Shooting Boxing in Tokyo With Leica M Monochrom (typ 246)

I picked up my Leica M Mono typ246 from Samys Camera in Los Angelelas the day before my flight to Tokyo. I packed my M typ240 and M/M typ246, but left my Canons behind. I wasn't planning on shooting any boxing, at least not any fight cards and I wanted to travel light. This trip was purely pleasure and street photography, with maybe a little time in the gyms. A new friend, actually a FB friend, talked me into shooting a 13 bout fight card at Korakuen Hall. Korakuen Hall is apparently the busiest boxing venue in the world with several events a week.

I managed to get a ringside position, I paired my M/Mono 246 with my 50mm Summicron (this would be my main camera) and my M240 with my 90mm Elmarit (rarely time to change cameras, but just in case).

I shot over 90% of the bouts with the M/M 246 and here are some of the images. Keep in mind I follow focus (no preset on focus), only the shutter speed and aperture are preset.

13 bouts, one image from each contest.

Sakuma/*Shiratori

Iyama/*Igarashi

*Ishizawa/Takase 

*Higashi/Kouzu

Aoki/*Hanawa (yes even female fighters)

*Kaneko/Kawa

*Kishi/Onishi

Kanazawa/*Sakata

*Takeda/Ida

*Kuura/Morooka

*Itimura/Yokoyama

Yamazaki/*Ishi

*Ishikawa/Arioka

Manny thanks to Hiro Watanabe for talking me into this, and the staff at Korakuen Hall for being som accommodating!

As always, all images are copyright Peter Politanoff / RedStarImage, and may not be reproduced without explicit consent. You are more than welcome however to link to this site.