Configuring the Leica M11-P

writer: russell j.t. dyer; posted: Jul 2024; revised: Jul 2024

As part of my goal of simplifying the use of my digital camera (i.e., Leica M11-P), to use it like a film camera, I’ve set the camera’s menus in advance of using it and turned off anything I don’t need. This article goes through the menus and explains the settings which are relevant to that mindset.

Overall, there are a few things I want to eliminate and set. First and foremost, I want to turn off the liquid chrystal display (i.e., LCD). It’s the biggest distraction when taking pictures. Also, I don’t want anything extra. I disable whatever isn’t necessary.

Now that I’ve finished setting everything in the menus, I don’t need the LCD while shooting. I have an Oberwerth half-case made specifically for the Leica M11-P. It has a removable back that attaches by magnets. It covers the LCD and back buttons so I don’t think about them. When I’m shooting, I control the camera from the top buttons and the lens. I don’t need or miss the LCD after just a week of using the camera. If I do need it, though, it’s easy enough to remove the cover to check or change something. When I’m done, I put it back.

Status Screen

Leica M-11P - Status Screen

To get to the menus on a Leica M11-P, you press the MENU button at the bottom left of the LCD a couple of times. The first screen to appear is the status screen shown here. This shows the status of a few items, and several key settings and how they’re set. The LCD is a touch screen, so you can tap on one of these items to change them. I never do that. I set things one time in the Main Menu: you access it by clicking MENU again, or by touching the ≡ icon at the bottom right of the screen.

Before going onto the Main Menu, take a look at the status screen. It shows at the end of the first row of squares that I have an f/2.4 35mm lens attached to the camera, which is correct. For the line of exposure values running horizontally in the middle, it indicates that the camera is in A Mode, or Aperture Mode. That means that the shutter duration dial is on A, and it will be adjusted automatically based on the lens aperture settings — and based on at what the ISO sensitivity is set. We really should just refer to A as Automatic Shutter since it’s no longer based only on aperture.

The next value is the shutter duration: it’s set to the maximum time of 15 minutes because I had the lens cap on when I took this photo of the screen. That value will change to something more realistic and useful when the cap is removed and the camera pointed at something reflecting light, and as the aperture is adjusted.

Next you can see I have the ISO sensitivity at 64. Then there’s the EV, the exposure value or variance. It’s at 0 because I rarely use that. When I do, though, I configured the thumbwell to access EV, quickly. I press it, then roll it left or right. It activates the LCD for that moment. I hate it.

It doesn’t have the aperture setting because that’s controlled manually on the lens, which is a mechanical lens with no communications with the camera. The camera guesses at the lens openning based on what it sees from inside the camera looking down the lens barrel. It uses that guess for setting the shutter duration, and notes it on the image file.

Favorites

Leica M-11P - Favorites Menu

The next screen is the Favorites menu, which is just a list of main menu items to which you want to have quick access. At a minimum, whether you want it or not, the first item is the Leica Content Credentials. That’s a feature available first and only on the M11-P. They seem proud of that. I have no use for it since I don’t sell my photos.

You can add other items by selecting the Customize Control option and picking what you want to include. I put a two items here, but I never use the Favorites list. The Main Menu choice brings you to the main menu, which is composed of five pages. They’re listed here next.

Other Buttons

Leica M-11P - Function Button Choices

There are three buttons on the camera that can be customized: the FN button, the Thumbwheel, and the Function button. The FN button is located to the left of the LCD. If you hold it down for a few seconds, a menu will appear on the LCD of functions to which it may be set. I set it to White Balance in case I want to set that, which I never do now that I save files to DNG format. There isn’t anything else in the list I want to access easily.

The Thumbwheel is located on the back of the camera, at the edge of the top right corner. If you press it at the center of the wheel and hold it for a few seconds, a list of choices for it appears — ones that would use the Thumbwheel to adjust. I set it to Exposure Compensation. Again, with DNG files I don’t need it. But there have been times when I have used that feature on other cameras.

On the top of the camera, to the right of the shutter release is a small button that you may not have noticed. That’s the Function button. Hold it down for a few seconds to get choices for its use. I configured it for Flash Settings. That’s something I would use in a studio situation. Otherwise, I don’t use it.