I got my M9 back from getting the rangefinder calibrated, and things are spot on now. I am taking a few days off this week to be with family; my in-laws are in town to see us. Today we took them out to the Getty Center. I took the M9 and a small group of lenses. It was validation of why I switched to the rangefinder this past July--the whole bag with five lenses was nice and light. I took the 75 and 90 APO's, the 28 'cron, 50 'lux ASPH and the CV15.
First, the "red edge" problem is quite prominent with the CV15:
However, CornerFix 1.3.0.3 does a great job of correcting the problem:
Entrance Stairs; note the excellent flare control:
Entrance Hall:
Garden Terrace and Central Garden:
Fountain, Main Plaza:
Cactus Garden and Wilshire Boulevard skyline:
Central Garden:
Central Garden #2:
Waterfall and Azalea Pool, Central Garden:
Great trip, and I love the full frame of the M9. Lots more creative opportunities with wider lenses.
Nice colours and huge DR from that combo. Very interesting garden as well.
I notice you don't get the banding or fringing problems others are trying to lump on this camera, rather than exposing the pictures properly like you have, bravo
thrice, I don't have any banding or fringing issues. I shoot in uncompressed raw, and as you noticed, I make sure that I nail the exposure. The M9 has a good bit of dynamic range, and if you don't blow the highlights, you can process the raws to pull out a lot that range.
I like the colors from the M9 and the CV15. Very nice and saturated.
The Getty is a great place. I spend a lot of time roaming there. Your pics captured it very well. How long did Leica service take to calibrate your M9?
Sam N wrote:
Why would you shoot in uncompressed raw rather than compressed raw? The compression is lossless.
That's your problem. It's NOT lossless. From the manual for the M9:
The Compressed format includes a slight compression, which:
--causes only a negligible deterioration in quality
--provides full scope for subsequent processing of the picture data
--allows faster saving
--takes up less memory space
Interesting, Compressed DNG normally uses a lossless algorithm, but it is computationally more intensive than lossy which is likely why Leica went with Lossy compression.
Those examples look excellent. The CV 15 is a personal favourite of mine (I need to buy a copy now that I've returned my borrowed copy) and it's good to know that there is a practical fix for the edge colour shifts.
James R wrote:
The Getty is a great place. I spend a lot of time roaming there. Your pics captured it very well. How long did Leica service take to calibrate your M9?
James,
Thanks! I love going to both the Getty and the Getty Villa. Wonderful places.
As for the M9 service, I emailed Leica before I sent it and asked for expedited service. I then called the day it arrived, and was told that it wouldn't be in the system until that evening (even though it arrived in the morning), so I called the next morning and inquired again. The woman that answered the phone then went and spoke to the repair people who told her they would fix it that day, and I requested overnight return shipping, which they accomodated. All told, I shipped it on Tuesday morning and it was back in my hands on Friday morning. The shipping was expensive, but I wanted the camera gone for as short a time as possible.
It was rapid turnaround. Canon is usually very fast, so I was pleased that Leica was pretty quick as well, although I don't know how quick it would have been without my persistence.
Yes, the Villa is great. It sounds like you are in the LA area? If you are, there is a small group of LA-area alt-gear types getting together for a day at the Villa in early December. If you would like to join us, PM me.
StevenPA wrote:
Lovely images. Nice punchy colours. Bummer about the "red edge problem" though. What's up with that??
It's likely a problem with the algorithms in place to counter the cyan drift problem caused by the IR filter. Apparently its been a problem even on the M8, but it was overlooked because of the smaller sensor size (so the problem was masked). Its also exacerbated by any small amount of decentering in a lens (and its pretty common for lenses to have very slight amounts of decentering, especially with the ultra-wide designs).
The CornerFix software solution is very nice, and easy to use. It also will perfectly correct for any remaining vignetting not corrected by the camera. Its fully automatable via batching, and very, very fast. I created a profile for the CV15-M9 combo, and it only took about a minute for my computer to go through and correct 30+ images.
Ideally it will corrected in the firmware, and the word is that Leica is working on it. In their defense, its not nearly as common with Leica's own wide lenses, which probably have fewer decentering issues due to more rigorous design and QC. I've seen lots of shots with the WATE at 16mm that don't show any red edge issues. I also only have issues with my Voigtlander 15mm and 21mm lenses. Everything else is just fine.
I wonder how many photographers actually go inside the Getty and browse their collection in addition to enjoying the architecture?
Anyway, if you need fast turnaround on rangefinder adjustments that you can't do yourself, try Steve's Camera Repair in Culver City. He actually did a better job on my M8 than the folks at NJ could do in 3 tries!
I wonder how many photographers actually go inside the Getty and browse their collection in addition to enjoying the architecture?
Anyway, if you need fast turnaround on rangefinder adjustments that you can't do yourself, try Steve's Camera Repair in Culver City. He actually did a better job on my M8 than the folks at NJ could do in 3 tries!
Thanks! I can't speak for others, but I have personally been in all of the buildings. Some of the art photographs fairly well, but much does not.
I just learned about Steve's last week. Good to know, as shipping to NJ is expensive. I am going to have Steve match my Noctilux to my M9.
Can Stever re-calibrate a Mamiya 6? How much did he charge for your M8?
PSquared63 wrote:
Anyway, if you need fast turnaround on rangefinder adjustments that you can't do yourself, try Steve's Camera Repair in Culver City. He actually did a better job on my M8 than the folks at NJ could do in 3 tries!
