As with the tests that I ran with Mike's V2 Kolari Modified A7r, I think that you are recording a little too blue. As I found with my V3 mod after adjustment, I found the colors a little more neutral than the V2 mod.
p.10 #2 · Kolari Mod's Improvements: A Summary of Tests
naturephoto1 wrote:
Hi Charlie,
As with the tests that I ran with Mike's V2 Kolari Modified A7r, I think that you are recording a little too blue. As I found with my V3 mod after adjustment, I found the colors a little more neutral than the V2 mod.
Rich
TY Rich,
You may be right. I know the v2 is often characterised as a bit blue. I need to find the v2 profiles. But so far I'm liking it Remember we have ultra blue skies here which often reflect on anything white or even light in color.
How are you doing these days with your setup?
PS on reflection, what is unsaid is sometimes most important: no remarks on colorshift for this UWA 18mm M lens
p.10 #3 · Kolari Mod's Improvements: A Summary of Tests
uhoh7 wrote:
TY Rich,
You may be right. I know the v2 is often characterised as a bit blue. I need to find the v2 profiles. But so far I'm liking it Remember we have ultra blue skies here which often reflect on anything white or even light in color.
How are you doing these days with your setup?
Hi Charlie,
I know about those high altitude blue skies. I have been to Colorado, Utah, Montana, and Wyoming quite a few times.
Well Jako just had be get Cornerfix and sent me some profiles for the Leica 21mm SEM and the Zeiss 35mm f1.4 Distagon ZM profiles that I could ues at least for a start to fine tune. He suggested that the 21mm profiles should be close enough to my 24mm f3.8 Asph lens. He only provided a profile for the 35mm Distagon to f8. Hope I can get by with that and can adjust it for those times I want to use f11. For near far relationships I can still needing the extra DOF at times.
I have to figure out how to use all of this so as to not affect the original RAW files and work things in Lightroom.
I also have to work on the WB and the color profiles.
p.10 #4 · Kolari Mod's Improvements: A Summary of Tests
hello everybody
now i am considering to buy Leica SE21/3.4 for my A7RII mod 0.7mm ver,
It hard to find samples from the internet, can anybody share this combination ?
thz for your helps
p.10 #5 · Kolari Mod's Improvements: A Summary of Tests
In case somebody wonders how ordering process goes from Europe:
1. Discussed with Kolarivision (=Ilja) as there are v2 and v3 currenty available. Decided to go with v2 as the color performance of v3 is still slight mystery. As I ordered outside USA and converted 2xA7 the Kolarivision webshop was not having option for this = Ilja sent me PayPal invoice via email and I paid it.
2. Finland local time 5:09PM left package for DHL to deliver on 15th Feb. Paid 161EUR to DHL. Remember to ask them to email proforma invoice, export certificate etc. what you need when cameras get back and you need to proof that you have sent them to USA and you are not trying to avoid custom fees and VAT by ordering camera from USA.
3. DHL delivered and person x at Kolarivision received package 13:37 EST on 16th Feb. Delivery took 27hours and 28minutes (timezones taken into account).
4. Kolarivision did modify the cameras and packed the cameras and certificates to box.
5. Kolarivision shipped package using xxx-shipping company 9:53 EST 24th Feb.
6. xxx-shipping company sent a boat over Atlantic Ocean or somebody did ski over north pole or something else ridiculous as package arrived to Finland 2nd March.
7. xxx-shipping company took 7 days to clear customs (normal for DHL is <1 hour) - today finally at 10:30 they cleared customs.
8. xxx-shipping company delivered package today (9th March) 17:20 Finnish time.
I would assume xxx-shipping company sends me invoice for customs fee for amount of Kolarivision invoice * 0,24. (in Finland VAT is 24%, and there should not be customs fee for "work", so it should only be the 24%).
If DHL would be used for both ways shipping turnaround time would be easily under 2 weeks.
Naturally it was just above freezing point and raining, and daylight just about to end when I got the camera. But I went to shoot downtown Tampere for few hours with Biogon 2/35 ZM and enjoyed every second As a result pile of crappy handhold high ISO photos, but atleast it was good physical exercise and I had a good change to study how converted camera works on environment I will never use it for real - the "coma from hell" is about same level as with standard A7 or worse, most likely v3 would have been better on this kind of shooting, if the coating really reduces reflections.
Also learned that sunstars from 2/35 are beautiful - and they were very sharp and nice, not "mushy" as they tend to be with standard A7 (also most of my lenses have smaller number of aperture blades than 2/35).
Tried indoors also Contax G28 and Leica Summicron-M 50mm. Now G28 seems usable wide open on focal plane, thou boke improves really much by closing down to f/4 - very big change as earlier I had shoot only at close focus @ f/11 to minimize sensor cover glass issues. Summicron-M boke seems to be improved, not yet clear did field curvature also go away, need to shoot outdoors some tree trunks to check it.
Time to start hunting nice & cheap champagne colour Contax G21...
I "accidentally" purchased Zeiss 4/18 ZM, instead of G21. Due to this I'm considering Zeiss 2.8/25 ZM, instead of G21. Haven't seen any in 2nd hand market yet.
Continuum in topic of ordering from Europe. The xxx-shipping company sent the invoice: 241,73EUR, of which ~75EUR is for xxx-shipping company fee for doing the custom clearing ultra slow and rest VAT.
These are both Dual-Illuminant profiles and are (in my view) superior to the November 2015 versions, which I moved to archive folders.
As I had mentioned previously, I felt the original profiles where somewhat oversaturated, especially in the blues. These address that issue.
I only posted a profile made for Leica glass. I had previously made separate profiles for Leica and Zeiss glass, but the differences were quite minor (to me).
I'm still meaning to upgrade this camera to the v3 glass (as soon as get time where I don't need it) and will then post profiles for that.
p.10 #13 · Kolari Mod's Improvements: A Summary of Tests
Hi Folks,
I put some sharpness test shots on the A7M group on Flickr and putting in links here. There are boring subject matter shots tilted to show corner-to-corner performance. These are reduced to 2000 x 3000 but they tell the story just fine.
Note I did some quick correction for vignetting but it's not precise. Just trying to lighten the corners a little to make it easier to judge sharpness. So don't make any judgments about fall-off based on these.
Short version of the story is that the 35mm Distagon performs really well on the modified camera and, in the far corners, is sharper than the F2 Biogon by a wide margin. Also note that this camera (which will go in for the v3 update as soon as I get a chance) might be slightly weaker on the right side of the image.
The Distagon is a keeper. Just wish it were lighter!
Processed with the A7M v2 Camera Raw profile I uploaded a few weeks back and eyedropper white balanced on the white cover on the building near the center.
This is at 5.6 to have enough depth of field to hold the building on the right side, which is rather close by. Focus was on the long building in the center. Hand-held at 1/1250 sec. (There's a fair amount of color aliasing, especially in the railings on the roof of the building toward the left.)
p.10 #16 · Kolari Mod's Improvements: A Summary of Tests
hschougaard wrote:
Just curious - is Kolari working on a v4? How far can they take the tech?
Current mod (v3) matches Leica stack optical thickness so, with that as a target, is pretty much there. v3 added A/R coating to address reflections in the sensor stack, which could be a disadvantage with v1 and v2 mods in some scenarios.
With the sensor update in the A7r II Sony improved the corner color cast, which was a sensor design issue, not a filter stack issue. And the mod was evolved to retain the dust shaker and IBIS. So I think we are pretty close to optimal with v3 - at least until Sony brings out a new generation of cameras.
Curious if people have interest in other camera lines for this mod...
Michael
Apr 16, 2016 at 12:12 AM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
p.10 #17 · Kolari Mod's Improvements: A Summary of Tests
mdemeyer wrote:
Current mod (v3) matches Leica stack optical thickness so, with that as a target, is pretty much there. v3 added A/R coating to address reflections in the sensor stack, which could be a disadvantage with v1 and v2 mods in some scenarios.
With the sensor update in the A7r II Sony improved the corner color cast, which was a sensor design issue, not a filter stack issue. And the mod was evolved to retain the dust shaker and IBIS. So I think we are pretty close to optimal with v3 - at least until Sony brings out a new generation of cameras.
Curious if people have interest in other camera lines for this mod...
I think what is optimal depends on what lenses you decide to use. If you decide you want to use currently available Leica M lenses--all of which work pretty well with the current sensor stack on the M240--then v3 makes a lot of sense, but if you want to use lenses designed primarily for film--older Leica M lenses and the ZM lenses except for the D 35 f/1.4--then a version of v1 or v2 with A/R coatings that retains the dust shaker and IBIS might be preferred. Also the Leica sensor stack seems to evolving, so a v4 might make sense. It seems the SL has a slightly thicker stack and some lenses (e.g., the new 28 lux) seem to work best with the SL. Many people, including me, speculate that the new Leica M likely due at Photokina later this year will have a similar sensor stack. A v4 that matches this sensor stack may make sensor in the future especially if Leica tweaks there lenses--as it appears they have with the 28 cron, 28 elmarit, and 35 cron--to be most compatible with this sensor stack.
p.10 #18 · Kolari Mod's Improvements: A Summary of Tests
Steve Spencer wrote:
but if you want to use lenses designed primarily for film--older Leica M lenses and the ZM lenses except for the D 35 f/1.4--then a version of v1 or v2 with A/R coatings that retains the dust shaker and IBIS might be preferred.
why is that? the thinner stack should perform better with film lenses.
Apr 16, 2016 at 09:42 AM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
p.10 #19 · Kolari Mod's Improvements: A Summary of Tests
sebboh wrote:
why is that? the thinner stack should perform better with film lenses.
My impression was that v1 and v2 were thinner than v3, but maybe I had that wrong. If v3 is thinner, then it should work better with lenses designed for film. If Leica starts to design newer lenses for a thicker sensor stack, which it looks like they might have for the M 28 lux, then those might work better with thicker cover glass. So, what works best still depends on the lenses, but I very well may have had it wrong about which Kolari versions are thinner.
p.10 #20 · Kolari Mod's Improvements: A Summary of Tests
Steve Spencer wrote:
My impression was that v1 and v2 were thinner than v3, but maybe I had that wrong. If v3 is thinner, then it should work better with lenses designed for film. If Leica starts to design newer lenses for a thicker sensor stack, which it looks like they might have for the M 28 lux, then those might work better with thicker cover glass. So, what works best still depends on the lenses, but I very well may have had it wrong about which Kolari versions are thinner.
Hi Steve,
I believe that V3 is the thinnest of the sensor stack covers. I think that I finally have some reference color profiles/WB for my V3 sensor stack modified A7r for Daylight, cloudy, and shade conditions. Because my R 50mm Summicron had to go back again to Leica Camera USA (agh!!!) the profiles were run with my R 60mm Macro Elmairt lens using my X-rite color checker and software. I expect to take images later today of amongst other things some flowers.
and I had a good change to study how converted camera works on environment I will never use it for real - the "coma from hell" is about same level as with standard A7 or worse, most likely v3 would have been better on this kind of shooting, if the coating really reduces reflections.