Contents
- Why The Leica M9?
- Information and Specs
- Variants
- Sensor Corrosion and Replacement
- Batteries and Charging
- Lenses
- Video Reviews
- Text and Image Reviews
- Sample Photos
- Purchase an M9
Why a Leica M9?
You might want a Leica M9 for a few reasons:
- It is one of the less-expensive options for a full-frame Leica M camera
- It has lovely Kodachrome-like colors from the Kodak CCD sensor
- It is smaller and lighter than the M240 that succeeded it
- It has less “features” than the M240 which provides for a more focused experience
- It comes in a beautiful black paint option. No other non-special edition digital Leica camera came in black paint until the M10R (which had it as an option)
Information and Specs
Sensor: 18.5 Megapixel full-frame Kodak CCD sensor
Shutter: 32s – 1/4000s
Exposure: Fully manual or Aperture Priority
Size: 139 mm × 80 mm × 37 mm (5.5 in × 3.1 in × 1.5 in)
Weight: 585g (M9) – 600g (M9-P)
Color: Black paint or Steel Grey (M9), Black paint or Classic Chrome (M9-P), Anthracite (M-E)
Lineage: Preceded by Leica M8, succeeded by Leica M (Typ 240)
Variants
There are three versions of the Leica M9 – the M9, M9-P, and M-E.
M9: The camera that came out first and the one they made the most of.
M9-P: An upgraded version of the M9 with sapphire crystal cover glass, classic chrome finish option (instead of steel grey), and the red dot and “M9” markings on the front of the camera were replaced by the “Leica” script on the top plate. Otherwise, it is the same as the M9.
M-E: A simplified version of the M9 with no frame line preview lever, no USB port, and an anthracite grey paint finish on the top plate instead of black paint or steel grey.
This guide will discuss these three variants as one, unless there is a specific need to spell out the difference.
Sensor Corrosion and Replacement
Do any amount of research on the Leica M9 camera and you will find discussion after discussion on the sensor corrosion topic. Here’s the (brief) story.
The original sensors Leica put in the M9 were prone to corrosion. This meant that the cover glass on top of the sensor would corrode over time, leading to little white dots on the images produced. Leica replaced some of these sensors with ones that would still corrode before eventually figuring out a solution to prevent corrosion and switching their replacements to those. This means that Leica M9 cameras can have up to 3 different types of sensors out there depending on whether the sensor was replaced, and which one it was replaced with.
You want a camera with a sensor ID of ID-15 or ID-16. These are the newest replacement sensors and are thought not to corrode.
You can find the sensor ID by following these instructions. That page has a good (more complete) writeup on the issue as well if you want to dig deeper. We strongly recommend buying a camera with a sensor ID of ID-15 or 16, as Leica is no longer doing these replacements.
One other option that popped up more recently is to have Kolari Vision replace the cover glass on your sensor. This is what was done to our M9 (by a previous owner) and it worked out well. Your mileage may vary, but if you have an M9 with a corroded sensor, this might be your only choice at this point.
As of 2023, they also will replace your entire sensor for a somewhat hefty fee. Inquire at the site linked above.
Batteries and Charging
The batteries and charging on the M9 cameras can be a little finicky. OEM batteries are shared with the Leica M8 and are still available, but at a high cost. Several aftermarket batteries are available as well from eBay, AliExpress, etc, but your mileage may vary on them. We have personally used aftermarket batteries on our M9 and aside from some wonky in-camera battery life readings, they have all been fine.
Some have found that certain aftermarket batteries won’t charge up all the way using the OEM charger, but others feel that the internal battery sensor to the M9 doesn’t always read the right level. Is it that the batteries are not charged all the way, or the M9 doesn’t recognize that they are? Hard to know. This is not that big of a deal – buy a few cheap aftermarket batteries and keep them with you. For what it’s worth, we’ve been pleasantly surprised on how good the battery life is.
Lenses
There are a vast number of lenses that can be used with the Leica M9. The Leica M9 uses the same lens mount and is compatible with the same lenses as cameras going back to the Leica M2 in 1957. This means that almost any lens that was manufactured for use with the Leica M mount since 1957 can be used on the Leica M9.
Leica themselves have made some of the best lenses ever created in M mount that are able to be used with the M9. Please see our Definitive Leica Lens Guide (coming soon) for details on all of the best lenses.
In addition to Leica, several other manufacturers have created lenses for the Leica M mount. These include Voigtlander, Zeiss, Minolta, Konica, 7Artisans, TTArtisan, and more. In fact, it seems like new lens companies are popping up every week with new lens options for Leica M mount cameras.
As mentioned above, please see our forthcoming lens guide for more information.
Video Reviews
Matt has a lot of experience with Leica cameras, and in this video he re-visits his M9-P. Caution, many of his images are NSFW.
Text and Image Reviews
Shoot Tokyo has a great writeup on the Leica M9 with lovely sample images of portraits, street, architecture and more.
- Leica M9 Review at Shoot Tokyo
- Leica M9 Review at 35MMC
Thorsten Overgaard, 2009 – 2022
This is a massive review by Thorsten, spanning many years and many pages. Lots of talk, lots of sample images. He’s a known Leica fanboy, but there’s some interesting content in here.
- Leica M9 Review at Thorsten Overgaard