Today is a bitter-sweet day for me; I sold my M240. I love the camera, but now that I have the SL to go along with the MM, the M was not getting much use. Piper is rather sad about it, too, in this, the last shot I took with it before putting it up for sale.
I still love my M9 very much, click, whirrrr, click, whirrrr, I hope it outlasts me
I've been kindly and unexpectedly lent a Mamiya M645 for a few weeks and got it out this weekend just gone. Now that's a shutter sound - KER-THUNKKK! With it's 'add-on M9 light meter', not the most portable but great fun, I'm still in that happy place before I develop the film where every shot was a winner!
edwardkaraa wrote:
Charlie, saturation slider was on zero, so the SL profile must produce this color under this particular lighting. I hate to say it but it's almost identical to what I used to get with the A7. Not that!
It's funny, but the M9 profile will oversaturate at night if you drop the highlights and raise the shadows. I think maybe the SL needs a "night profile", and maybe a few more. I was really impressed with what Ron did with the flat RAWs from DPR, but that was daylight.
Any as soon as I really start to fiddle, I often have to desaturate.
Here the M9 is right on the verge: Break by unoh7, on Flickr
But I did not desaturate. Sometimes I will just pick a few colors to tone down. But it's tedious
Reims, Piper looks devastated and seems to be blaming you.
coogee, I like #1 in the stadium
Gary, I don't know, that ZM 35/1.4 looks a little flat and soft WO.......NOT! When you have a chance, do me a favor and shoot a long landscape at F/1.4. I want to see how are the edges. Why? Astro.
My next camera will be a modified A7s. I've been tempted by various lenses, FLE, 90APO, 50 Lux, but I started to think, what would be my most effective use of 2 grand or so?
The low light DOF and silent shutter of the A7s. Of course stock it smears the good stuff. So I will get some flavor of Mod. But it turns out this camera is modified far and wide today in a plethora of ways, as an Astro beast. Check out this teardown thread.
And yes, there are many DYIing OMG
I love the Kolari v2, so I may just get one of those. But H-alpha shots with A7s are impressive at night. It allows both the ability to focus on stars and to shoot much shorter exposures, so you don't need a tracking mount so much.
uhoh7 wrote:
It's funny, but the M9 profile will oversaturate at night if you drop the highlights and raise the shadows. I think maybe the SL needs a "night profile", and maybe a few more. I was really impressed with what Ron did with the flat RAWs from DPR, but that was daylight.
Any as soon as I really start to fiddle, I often have to desaturate.
Now that you mentioned it Charlie, I think you're right. The M9 did oversaturate under some light sources, and the adobe profile was more suitable than the embedded one. I agree that the SL needs a night profile, and I'm sure the color will be tweaked further with an eventual firmware update. It does perform superbly with daylight from what I can tell so far.
edwardkaraa wrote:
Now that you mentioned it Charlie, I think you're right. The M9 did oversaturate under some light sources, and the adobe profile was more suitable than the embedded one. I agree that the SL needs a night profile, and I'm sure the color will be tweaked further with an eventual firmware update. It does perform superbly with daylight from what I can tell so far.
Here's a shot with mixed daylight and tungsten:
By the way, Gary, Ron, I think for your style of photography, which is more deliberate than mine, you might really like the SL
My only gripe with the SL is that it needs to see a few firmware updates to get the color profiles right. The JPGS are unusable (way worse then the A7 issues on release) and the RAW files take way to much editing. Even with my color checker and profiling software. I can't really seem to get it quite right. Not that you can't take a great image with it. Base ISO files can be great if you take the care to get everything just right. And you spend time on the colors of course.
I think that it's a great camera for Leica M wides. If you're not super particular over your corners it makes using M wides a breeze. The 21Lux actually looks great on the SL, and I almost don't mind the colors from the 35FLE (tend to shift less green/yellow, which is good). The 50APO really just needs the M240 or M246 to shine. The 75APO and 90APO and for that matter then 50Lux are a lot easier to use on the SL. Though I suppose that is assuming the colors don't bother you. And of course if you're quick at RF focusing, then the SL isn't going to be better. For tripod work, I don't think you can beat Live View Magnification.
I'll post a few personal shots in a bit. But for work, this camera has been more trouble then it's worth
I look forward to seeing more images from you Edward. Did you buy the Zoom BTW?
(I will add, oddly enough a lot of people buy the SL for the Noctilux. But I find on a well calibrated M, the Noctilux is much easier to use RF style then LV style. Simply because it's very difficult to see critical sharpness of that fine degree on the SL.)
Some images from the SL. These were shot at Dana Point while we were trying to whale watch. I think Grey Whales? Anyway, we seen spouts, but none of the whales surfaced (my wife calls it breaching).
For curiosity sake, I wanted to see how badly I could make the SL+Zoom flare. Basically shot into the sun using a BW nano filter that was FULL of salt spray (reason I put a filter on, I knew that would happen). Also I didn't use the hood, since again, I was trying to see how I could make the lens flare.
Most of the shots you can see where the sun was. Some shots I added in to show non-backlit scenes. Editing was a chore as I'm not happy with the colours from this camera.
Various focal lengths. And various distances to subject (I moved around a lot out of boredom, as I'm really not cut out for whale watching, or anything that requires sitting still).
The Canadians out there (Ron, Gary, etc) should recognise the bag
I'm not one for whale watching either Adam, not as a dedicated activity, about as exciting as satellite spotting to me but it really needs to be around dawn/dusk to see the 'blow' easily and tougher still from sea level. Breaching is when they 'jump' out of the water.
We're lucky that we get Humpbacks here that breach a lot and are quite predictable with their timing but I've never taken a picture, even at 180mm, that wasn't just a meaningless little dot in the distance.
It looks like that lens really doesn't want to flare, and even then not in the way you might hope if you wanted a pleasing effect from it?
Not intended as a direct comparison (or shot as one) but here's the same shot on two different sunless dawns at a local favourite location.
28 Cron/Ektar
M9/21 SEM/Lee 75 Filters (probably Little Stopper/GND 0.6 Soft)
This lens was thrown in free when I paid $85 for a beat nikkor 8.5cm in contax mount. The 8.5 launched Nikon into the big time with a single shot few have ever seen: see HERE
coogee wrote:
I'm not one for whale watching either Adam, not as a dedicated activity, about as exciting as satellite spotting to me but it really needs to be around dawn/dusk to see the 'blow' easily and tougher still from sea level. Breaching is when they 'jump' out of the water.
We're lucky that we get Humpbacks here that breach a lot and are quite predictable with their timing but I've never taken a picture, even at 180mm, that wasn't just a meaningless little dot in the distance.
It looks like that lens really doesn't want to flare, and even then not in the way you might hope if you wanted a pleasing effect from it?
Not intended as a direct comparison (or shot as one) but here's the same shot on two different sunless dawns at a local favourite location.
28 Cron/Ektar ...Show more →
I think that's what my wife was hoping for (a huge jumping whale). At Dana Point I think they tend to come quite close to shore. Something a 90-280 Vario-SL lens could capture To bad Leica hasn't released it yet.
I don't do boats, though I'd love to swim with them some day.
I'm a fan of the 28cron shot. Nice colors. Also I find it more interesting due to the waves being crisp rather then with the ND and slower shutter. Both nice though, good location.
Ok, I missed front bumper....but I hit the windshield, anyway
Who needs coating?
one more:
This lens was thrown in free when I paid $85 for a beat nikkor 8.5cm in contax mount. The 8.5 launched Nikon into the big time with a single shot few have ever seen: see HERE
The example with the red truck is nice. I have a few older RF lenses in storage that I'm dying to play with. I haven't seen them in 10+ years!! I just haven't had the time to go up to the East Coast.
Adam, I see what you mean about the daylight colors. They are nice and pleasant but have some problems. I will try to shoot more during the day and see if I get the same violet shades.
edwardkaraa wrote:
Adam, I see what you mean about the daylight colors. They are nice and pleasant but have some problems. I will try to shoot more during the day and see if I get the same violet shades.
Just out of curiosity are your JPG files doing the color tone banding?
Like colors are being displayed in stages like steps?
Not that!
