So after some hard saving for a year, I was finally able to purchase a Leica M9 from a certified Leica dealer here in Seoul. I was very eager to see how it stacks up to my D700. I took both to Kyoto Japan for a brief 3 day sightseeing trip.
Right away, I noticed that the M9 needs to be setup precisely in order to take a good exposure. It is very picky with regards to the white balance, EXACT shutter speed, F stop and exposure comensation settings. With any Nikon, or in particular my D700, you can be a little off and still get great shots. I have found that noise is considerable over ISO 1000 on the M9 as well.
I put my M9 on a tripod with a cable release for landscape shots even though I know Leica shooters supposedly don't do this. I got much better results when doing so and after 6pm I felt you have to! Once you get the settings adjusted and re shoot enough times, the M9 images will be astonishing even in the corners. I'd like to post a few and compare them to my D700. The trip was a success however, I'm glad that I brought my trustworthy D700 along because I would have missed a lot of shots had I only relied on the M9.
