#2 and 4 are quite nice Ryan. You are liking the M9 I see! I would like to get one but I don't think I can live without AF and long lenses for my kids and their sports. What are your initial thoughts about your switch? Is there anything you miss about not having your D700? I'm very tempted....
Ryan, great shots! Beautiful rendering with the 35 Lux wide open. #2,3 and 4 are my favourites!
Joe, excellent street shot! I assume you had the 28 Cron in the P&S mode
Joe and Malkovic ... thanks guys
Malkovic, nice shots!
Intending to go the beach for some evening shots, and it starting raining, so an hour of some street shots on the Gold Coast instead. All with the 35 Lux
Gary Clennan wrote:
#2 and 4 are quite nice Ryan. You are liking the M9 I see! I would like to get one but I don't think I can live without AF and long lenses for my kids and their sports. What are your initial thoughts about your switch? Is there anything you miss about not having your D700? I'm very tempted....
Thanks Gary. Gary, you THINK you would miss AF but I don't know if that is necessarily the case. I thought the same thing until I tried MF on people....it is easy. The viewfinder on the Leicas are excellent for accurate focusing, better than the D700. I thought he D700 viewfinder was great and then I used the M8/M9...THAT is a great viewfinder. Of course you don't have live view on the M8/M9 but you wouldn't be using live view on people anyways on the D700. I would say that over 90% of the people shots I take are 100% in focus even when shooting wide open.....see these:
Those were all taken with 35 and 50mm lenses. I seriously did not misfocus any shots when I was taking those
Now, on the longer end it is still easy...yet not AS easy as with the 35/50 to nail the shots. Especially if you are using say a 90/2 Cron or something similar. I have a 90 f/2.8 Elmarit-M and I have no problem nailing focus even wide open:
I don't even know if my Nikon could have done better here:
ISO 1200
The number one thing with sharp photos with the Leica though is having the lenses/camera in perfect calibration. If the camera is slightly off it will affect your images far greater than the Nikon does. With the D700 you can AF fine tune the lenses....obviously you can't do that with the M8/M9
If you need higher than 90mm...yes, you are better sticking with the Nikon for that. I have bought a D7000 for when I want to use longer lenses.....haven't used it once yet . If you take shots of the kids with lenses typically wider than 90mm then I would say it is worth giving it a shot. It is far easier than you could even imagine and the results are far more gratifying. Yes, as you can see, I am having the time of my life with this camera. The size of the system compared to the Nikon, rendering of the images, much less PP work all make it more enjoyable.
Ryan ... thank you All the shots were with the 35 Lux at f/1.4, as I didn't have time to change lenses with light changing quickly. BTW... All your portrait shots are just amazing !!!
And let's be honest, Ryan, you have some absolutely beautiful models!
Really, I am wondering about keeping my bodies and longer lenses for sports, selling of a load of other lenses (24-70, 14-24, 50/1.2, 105/2.5 (I have 2), etc, and taking a trip down Leica lane. I find most of the stuff I snap locally and of the kids is done with my 35 or 24-70, and I obviously use only long lenses for the soccer, but I also consciously decide not to take the camera on a walk or for the day because the body is large, when I might with a smaller setup. Maybe, maybe it makes sense. Leica (with a sale of lenses) or maybe try the x100 first.... Still debating. Sorry to get off track, and enjoying the photos, all.
Ryan, you are now officially a Leica aficionado Great set to showcase what the M system is capable off.
Charles, excellent street shots!!! I can feel like I'm there on the streets with you. Plus the color pp on the first 2 shots are excellent, colors are so lush.
stedge wrote:
I find most of the stuff I snap locally and of the kids is done with my 35 or 24-70, and I obviously use only long lenses for the soccer, but I also consciously decide not to take the camera on a walk or for the day because the body is large, when I might with a smaller setup.
Thanks Charles/stedge. Stedge, what you say above is a big reason why I made the switch. I was walking around town with a bag on my shoulder carrying a D700 + Nikon 24 + Zeiss 100 + Zeiss 35/50....it was TOO heavy. I didn't take it everywhere, I literally planned to go out and take it. With the M9 it goes everywhere with me. The M9 + 35 Lux + 50 Lux + 90 Elmarit feel like they weigh less than the D700 + huge bag I carry them in alone. Not to mention the other beasts I would carry around. I never took my D700 out when we went to lunch...or casual walks because it was too big. Now that isn't the case. I have taken many pictures with the Leica that I just would not have gotten with the Nikon b/c the camera was actually there.
JimBuchanan wrote:
My point was that the 75 Summicron designers were trying to reduce field curvature and increase contrast.
Relative to the older generation of Leica lenses, yes, but hardly on an absolute scale. Take a look at the MTF chart of any modern Leica lens and you'll see wavy lines. Compared to older Leica lenses there is certainly a reduction in field curvature and an increase in contrast - especially at closer focusing distance
Glad to hear it! For someone with so much knowledge of optics and the time to examine the lens qualities, I was wondering why you couldn't appreciate the brilliance of the 75 Summicron and it's design.
Whoa, wait a minute - saying that it did not this once disappoint me doesn't mean that I think it is brilliant. To put it succinctly think it is a less than brilliant adaptation of a brilliant design (i.e the 50 Summilux-M ASPH).
Anyway, I said that I'd post a bunch of 75 Cron shots, so here they are in bulk without any special order and picked mostly for variation in shot type:
I also shot a lot with the ZM 25, which is my least used lens (I have no external viewfinder so composing an image is an exhausting trial and error process). To my surprise I discovered a color cast that I can't remember seeing before (when it is coded as 24/2.8 ASPH). So I'll have to create a CornerFix profile. And I should really order that viewfinder...
Whoa Charles! Love those shots - the colours are amazing.
Ryan, gorgeous gorgeous pics.
Stedge, i too have switched from d700 which I have kept but which I hardly use (still kept my 70-200VR2 and Zeiss 50 MP). I'm into my 6th month of leica ownership of the M9. Am considering selling my d700 a lot these days. I never thought I would, to be honest as i was very pleased with the D700.
Somehow the first part of my post got lost:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Thansk guys
Ryan, great shots from the cemetary and of course superb portraits
Malkovic, I'm a velvia fan myself and use it on 6x7 on occasion. I just love the deep blue colors one can get, especially if the shots are underexposed a bit.
Joe, great capture with the 28 Cron, and excellent PP as well.
Charles, wonderful shots with the 35 Lux II. I especially like #1.
Thanks for the feedback Ryan and great pics. As you know, I shoot mostly MF anyway so the learning curve should be small. I still think that if I went Leica, I would still need a DSLR - perhaps a DX body... Thanks again.
