Philippe, just thought I might add in some thought.... yes the widest lines are for 28mm with the M9, but you can use it without accepting that the view is slightly wider, as a number reviewers have suggested. Or you can do, as I have just purchased the Voigtlander viewfinder with 21/25 mm lines, which I think is neater and more elegant than the Leica version, and 1/5 of the price. The leica don't have one for 25mm, whereas the Voigtlander is better suited with ZM 25. The ZM 25, I would compare to the ZE 21/2.8, a cornerstone WA must haves IMO
Yes the ZM 35/2.8 is the pick of the 35 ZM bunch, with zeiss rendering. Martin and Dan, both have tried this lens, and are strong advocates of this lens. It is light and unobtrusive, and very well reviewed by all.
Ryan, I like the CV 15 a lot. I don't use a UV/IR filter with it though as the corners come out blue and the colors without it are better than any other lens I have without a filter. The sunset image is from the camera jpeg. I usually use the DNG but sometimes with sunsets, the DNG's don't look as good and are hard to correct to what I felt were the correct colors. This was one of those cases. The DNG had almost no yellow but there was yellow in the sky at the time.
As for the viewfinder, I got a Voigtlander version when I bought the lens which I've used exactly once. I've got a Thumbs Up on mine and it's just too hard to take off and put on when I can guesstimate what I'm going to get without it. For landscapes, it's not so critical. If I was doing some architectural or indoor shots that I couldn't afford to miss, I'd put it on but it's not real easy to level the camera through the external viewfinder.
philber wrote:
Ryan, do you use the 25 with a viewfinder? The dealer I am talking to regarding my possible purchase of a M9 says that anything wider than an 28 requires that.
Another thing is that I have the M8 and the M8 has 1.3x crop equivalent 24mm lines, which the M9 I believe doesn't. Still, like Rod and Charles said you actually have more view than what the frame lines tell you so it is very easy to guess what will be in the picture.
I just bought a 15 voigtlander and don't plan on getting a VF for it. If I need one I will purchase later
Another note, Rod, you mention the thumbs up.....how great of an accessory is that? I would say it is a 100% must have for Leica users. I love mine.
Charles, great shots......really like 1 and 4. Good to see the difference in Leica and ZM rendering
I really like #1 as it has depth as does #2, and your PP seems smoother and has more depth from the X1. Just curious, as with M9, the sharpening process a lot different in downsizing than it is with the 5DII.
Yes, the downsizing and sharpening that I use for 5DII images doesn't work very well with X1 images. In fact I have not found any good general way of doing it - either the pictures turn out too soft or details are destroyed by sharpening.
In #1 I applied a very soft overall sharpening when resizing and then manually in Photoshop selected all the buildings and applied smart sharpening with a small radius. Finally I used the sharpening tool manually on some edges and windows. I've found that if there isn't too much fine detail then the regular sharpening tool can be used effectively to increase the local contrast and make parts of the image pop.
The thing is that I really prefer not to do all that manual stuff. I rarely have to go beyond my general resize scripts when I use the 5DII + Zeiss glass and it saves a lot of time. Even with Canon glass I can get away with just color PP in Lightroom and have no need for any manual Photoshop work.
When you consider that I usually need to do three sizes, one for this forum, one for my web gallery and at least one for friends and family (typically for 1920x1200 monitors but in some cases smaller). While touching up a picture can be fun once, it's not at all fun doing three times. So I would really prefer to have an automated method but I have so far been unsuccessful with the X1.
Thanks for the info Luka. Interesting learning curve
I was looking for a portrait subject this morning, but they all disappeared. The cats were asleep, no complaints but there was range of tones and rendering that I wanted to try out in real life situation.
Testing the CV 50/1.1 Nokton, ZM 50/2 Planar and Leica 35/2 Summicron Asph.
Both the Planar and 'cron have a MFD of 0.7m and the Nokton has 0.95m. This is important for portraits, as you can achieve the same field of view with the 'cron at 0.7m as you can with the Nokton at 0.95m. The planar is excellent as you get a much fuller frame with the closer MFD, than with the ZM 50 Sonnar with MFD of 0.9m.
All of these 3 lenses are accurate focusing wide open at MFD with the exception of operator error.
Anyway comparison for rendering, #1 CV 50/1.1 Nokton, #2 ZM 50/2 Planar and #3 50/2 Summicron Asph. All have virtually the same PP.
Luka, excellent images and interesting tutorial. No wonder your images look so good. You do a lot of work.
Charles, the beach shots are cool. Interesting comparison between the ZM 25 and Cron 35. Also like the comparison between the Nokton, Planar and Cron 50's. I like the pop of the Planar but it starts to lose detail in the shadows due to the contrast. The Cron has the best balance. The Nokton comes in 3rd for me. That's pretty much why I didn't keep my Nokton. I agree with you about the MFD. I just got an E46 pre-ASPH Lux 50 in large part because it has a 0.7m MFD where the E43 I have has a 0.9m MFD. The E43 is going up for sale.
Nice photos Charles, the first one is my favorite.
I got my M9 this Friday but I only have had a chance to shoot with it for a few hours and today the rain is poring down
Anyway I was thrilled to see what the camera and my 35 Summicron could do in terms of colours, resolution etc. I saw that Luka was unhappy with the sharpening for his X1 photos, how do guys feel about the M9 that also uses Canon/Nikon gear? Do you use the same sharpening routines for web or have you had to adjust them?
zombii wrote:
Luka, excellent images and interesting tutorial. No wonder your images look so good. You do a lot of work.
Thanks Rod. I'm afraid that this shot (#1) is an exception. I typically can't be bothered with PP beyond slight exposure & white balance corrections and automated resizing. I mean, what's the point of a good camera and good glass if you need to spend a lot of time in post?
Nice shots Charles! I really like that city backdrop, but I wouldn't mind it being magnified a bit. Have you tried any shots with a longer lens?
Congrats on your M9 Joakim - looking forward to seeing some pictures.
As you may or may not know I have the 5DII and the ZE's lenses, 21, 35, 50/1.4, 50MP, 50/1.4, 85/1.4 and 100MP. Great setup for only when a DSLR will do. Personally, I love the M9. It is not for everyone, nor is a DSLR. Steep learning curve, but I am now using the M9 about 95% of the time. It is a serious FF camera that is light, unobtrusive and fun. I carry the camera a lot of time because I can, without looking like a geek. Portrait shots are a lot more natural because I find people are more at ease, or maybe it is just me not feeling like I am intruding. Last evening's shot were basically a walk on the beach with the M9 and one other lens, the ZM 25/2.8 and a Gitzo 531 tripod which is very light, for the after dusk shots. Just fun
PP is slightly different. I must give credit to Samuli and Denoir for the downsizing techniques. With the M9, I resize with Adobe bridge using Tools\Photoshop\Image processor in 4 steps, 3000, 1500, 1000 and 850px with a sharpening stage in each. Everyone has different sharpening levels and does depend on the image. The first stage I sharpen once or twice using only in the luminosity channel, usually about 100/0.7/5 . There after only 80/0.2/5 in downsizing level. Virually no PP. I use curve correction for the M9 from ChromoSoft and use WB set to daylight for example in the above 3 shots. Having CS5, I keep it simple and having some work in progress profiles when converting the RAW DNG files.
Thanks Luka I suppose I am traveling light, keeping to 1 or 2 lenses while I am learning. Next week I will test the 90 Elmarit.
Joakim...if you are looking for sharpness you will be ecstatic with the Leica system. The M8/M9 produce the absolute sharpest shots corner to corner. Really, no comparison. Also, the colors and DR are excellent. I only dream of an M9 after using the M8 for the past few weeks. I thought I would never go back to crop but I am very glad I gave the OLD M8 a shot.
If one can afford the M9 and good glass and doesn't need AF I see few if any reasons not to go for the M9
Thanks Ryan Yes the 35 C-Biogon would be perfect, now that I have the 35 Cron The more I experiment with the 35 Cron, the more I like it. Different look and feel though.
