The M9, like all the Leica M series devices, is a rangefinder camera. That means you don’t focus through the lens, but rather through the viewfinder. The camera uses a clever bit of mechanical coupling to link the focus ring on the lens to a series of optical devices in the body. If you ever focused using a classic SLR you likely used the “split prism” focus system, where you aligned to two halves of a reticle in the center of the viewfinder to achieve correct focus. Rangefinder cameras, since they don’t focus through the lens, rely on a separate small view superimposed over the image in the viewfinder. To focus you align a small central rectangle with the larger viewfinder view. It is both different and the same to focusing on an SLR. Plenty of videos exist online if you want to see the two systems in action.

The camera body follows the same basic layout as the M8 (which preceded it) and the M240 (which succeeded it). It’s slightly thicker than the older M series bodies, most notably the M6 and M7, to which it is often compared. Having used both the M6 and the M9, the difference is noticeable but perhaps not overly annoying. Holding cameras like this, with no grip and very boxy edges, is always going to be something of a challenge, especially for people with smaller hands like me.

The M9 is heavy for its size, and feels well built. The screen was terrible even when it was new, so don’t be too surprised. Images shown on it are bare approximations of what the end result might be. Along with this deficiency, the plastic they used to cover the screen is prone to scratches. These scratches were one of the reasons I opted to get the M-P 240, which a sapphire glass screen.

My one gripe with the device was always the shutter recock sound. The shutter itself has a pleasant snick, not at all unpleasant. The internal motor used to reset that shutter, however, is very loud. You can clearly hear it from a few feet away. The sound is somewhere between a buzzing and a whirring, with an emphasis on grinding. It was so bad that Leica added a special mode, only found on these cameras, that allowed you to delay the reset of the shutter until you released the shutter button (saying shutter so many times in a sentence sounds wrong). Is it the end of the world? No, but it was a huge nagging annoyance that I had with the device.

The M9 image quality was always great. The sensor’s color profile was great right out of the camera, even in RAW. The files were pleasantly malleable when edited, and the sensor resolved very well with all lenses produced up to its point of production. Some of my favorite images I’ve taken came from the M9. As long as you were careful with exposure, the camera was a delight to use. I always used it as if it were a heavy M6 loaded with slide film, and was very rarely disappointed.

People go after a digital M camera for the lenses, of course. Leica has been producing M series lenses for many decades, and has a huge used catalog available all over the world. With the exception of a few collapsible lenses, the entire catalog works ver well on the M9. Modern, optically coded lenses even have their data encoded into the RAW file for easy reference later. For less modern lenses, many could be optically coded after the fact.

The M9 is not a great low light camera. This is largely due to the CCD sensor, and the technology at the time. Push the shadows much in post at all and you will see banding, color cast, and unpleasant color noise. While the camera has a pleasant noise profile in general use, it gets worse quickly as the amount of light available to the sensor falls. That doesn’t mean the camera couldn’t take some pretty great long exposure shots, the problems only occurred when trying to rescue a poorly exposed image.

The M9 uses a CCD sensor rather than the more common CMOS we see in all subsequent M series cameras and, in general, the majority of all other digital cameras released since. While the color and grain pattern of the CCD sensor is impressive, the sampling rate and low light performance left much to be desired.

Ultimately all M9 series cameras will need sensor replacements, or at the very least a sensor coating replacement. The original and replacement sensors suffered from a specific sort of corrosion that ate away at the surface. Over time all M9 series cameras will experience this. It manifests in many ways, but it often starts out looking like persistent dust. Over time this can grow much worse, eventually covering the entire sensor and resulting in obvious artifacts in images.

The original solution provided by Leica was a replacement sensor, a practice they have since ended. While the replacement sensors worked for a time, they are also susceptible to the corrosion experienced by the originals.

So, Leica no longer repairs the cameras, and there are no new sensors being produced, what are your options? There are a few, at least two companies now offer repair for corroded sensors, though how durable their solution is has yet to be fully tested. Apparently these are not replacement sensors, but rather a repair to the coating and glass. There are slightly different light transfer characteristics associated with the change. These same companies often also offer conversion to monochrome.

How do all these work? I have no idea! I sold my M9 back to Leica when I bought the M-P 240.

I, personally, cannot recommend that anyone buy an M9. They are a doomed series of cameras. Can they be repaired? Possibly! But, like all electronics, digital cameras have a lifetime. The parts needed to repair them stop being made and become obsolete, the expertise required to repair them is replaced. While I liked my M9 very much, I do not regret selling it.

The M240 is an old camera now (in 2023) but so are pretty much all my cameras. It’s still exactly as good of a camera as it was when I got it, though. It’s dynamic range wasn’t very good even for the era (my 5d3 easily out performs it), but when paired with a wide lens and a willingness to work in post, I’ve been happy with the camera even working after dark.

It’s impossible to talk about the M240 (and the M9 and M8 before it) without mentioning that the body is slightly thicker than the M6 / M10 / M11. It’s only a few millimeters, but in the hand it’s surprisingly noticeable. It makes the camera just that little bit more awkward to hold. I’ve always thought the M series cameras were a little weird to hold anyway, though, so it’s only a tiny ding against it.

Before I got the Ricoh GRiiix the M240 was my primary travel camera. I don’t like traveling with too many cameras or lenses, so the 35mm Summilux FLE basically lives on the camera. I find 35mm and 40mm to be about the sweet spot for general travel use for me. Generally wide enough that you can get what you want in most environments, but long enough that you aren’t wondering where the subjects vanished to in the frame.

Well, maybe that’s a little bit of a lie. We all travel with an extra lens these days: the amazing little camera every cellphone now includes. Prior to using a cellphone camera extensively I had never had much real experience with 28mm or wider lenses, and at first I was entirely lost with how to use the focal length. That has changed now, after years of using it daily to capture the detritus of life. I no longer struggle to use wide lenses, something which seriously pushed me to consider moving to a 28mm on the M240, and getting the GRiii instead of the iiix variant. In the end, though, I will always have my phone, and so I will always have a wide lens if I need it.

There are a few gripes with the camera. The biggest of them is the startup time from sleep. The M240 offers a power saving mode where, after a programmable period of time, it will go to sleep. This is perfect if you are walking around for a day and don’t want to worry if the camera is off when you aren’t using it. In theory, the startup from this mode is supposed to be almost instantaneous. In fact, that’s what I expected from my experience with the 5d3, which can sleep for weeks and wake up with a half press, always ready to take a shot by the time you are.

The M240 is not so nimble. I believe the time is closer to three seconds from shutter half press to camera ready. That’s long enough that you have to account for it. Many people say, “oh, just remember to half press the shutter as you raise the camera.” That might work if the camera were light enough to be carried in ones hand at all times. Maybe it is for some people, but this is a crossbody camera for me. In theory it all should work, in practice I have a lot of photographs of the moment after the one I wanted.

The M240 is not weather sealed. That hasn’t stopped me from using it in light drizzle, but there are plenty of situations where I would leave it at home rather than risk it in a rainstorm. Do some people use them in wet conditions? Yes, but I’m not one of them. This is a gripe I have the the Ricoh, as well.

That’s it for complaints, though. The camera is a delight to use for anyone who grew up with film. It meters and exposes much as a fat M6 loaded with slide film. Since I really like shooting slide film (should I change that to liked since I do not want to pay for film much anymore? For the first time in many trips I returned from Japan this year without a single new roll of film). I do have to note, though, that the auto white balance is terrible. Not “charmingly off” or “quirky” just bad. Expect to have to color correct in post, and if you want to use JPGs plan to set the white balance manually.

For anyone thinking about trying an M240, I say go for it. It’s an old camera though, so go into it knowing that the dynamic range, shadow recovery, and general behavior of the camera is not going to feel modern. If you can get over those things, it’s a fun one to use.

My one warning here, though, is that it’s a Leica and people love to pay too much. Don’t overpay for this camera hoping is magical. It’s not, it’s just an old camera with some nice user interface thoughtfulness. Buy a lens instead, probably!