A Year with the Leica M6: Still Learning, Still in Love

I’ve now been using my Leica M6 for just over a year and have shot about 26 rolls of film. I still find myself reaching for it more than my digital camera and that’s not because it’s perfect. It’s not because it guarantees amazing photos. It’s because it makes me want to go out and take them.

There’s something about the way the M6 feels in the hand — solid, mechanical, the clack of the shutter. It’s small enough to carry around in a pocket and weighty enough to feel like a serious tool. It encourages a slower, more deliberate kind of photography. One where I’m not firing off a dozen frames just to make sure I got it. With the M6, I usually take one, maybe two and moving on.

Still Learning

Even after a year, I still feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of what this camera can teach me. That’s part of the appeal with film. The rangefinder system took a bit of getting used to at first and i’m still not particularly fast at focusing.

What’s kept it fresh is the film itself. I’ve shot 12 different film stocks at this point and i’m starting to understand what I enjoy shooting most, but there are still stocks I haven’t tried and I’m excited about that. Each one brings its own mood, its own challenges.

I haven’t even started to delve into longer exposure on a film camera and this is something I plan to delve into in the coming year.

Walking up Ben Nevis

A Slower Way of Seeing

One of the biggest differences the M6 has made to my photography is in the way I approach taking photos in the first place. it’s more considered, I pause, I think about the light. I watch what’s happening in the scene for a bit longer before raising the camera to my eye. with only 36 shots on a role of film sometimes I don’t take the shot at all. That wouldn’t have happened with a digital camera, where the cost of a photo is basically nothing.

The delay in seeing the results, sometimes days or weeks later at first I though this might become frustrating but the delay in seeing what you captured kind of adds to the memory of the photo. It can be frustrating, but it’s also deeply rewarding. Getting scans back is almost like opening a time capsule. The moment has passed, but here it is again, captured and preserved on film.

Along the Canals in Amsterdam

The Simplicity

Part of what makes the M6 so easy to come back to is how little it does. No menus. No screens. Just aperture, shutter speed, focus, and a light meter needle. That’s it. And that’s enough. In a time when cameras are packed with features, the M6 strips photography back to its essentials.

It doesn’t distract me. It doesn’t do the thinking for me. It just works, quietly and without fuss.

A Day out in London

Final Thoughts

I love this camera. Not because it’s a Leica. Not because it’s a “classic.” But because it’s made me fall in love with photography in a different way. It makes me more intentional. More patient. More present. It makes me want to go outside, walk around and most importantly, it makes me want to get photo’s of friends, family and everyday life, which is something I’ve never been drawn to do on digital cameras.

I’m still learning. I still make mistakes. There are photos I wish I’d taken differently or twice. But the M6 has kept me interested and kept me shooting.