Gorgeous pics Luka. Because of you, I am now considering the 25 and 50 Sonnar. The only thing holding me back is the realisation that the final image quality is most likely due in no small part to your skills and photo-taking technique!
Regarding color management, I'm a bit surprised that there are not any online repositories of DNG profiles, cornerfix profiles etc A lot of people seem to be constantly reinventing the wheel.
You are so right! With the influx of new people acquiring M9's, it would be a huge benefit. I do hope that since Leica has aligned itself with adobe with LR3, that adobe may develop some further profiles and lens corrections. I suppose the relationship is only new with adobe, after moving away from C1.
The 18/4 is very sharp corner-to-corner at f/4. Peak performance is at f/5.6. F/8 is already worse than f/4. The only optical flaw I've noticed with the lens is some coma at f/4. The only actual practical problem is the red/cyan color drift which is pretty severe so you need to use CornerFix to fix it. You also need an external viewfinder which is a bit of a hassle. Fortunately there is rarely any focusing involved - just set it a tiny bit from infinity and already at f/4 you cover a range of 1m->infinity with DOF. Of my five lenses it's probably the sharpest. Look at this for instance:
Full frame:
100% Crop:
You can still see it's a crop but I think that with a bit of smart sharpen in photoshop you could bring out the finer details and you could probably pass it off as a resized full image.
Joe: That tractor shot is a bit weird as the blurred background is not because of some thin DOF but because of motion blur. I was moving the camera to track the tractor and it came out that way. Had it been a static scene the DOF would have extended to infinity.
Regarding the 35/2 Biogon, yes it's probably the weakest lens in the lineup, but it's not bad. At medium distances it produces quite decent pictures at all apertures. It's not brilliant close up and adequate at infinity. To be honest however, none of the lenses I've tried for the M9 has been particularly good close up. I have probably been spoiled by the Zeiss ZE Makro Planars.
Here are a couple of 35/2 Biogon shots:
Argh, red drift.. it's the ultra-white snow - it would have not been visible otherwise:
It does have a serious coma issue wide open though. I would have really liked the rendering in this shot had the light points not been completely messed up by the coma:
This could have of course been resolved by stopping down the lens to f/4 but I did not think of that optical problem at the time.
I have seen this on every of my M-mount lenses, but to a varying degree. The 35/2 shows the worst coma wide open. I have not noticed it on any of my DSLR lenses so I suppose this could be some rangefinder len specific problem.
As for hand holding speed, I get about 70-80% keeper rate with the 35/2 at 1/12 seconds, and I don't have particularly steady hands. At the same time I think I need to work on my shutter release pressing technique as I not too seldom can get camera shake blur at 1/100 or higher. I think I might be pushing down the whole camera when pressing the release.
I would also like to hear tips on shutter release pressing technique.
I've switched to 'soft' in the M9 menu and got aTom Abrahamsson MiniSoftrelease http://www.rapidwinder.com/softies.htm
On his site, he recommends this technique
Also, got a Thumbs Up to go with the Softrelease.
So together, I should be getting around a 2 stop advantage (just kidding).
Am getting 60-70% success rate with 1/8 on a 28mm Elmarit.
Culd be better i think, for 28mm.
Any tips!? Thanks!
Cheers
Luka, awesome shots!!! The cold weather hasn't stopped you The ZM 18 is a great lens!
KL, really nice shot at 1/8s! Love the movement and colours. Definitely soft release, manual exposure with the bright street lights, and pre focus or zone focus if there is enough light.
Luka, I like the shot with 2 benches best The detail on the 18/4 looks quite impressive. Glad you told me about the DOF because I was wondering wow .. a 18mm f4 lens with that kind of look? Makes you want to consider a 21Lux. Nevertheless, kudos .. a good pan technique!
I'm surprised that there is so much magenta drift on the 35 Biogon. Thought it only affected the wider lenses. Seem to be a hassle to have to run Cornerfix all the time?
All - I had a chance to appreciate the different world of action shots with a 7d today.. talk about a whole different ballgame. I prefer it more simple
Ron, Luka, great shots! Luka, I agree with you, even in your hands the 35 fails to shine as often as it should. OTOH you are giving me serious 18 envy. How ridiculous would it be to have a NEX for compactness, and then 4 primes (18, 25, 35, 50)? Yeah, right!
philber wrote:
Ron, Luka, great shots! Luka, I agree with you, even in your hands the 35 fails to shine as often as it should. OTOH you are giving me serious 18 envy. How ridiculous would it be to have a NEX for compactness, and then 4 primes (18, 25, 35, 50)? Yeah, right!
Philippe, in my opinion this is not at all a bad idea. In fact, even if I had bought the NEX instead of the M8, I would probably buy these 4 lenses (or at least 3 of them).
Luka, your 18ZM shots look really great. I hope mine will arrive today.
Thank you for your comments, much appreciated. The first set was taken with the 35 Cron IV and not the Lux, I hope that didn't disappoint anyone
Joe, that photo screams Monday morning. Well done.
Luka, don't be offended but my favourite from your last sets is actually the 100% crop from the 18/4 with the trees. I really like the composition from the close cropping and the resolution is excellent.
No way, Charles. I am having too much trouble keeping my NEX system small and simple as it is, and enjoying the benefts of its compactness. Otherwise I am would end up with three systems, and lugging them all three along at the same time "just in case". How crazy does one get?
philber wrote:
No way, Charles. I am having too much trouble keeping my NEX system small and simple as it is, and enjoying the benefts of its compactness. Otherwise I am would end up with three systems, and lugging them all three along at the same time "just in case". How crazy does one get?
Thanks KL, Charles, Joe, Edward, Philippe, Boris & Joakim!
Joe, nice B/W shot!
Charles great beach photos! Love the skies.
philber wrote:
No way, Charles. I am having too much trouble keeping my NEX system small and simple as it is, and enjoying the benefts of its compactness. Otherwise I am would end up with three systems, and lugging them all three along at the same time "just in case". How crazy does one get?
Philippe, in my experience the problem with multiple systems is not that one is tempted to bring along too much gear but rather that a lot of the gear is unused most of the time. Since I got the M9 I have not used my DSLRs much as the former is so much more convenient. I have four separate systems now:
For everyday walkaround casual use the DSLRs are too big and heavy and the compact system is limited to one focal length and too much of a compromise in terms of IQ. So even if the rangefinder is not quite compact and although I somewhat prefer my DSLR Zeiss glass and 5DII color rendering I end up using the M9. It provides a very good balance between compactness and IQ. In short its superior IQ and exchangable lenses makes me chose it over the X1 and its compact size combined with still very good IQ makes me choose it over the 5DII + Zeiss glass. My 7D and Canon glass are unused for the most part as the only application where they have an edge are in action and longer tele photography and it's not something I do a lot of these days. The Pentax 67 medium format camera is mostly a toy - I'm not really a film guy. I'm actually waiting for a proper digital MF camera with at least a 6x7 sensor and live view to appear.
charles.K wrote:
The cold weather hasn't stopped you
Actually it has! Yesterday was quite warm: around -1 degree Celsius (30 degrees F). That's why I ventured out yesterday. I think I'll repeat it today with a DSLR kit, although it is colder today (-6 C).
The ZM 18 is a great lens! 
