a thousand bucks in cash.
And yet, its brilliance completely blows its bad side out of the water! It’s like an incredible chef with a chronic runny nose who sneezes straight into the pot—yet somehow, that very “seasoning” is what gives the dish its magic. Okay, terrible metaphor. Let’s put it this way: it’s like a horse with chronic diarrhea that stops ten times over a 60-mile run, but it still runs faster and looks far more gorgeous than any other horse out there. Fine, that’s not great either. The point is: the output is so good you simply stop caring about the mess.
And yet, its brilliance completely blows its bad side out of the water! It’s like an incredible chef with a chronic runny nose who sneezes straight into the pot—yet somehow, that very “seasoning” is what gives the dish its magic. Okay, terrible metaphor. Let’s put it this way: it’s like a horse with chronic diarrhea that stops ten times over a 60-mile run, but it still runs faster and looks far more gorgeous than any other horse out there. Fine, that’s not great either. The point is: the output is so good you simply stop caring about the mess.
Every shot here was taken with the notoriously stiff-damped Voigtländer Nokton 50mm F1.5. I love this glass to death. Aside from the focus ring feeling like a frozen brick in winter and an annoying habit of swallowing dust, I have zero complaints. It’s just like… whatever. The dramatic vignetting gives you this natural, moody focus, and wide open, the fall-off is so painterly it looks like an old oil painting. If you want that timeless, vintage character, this pairing is tough to beat.
Every shot here was taken with the notoriously stiff-damped Voigtländer Nokton 50mm F1.5. I love this glass to death. Aside from the focus ring feeling like a frozen brick in winter and an annoying habit of swallowing dust, I have zero complaints. It’s just like… whatever. The dramatic vignetting gives you this natural, moody focus, and wide open, the fall-off is so painterly it looks like an old oil painting. If you want that timeless, vintage character, this pairing is tough to beat.
Leaning fully into this manual workflow completely rewired how I shoot. Once I got used to shooting M glass on the fp, my digital Leicas just sat on the shelf gathering dust—until I ended up selling off every last one of them. Haven’t touched a digital Leica since. Compared to those expensive, heavy, fragile M bodies, the fp slips into an overcoat pocket without a second thought. It’s stealthy, non-threatening, and puts the raw, tactile joy of making a photo right back into your hands. By now, the main control wheel on my fp has completely given up the ghost. But honestly? Who cares. I shoot all-manual glass; aperture is clicked on the lens ring anyway, so that little dial on the body is… completely useless to me. Who would’ve guessed that after cycling through so much gear, the camera that stayed by my side the longest would be an oddball like this.
Leaning fully into this manual workflow completely rewired how I shoot. Once I got used to shooting M glass on the fp, my digital Leicas just sat on the shelf gathering dust—until I ended up selling off every last one of them. Haven’t touched a digital Leica since. Compared to those expensive, heavy, fragile M bodies, the fp slips into an overcoat pocket without a second thought. It’s stealthy, non-threatening, and puts the raw, tactile joy of making a photo right back into your hands. By now, the main control wheel on my fp has completely given up the ghost. But honestly? Who cares. I shoot all-manual glass; aperture is clicked on the lens ring anyway, so that little dial on the body is… completely useless to me. Who would’ve guessed that after cycling through so much gear, the camera that stayed by my side the longest would be an oddball like this.
