Let me be straight, my favourite 35mm cameras to date were all Nikons. From Nikon F100 (the 1st camera I bought with my own money) to Nikon FM3a (the ultimate manual focus camera from Nikon IMHO) these are some of the best 35mm cameras around.

So I was quite surprised to find myself using the Leica M4-P for a whole year. It is now my default camera pretty much everywhere I go and I don't see myself replacing it anytime soon.

So let's start from the beginning, about a year ago I stumbled on hard to believe deal of a century, someone I know was selling their Leica kit with some Voigtlander lenses for a very reasonable price, let's call it a mate's rate.  The Red Dot brand was always unobtainable for me due to the cost of equipment, so I never considered it in the past. However this time I had to have it, so I did.

Speaking of Leica M4-P itself, this is not your classic Leica made in Germany, this is it's Canadian cousin. The build quality is not the best according to Leica experts, however in my opinion the build quality is very good and is definitely on par with my Nikons. 

The camera is fully manual and doesn't have any fancy aperture or shutter speed priority mode as well as a lightmeter. For some people it may be a turn off but some will embrace it, just like I did.

The "pure manual" means that you will need to set your aperture and shutter speed manually according to your external lightmeter (such as Sekonic L-308 series or iPhone, there are many to choose from). However if you are a master of "sunny 16" you can do that as well. For my photography I always have my Sekonic ready in the pocket and do take the exposure readings every now and then.

Coming from SLR "what you see is what you get" camera to a rangefinder system was a bit of a challenge. The framing proved to be tricky at first, having the rangefinder patch coincide with the whole image was not intuitive. However after a few days of practice it proved to be not only a time saver but also allowed me to see out of the frame so I could compose accordingly.

I also spent some time learning the hyperfocal distance focusing in order to improve my street captures. I try to document our local community on a daily basis and having the camera that is ready to take a shot straight away to capture the moment is very handy. Paired with the 28mm or 35mm lenses and a high speed ISO 800 film this proved to be very useful.

In use, once practised, the camera is fantastic. The film winder is very smooth, the shutter click is quiet yet satisfying. The focusing is great but you need to know your lenses. The lenses with the focusing tab are great because you can learn the focusing distance easily. When the focusing tab is 90 degrees down centre, remember that distance. It is then much easier to get where you want to be from that position either by moving the tab to the right or left. The lenses without focusing tab are a bit more difficult because you will need to rely on the focusing patch. In low light the focusing is actually easier compared to SLRs as it is easier to lineup the patch in the dark.

Speaking of focusing patch it is fairly, bright and square which is a lot better than some Fujifilm and Nikon rangefinders I tried in the past. The focusing patches on those cameras were quite small, round and bit fuzzy so M4-P was definitely an improvement. 

In conclusion, Leica M4-P is a great rangefinder. The one I always take with me on a daily commute. The camera is small and light, the lenses are small too, and I can have another lens in my pocket without too much bulk. Paired with high speed film like Kodak Portra 800 or Ilford HP5 Plus pushed 1 or 2 stops and a good 28mm or 35mm can be a killer Street Photography setup. But it can also be used for everything else without any issues. However personally I prefer to use SLRs for focal distances over 50mm. So while you can take great portraits with a rangefinder I personally prefer Nikon SLRs for this task.

Now on to the lenses, I am not a blind believer that you need to use Leica lenses with Leica cameras exclusively. The Voigtlander and Zeiss lenses are perfectly adequate and a lot less expensive than Leica equivalents. The image quality is fantastic and even early lenses will perform very well on 35mm film.

In the world of Leica M6 being a YouTube darling and Leica MP being a "holy grail" the Leica M4-P is basically a Leica M6 without a light meter. So as long as you are happy to use an external meter the M4-P will save you quite a lot of cash over the M6.

So is Leica M4-P worth it? The answer is yes if you like a rangefinder style camera. It has a very clear patch which is easy to focus and very well made. If you are happy to shoot all manual which means an external lightmeter is a must (unless you are good at guessing it). It is not cheap which means it probably won't be someones 1st film camera. But on personal level it is definitely a YES for me. It took me years to get to rangefinder style cameras as I couldn't understand "what fuss is about" but I finally get it. Leica M4-P will sit nicely with my Nikon FM3a for any 35mm shooting.