All Cobalt owners of the Leica M profiles will be getting an update to download v4.0. Many owners, myself included, may have already seen the announcement via email, which made it easy to jump in and start testing it right away.
I've been going through it and there are quite a few interesting additions in this release.
The updated Leica M9 "Spectre" profiles stand out the most for me. They include a version based on the camera's SOOC jpeg "Standard" along with Cobalt’s Leica DNG profile, which they call "Embedded". I keep coming back to the JPEG based look because it has that punchy saturation and color tone that feels very close to the old CCD style rendering. I've shared a few samples below.
There are also updates to the Leica M10-R look, which I use quite a bit when shooting the Leica M11 since I tend to prefer the M10-R color rendering. The "Leica Looks", which are only available on a select few Leica cameras, are included as well. The newly released Silver profile is also part of this Leica Looks set, and It's a nice addition and feels very usable, although personally I don't love it as much as the others. In general, I think all of these Leica Looks profiles are quite strong. I usually reduce the overall intensity from 100% down to around 65 to 75% for more natural results. That feels closer to how I'd actually want to use them in real shooting. It's very much in line with that Leica style of rendering though, which makes sense.
The most noticeable improvement for me is the addition of the Spectre profile method across the whole set. It seems to get even closer to the original camera color and tonality, and overall it just feels more natural and consistent to my eyes.
I have a bunch of the Cobalt stuff but I don't have the Leica looks, planning on getting once the M11 is on Spectre. I'm really hoping they'll help with the Magenta cast.
benwagnerphotos wrote:
I have a bunch of the Cobalt stuff but I don't have the Leica looks, planning on getting once the M11 is on Spectre. I'm really hoping they'll help with the Magenta cast.
After the M11 came out, the magenta tint issue was the first thing that really bothered me, especially coming from shooting the M10 and M10-R bodies. I reached out to Cobalt right away and asked if they could create an M10-R style profile for use on the M11(Basically getting M10-R colors on the M11). Once I started using that, I honestly stopped thinking about the issue altogether.
It does seem like Leica eventually addressed it after years of complaints, but I can't say for sure since I still stick with that profile on the camera.
Another set of profiles I requested a while back was for the M9 black and white jpeg look. I always loved how those in camera monochrome Jpegs rendered, but I wanted to apply the same character to dng files for all my cameras. I'm really glad that option exists now because it's been my go to black and white profile for many years.
Both of these, along with the Leica Looks, are now included in the Leica M set referred to here.
Interesting I'll take a peak at those then, I've yet to find a profile that fully fixes the M11 magenta cast issue even the Cobalt base pack still has it to some extent.
benwagnerphotos wrote:
Interesting I'll take a peak at those then, I've yet to find a profile that fully fixes the M11 magenta cast issue even the Cobalt base pack still has it to some extent.
Why is that even a subject? After the update, the M11 only has a magenta cast if you want it to.
benwagnerphotos wrote:
In my experience the magenta cast is more than just tint.
I agree that the M11 and M10-R have different color signatures, but when people specifically refer to the M11's "magenta cast", I find that a negative tint adjustment of around -8 to -12 largely corrects that aspect for me. The files still don't look identical to the M10-R afterward because the cameras render colors differently overall. In my experience, the M11 tends to produce more neutral and accurate reds and blues, while the M10-R has a color palette that many photographers, myself included, find more subjectively pleasing...that't actually one of the reasons I like the Cobalt M profile with my M11 DNGs, as it brings the M11's output much closer to the M10-R look that I find more appealing. So I see the magenta cast and the overall color rendering as two separate things.
