I Can't Decide Whether to Sell Everything for a Leica M11-P

I never thought I'd seriously ask this question. And yet here I am, staring at a camera bag full of gear I genuinely like, wondering whether I should sell most of it for a single camera that costs more than all of it combined (and some).

This isn't a review. I haven't bought a Leica M11-P yet. This is me thinking out loud, working through a decision that's part financial, part philosophical, and most definitely a little irrational.

How I Got Here

For the past year, I've been reaching for my Leica M6 more than anything else in my bag. Not because I product my best photography with it, but because of the experience, the way it makes me photograph and think.

Every frame is deliberate. There's no burst mode to hide behind, no autofocus hunting for something to lock onto, no chimping after every shot. You set your exposure, focus manually, and commit at a cost. That process has changed the way I think about photography.

Somewhere over the past year or so i’ve stopped caring quite so much about the photographs themselves and started caring about the experience of making them. That sounds backwards. Maybe it is. But I've come home from shooting feeling more connected to the photos I've taken with the M6 than I ever have with any other camera I have ever owned.

That realisation is what's led me here.

My Current Kit (And Why It Feels Like Too Much)

Right now my bag holds:

Nikon Zf with the 24-120mm f/4 S

Fujifilm X100VI

Leica M6 with Mandler 35mm, 50mm Elmar-M, and 90mm Elmarit-M

Three different systems which to be fair I use in different ways.

The Nikon Zf is my most capable camera. It can handle almost anything: fast-moving subjects, low light, weather and video if I ever decided to try YouTube again. If I needed to not miss the shot or shoot something unpredictable, I’d be taking the Zf. The 24-120 is an incredible lens and perfect for the type of landscape photo’s I like to take The other lenses available on the Z mount open up every avenue possible in photography.

The Fujifilm X100VI is my everyday camera. Compact and quick to use it produces beautiful JPEGs straight out of the camera. It's the one I take when I don't want to think about gear, or carry any weight and it’s the closest thing to shooting a digital rangefinder I have at the moment.

The Leica M6 is the camera I connect with the most. But it shoots film, which means development costs, waiting times, and a finite number of frames per roll.

The M11-P sits in an interesting gap between all of them. It offers the same rangefinder experience I've fallen in love with through the M6, but with the convenience of digital files. Same manual focus. Same deliberate process. but no film costs.

On paper, it feels like the natural digital companion to the M6. In practice, buying one means making some difficult choices, as it comes with a heavy cost.

My Current options

Option One: Sell Everything

The boldest move would be selling both the Nikon Zf and the Fujifilm X100VI and using the money towards the M11-P. This would leave me after the purchase with one digital camera, one film camera, one lens mount. No decision about which camera to take, and a bit more in the bank towards the initial purchase.

But I'd be giving up a lot.

Autofocus. Image stabilisation. Weather sealing. Zoom lenses. Video. The Leica M11-P doesn't do any of those things, and it's not trying to. It asks you to accept its limitations as part of the deal.

The question is whether I'd genuinely be okay with that, or whether I'd spend the next six months wishing I still had something with autofocus.

Option Two: Sell Just the X100VI

The safer path would be selling the X100VI, saving a little longer, and keeping the Nikon Zf as a backup.

The M11-P becomes my primary camera. The Zf covers everything it can't. I'd still have autofocus when I actually need it, still have video, still have a camera that can handle the situations where a rangefinder simply isn't the right tool.

The downside is that I'd still be managing two systems. I'd still have to decide which camera to take. The simplicity I find so appealing about the M6 experience wouldn't quite translate.

Why Not an Older Leica M?

The obvious question is whether I need to spend M11-P money at all. The used market is full of older Leica digital Ms, the M8, M9, and M10, at significantly lower prices. On the surface, they offer the same rangefinder experience for a fraction of the cost.

But I've ruled them out and not just because of the price gap.

The M8 is showing its age. Released in 2006, its 10 megapixel CCD sensor was remarkable at the time, but it comes with real limitations, most notably its inability to shoot in native colour with certain lenses without an IR cut filter, and high ISO performance that simply doesn't hold up against modern sensors. For the money Leicas command even second hand, I'd be accepting compromises I don't think I could live with.

The M9 has a well documented problem that I can't ignore: sensor corrosion. The original CCD sensors in many M9 bodies developed a coating issue that causes visible degradation in the files. Leica ran a replacement programme, but not every body has been updated, buying used means taking a risk I'm not willing to take at this price point.

The M10 is the most credible alternative. It's a genuinely modern camera with a 24 megapixel sensor, a cleaner menu system, and none of the reliability concerns that follow the M9. If I were purely trying to minimise cost, the M10 would be the sensible choice.

But here's where the 60 megapixels of the M11-P becomes difficult to ignore.

I shoot landscapes. Large files matter. The ability to crop significantly in post, to print large (hoping to get a print shop live in the future), to capture detail in a scene that I might not fully appreciate until I'm back at my laptop, that's not a vanity specification. It's something I'd actually use. The jump from 24 megapixels on the M10 to 60 on the M11-P isn't incremental; it fundamentally changes what's possible with the files.

This is about more than just a camera

The more I sit with this decision, the more I realise it's not about the Leica M11-P specifically.

It's about the kind of photographer I want to be.

For years I chased cameras that would make the act of making photographs easier. Faster autofocus, Higher dynamic range, more ergonomic. I told myself that having the most capable tool would make me a better photographer. I'm not sure that was ever true.

The M6 has taught me something uncomfortable: that limitations can be more useful than capabilities. When you only have 36 frames, you think harder before pressing the shutter. When you can't check the back of the camera, you learn to trust your instincts. When autofocus isn't an option, you slow down and actually look at what's in front of you.

I'm not romanticising film photography. I know the M11-P isn't going to suddenly transform my work. But the process matters to me now in a way it didn't a few years ago, and as the photography I enjoy has evolved over the last year or so of writing these blogs, I think the photographs I will take in the future will change too.

The Questions I Still Can't Answer

I'm not ready to decide yet, there are things I genuinely don't know.

How often do I actually reach for the Nikon Zf because it's the only camera that can get a particular shot?

How much will I miss the nikon when doing landscape photography, would the m11p be enough?

How much would I miss the wonderful jpegs on the fuji? I know the Leica files will require me to adjust my workflow.

If I sold everything and changed my mind six months later, how painful would buying back into another system actually be?

These aren't rhetorical questions. They're things I need to sit with before I hand anything over.

Where I've Landed (For Now)

I haven't made a decision. And I think that's okay and that allows me to start putting some money aside.

What I have worked out is this: the fact that I'm even having this conversation means something has shifted in the way I think about photography. A few years ago I wouldn't have entertained the idea of buying a camera with no autofocus, no video and a price tag that requires selling multiple other cameras to justify it.

Maybe the real insight isn't about the Leica at all. It's that I've stopped trying to be ready for every photographic situation, and started thinking about which situations I actually want to be in, what photographs am I happy to watch pass my by so I can feel more connected to the ones I do capture.

The M11-P won't make me a better photographer. But it might make me a more intentional one.

Whether that's worth the trade off is something I'm still working out.

If you've made a similar switch, or talked yourself out of one, I'd genuinely like to hear how it went. Drop a comment below or get in touch…