KL, very nice shots! Love #5 and 6 Really nice lighting in #6!
Gregory, nice shots with the Nocti!
Boris, nice portrait shots! The 50 Lux working its magic here
Luka, great shots. Really nice to see some different styles of PP. #1 and 4 are my favourites.
rsolti13 wrote:
Boris - nice work with the 50 Lux. How do you find focusing with the M8 wide open? Easier/more difficult than expected? Is the M8 growing on you yet?
Nice shots with your 28 Cron! Has anybody compared this lens with the Zeiss 25ZM?
Focusing the 50 Lux is not easy. While I get with the 25ZM nearly 100% perfectly focused images, even at f/2.8 and MFD, I get only about 30% with the 50 Lux and M8 (at or near MFD).
I also had to adjust the rangefinder of the M8 slightly, because I had about 1.5 cm backfocus (at 1m distance) with this lens.
I'm still not 100% satisfied with the M8. I really like the size, the feeling, the haptics, IQ and MF. I don't like the auto-white-balance, the colors (sometimes, especially under artificial or mixed light, even with manual WB in LR), 1.3x crop, only 10MP, necessity for rangefinder adjustments and especially the inaccurate framing in combination with the missing lifeview. Some of these things are improved on the M9, but my biggest problem (inaccurate framing and missing lifeview) is still there.
I really like the compact high quality Zeiss and Leica M lenses, but at the moment there exists no perfect body for me to match these lenses. I will wait for the Nex7 and the M9.2/M10 and in the meantime use both my M8 and Nex5 alternately to find out which of these two camera concepts suits me better.
By the way I also posted some images shot with Lux 50 Asph in the Nex thread, if somebody wants to compare.
Boris, the M8.2/M8u have much more accurate frames. Mine has this update. The WB is a problem on many cameras, even the best Canons and Nikons, so I would not lose too much sleep over that one. The only camera I have heard of which might be better is the Fuji S5 Pro. LR isn't the best program to develop M8/M9 shots either, although I haven't tried LR3 much. Try Capture One, just for comparison's sake.
The reason for the experimentation was that I've had two lousy photo days. I've been out twice and returned without one single shot that I really liked. So I started to play a bit in PS with textures.
Ryan, nice set with the 28 Cron. Looks like a really great lens
Boris, having a perfectly adjusted rangefinder is really critical. When it's correctly set focusing the 50 Lux is a breeze. I don't think I've missed focus even once with it at f/1.4.
As for the perfect camera for it, well, I can only say that I love my M9. That should be interpreted very literaly. It's a personal and not always rational evaluation. All I can say however is that right now I'm very unhappy when I have to use my 5DII or any other camera. The various objective limitations of the M9 have become a non-issue for me. And my currently favorite combo is the M9 + 50 Lux ASPH. I could give up all my other gear and I'd still be reasonably happy
denoir wrote:
Thanks Gary, Joe, Kyle, Charles, Ryan & Boris
The reason for the experimentation was that I've had two lousy photo days. I've been out twice and returned without one single shot that I really liked. So I started to play a bit in PS with textures.
Ryan, nice set with the 28 Cron. Looks like a really great lens
Boris, having a perfectly adjusted rangefinder is really critical. When it's correctly set focusing the 50 Lux is a breeze. I don't think I've missed focus even once with it at f/1.4.
As for the perfect camera for it, well, I can only say that I love my M9. That should be interpreted very literaly. It's a personal and not always rational evaluation. All I can say however is that right now I'm very unhappy when I have to use my 5DII or any other camera. The various objective limitations of the M9 have become a non-issue for me. And my currently favorite combo is the M9 + 50 Lux ASPH. I could give up all my other gear and I'd still be reasonably happy ...Show more →
Luka, I think a perfectly adjusted rangefinder is really important but solves the problem only with static subjects (which is rather not the case with my daughter).
I think I just have to live with 70% misfocused images. It is the same with the 100MP or 85L on the 5DII, when used handheld with non-static subject. That's at least my experience with my MF skills.
I'm still not convinced that the M9 is the right camera for me. At least not as a substitute to my 5DII. I think your shooting style differs significantly from mine. On a photo trip I shoot about 90% of my pictures from a tripod. Typically I shoot only portraits and street photography scenes handheld.
The next problem would be, that I always take two identical bodies on longer trips and two M9 would be way too expensive for me. Maybe the future 24MP NEX7 could be an adequate and reasonable priced backup for a M9 (or M9.2 or M10).
Very nice Charles. Good job on the group photo as well - those could be bloody difficult to do but you pulled it off quite nicely
Boris, I agree, tripod use is problematic with a rangefinder and it's also then that you really miss live view. I have actually gone from something like 80% tripod to < 10% tripod as I switched to the M9. I still definitely prefer the 5DII for tripod based work though.
Outstanding shots Charles! Any tips on how you managed that group shot at 1.4 ? drew a line in the sand? Just kidding. I've never had any luck with group shots at 1.4 (50mm). The 28 Cron is looking soooo good too. Basically, these are the 2 lenses that I am yearning for now, in addition to the Noct but that will probably not happen for obvious reasons.
Also have a question for the group - my RF appears to be misaligned again. now I find focussing beyond 10 m to cause a problem. So in 6 months, i have noticed 2 shifts in the RF. Anyone have a similar experience. Admittedly, i have been taking pics a lot of late, almost daily, with lens changing fairly frequently.
One other question too: My 50 summilux ASPH's focussing ring is still quite stiff after 2 months of use. anyone have a similar finding?
Also have a question for the group - my RF appears to be misaligned again. now I find focussing beyond 10 m to cause a problem. So in 6 months, i have noticed 2 shifts in the RF. Anyone have a similar experience. Admittedly, i have been taking pics a lot of late, almost daily, with lens changing fairly frequently.
One other question too: My 50 summilux ASPH's focussing ring is still quite stiff after 2 months of use. anyone have a similar finding?
The 24 Lux is really a unique lens - it's not often that you see something that wide with a narrow DOF.
#3 & 4 for me. #3 is classic Atget 
