edwardkaraa wrote:
You can post film M shots here too Adam
Thank you Edward! I was up last night when I posted some M film photos in this thread and right before I headed for bead, I checked the very first post in this thread and noticed the word "digital". So that's when I deleted my post and moved its entirety to the Alt Film Thread.
The weather's been pretty crappy here and I haven't really shot anything since my trip a few weeks back. I've been working on scanning my film from the trip since that's about all I can do right now.
I'll post a photo or two from my next go around from my (M6) film scanning. I've been dying to take the 35/2.8 C Biogon out for a spin! With it being the end of the year and knowing how businesses work, I don't have my weekends to myself like I use to. I envy those who can take their camera to work and share their travels to and fro. I wish I could do that, but I'd likely end up out of a job and/or incarcerated if I took a camera to work. Just the nature of the job.
rscheffler wrote:
Last I checked, Hong Kong had some of the best Leica pricing anywhere... but you might have to seek it out. Not sure about the bigger stores. Someone suggested Fotopia to me once, but have never dealt with them. A quick look at their new lens pricing and it seems to be around 15-20% less than US retail. There's a place called NPC that seemingly has great prices and from some PMs I had with a fellow FMer who actually visited them in person, they seem to be legit. Here's their Facebook page.
Ryan, love the one of Superman in the food court!
A bunch with the M240 & CV35/1.7 while visiting friends...
veroman wrote:
Which one do you prefer? X Vario at ISO 3200:
I'm partial to the color version.
Thanks Michael! Great set of images from you too! Definitely don't sell your M glass, at least not yet. And let me know when the 35 Cron v1 is available
I think in your situation, you can be patient and wait for the next M. The current M will only continue to drop in price and will allow you to decide if you want current tech or if the M240 is good enough.
Biggest wish list items from me for the next M are: M-P sized buffer, or larger, somewhat higher fps rate (which I would guess won't be a popular vote among many M shooters), even more responsive, faster wake, no black point clipping and zero banding at any ISO. Oh, and keep the lossless compressed DNG option. Not sure why that was omitted from the Q and SL (if I've read the specs correctly)...
Some more of my friend's kid, all M240 and CV35/1.7M version.
BTW, if anyone follows Jim Kasson's blog, I just read his latest post that he recently had brain surgery... some complications, but he's generally OK...
A couple of shots from my first walkabout with the camera. I'm still figuring out how to get some proper colours from this sensor, so only B&W for now to test tonalities and reactions to contrasty processing. Looks good so far.
The camera is annoying in some ways, nothing I didnt expect or not documented, but it really pissed me off when it froze in the middle of a shot that I actually wanted. I have downloaded the latest FW since then, fingers crossed.
PS I get some glow around the highlights, not sure if it's the sensor or the biogon or a combination of the two... I have a sonnar in the mail, curious to see how that goes
Thanks Edward, and also for your guidance and patience with all my annoying questions!
By the way other than the glow thing I'm super impressed by that biogon, it holds a ton of detail across the tonal range, and it has a fantastic rendering for a WA
Check out this 100% crop of my photo above
Thank you very much Spyro! It was really my pleasure to answer your questions, not annoying at all.
I'm a bit surprised by the glow you mention. The ZM is known to be too contrasty for some users. Just a guess, maybe the sensor has not been cleaned properly, leaving a film of shutter oil causing the glow, in which case a wet cleaning should clear it.
As for colors, I would recommend that you use the embedded profile instead of the adobe standard, in case you use LR. 5500/15 white balance is a good starting point that works well for most daylight shots.
A couple of shots from my first walkabout with the camera. I'm still figuring out how to get some proper colours from this sensor, so only B&W for now to test tonalities and reactions to contrasty processing. Looks good so far.
The camera is annoying in some ways, nothing I didnt expect or not documented, but it really pissed me off when it froze in the middle of a shot that I actually wanted. I have downloaded the latest FW since then, fingers crossed.
PS I get some glow around the highlights, not sure if it's the sensor or the biogon or a combination of the two... I have a sonnar in the mail, curious to see how that goes...Show more →
To get a good start on colors I use a Xrite Color Checker and create a custom camera profile. I try to never use Auto White Balance and when required use a Whi-Bal card in difficult lighting.
pandorf wrote:
To get a good start on colors I use a Xrite Color Checker and create a custom camera profile. I try to never use Auto White Balance and when required use a Whi-Bal card in difficult lighting.
I'm not really looking for accurate, realistic colours as such...
quite the opposite actually, now that I think of it
The camera is annoying in some ways, nothing I didnt expect or not documented, but it really pissed me off when it froze in the middle of a shot that I actually wanted. I have downloaded the latest FW since then, fingers crossed.
PS I get some glow around the highlights, not sure if it's the sensor or the biogon or a combination of the two... I have a sonnar in the mail, curious to see how that goes
Congrats on the camera!
I've had that happen with lock-up timing, too. Somehow it knows, though luckily never yet in regards to actual 'money' shots for clients that I've lost an image. Just personal work, which in some ways is more annoying. The latest firmware does seem to be better and has reduced the frequency of lock-ups I've experienced, but they still happen.
I briefly tested a ZM28 on the M9 and never experienced that kind of glow. It seemed to be a fairly punchy lens, at least in comparison to the 28/2 Ultron I was trying alongside it (that lens had some slight glow and lower contrast at wider apertures). Maybe try some more backlit situations to determine if it's a persistent problem? Curious, what aperture was that image?
I agree with Edward about using the embedded profile option in LR vs. Adobe's own. Took me a while to realize this (though occasionally the Adobe profile is better). That said, 5500/15 for normal sunny situations in my experience would usually be too warm and too magenta, but the tint also depends a lot on the lenses used. It's been some time since I've shot much with ZMs, but they definitely have a different tint character from Leica, and it also depends a lot on whether or not you code the lenses or manually enable in-camera lens correction. I've noticed slight WB and tint differences between coded and uncoded.
Duane, when is peak fall color in your area? I passed through the Asheville area on the Blue Ridge Parkway the weekend of the hurricane (just over a month ago) and the higher areas seemed to be on their way, though not yet peak. Unfortunately it was just a lot of mist and rain, though interesting in its own right.
A few shots from a walk in the woods here, well after peak color...
5500/15 is only a starting point. It works best in this part of the world where the skies are mostly cyan color. ZM lenses have a slight yellow/green cast as well. I know from my travels to Europe that it might not be the best combination, too warm and too magenta as you mentioned. You guys living up north are lucky, with real blue skies I'm not sure how is it in Australia though so Spyro will have to experiment a bit.
rscheffler wrote:
Duane, when is peak fall color in your area? I passed through the Asheville area on the Blue Ridge Parkway the weekend of the hurricane (just over a month ago) and the higher areas seemed to be on their way, though not yet peak. Unfortunately it was just a lot of mist and rain, though interesting in its own right.
Well Ron the peak leaves have left the branches around these parts. 3rd week October is usually best.
Here's a sunrise from Parkway this past weekend with the M240 75 Cron combo.
