rscheffler wrote:
Thanks Boris. What is your opinion of this lens? As good as Leica claims, that stopping it down does not increase sharpness, just depth of field? Whatever the case, your images look great.
Ron
This is not true, at least not for my copy. The 24 Elmar is stopped down to f/5.6 or f/8.0 probably the sharpest of all my lenses, even in the extreme corners with very high contrast, comparable to the best Zeiss lenses. But it is very soft in the corners wider open (although with very good center sharpness).
The 18SEM and especially the new 21SEM have a much better corner sharpness wide open. Stopped down the 24 Elmar has the highest contrast of the three closely followed by the 21SEM. The 18SEM has signifiacantly lower contrast (and sharpness), but is still on the same level as for example the 28Cron or the 35Lux (stopped down).
Edwin and Boris, thank you guys Boris looking forward to more of your shots with the 21 SEM
Dan, nice examples with the CV 50 Skopar!
Jonas, I am surprised many times the shots with good technique you can capture even down to 1/6s with a 50mm FL
Brody, very nice example with the CV 35/1.2 II
Edwin, nice shots. #3 is my favorite but could IMO use a bit of work. I hope you don't mind if I use your image to show what I mean.
1) Exposure and white balance. The image is a bit under exposed and the white balance is heavily biased towards yellow. Usually white balance is a creative choice but as you have white and yellow elements in the image, I think it would be better to have white to be really white:
2) Crop. I think a different crop would balance the composition better. This works pretty good with the yellow areas being in a good mass relation.
The white regions however don't work all that well. The white pane on the right is cut off and the balance in the image is off balance.
This isn't all that easy to fix by cropping as you have the reflections in the floor to consider and the fact that the yellow pane on the left stops rather abruptly. I tried a bunch of versions and I think this one is better, although I'm not quite happy with it:
3) Postprocessing. Sharpening the edges a bit, and burning the yellow and gray regions of the floor to increase the contrast a bit.
Before:
After:
There are still some serious issues - more of the floor should be visible and the top yellow part should not have been cut off. The problem is that I can't fix that in post or the image will have weird proportions (very high and narrow).
Doing geometrical compositions with a rangefinder camera isn't the easiest thing to do as the framelines are approximate. When doing abstracts I often have to take a sequence of shots and check the display before I have a framing that is good enough.
Take this image for instance:
This is how many shoots it took me to get a composition that I was confident would good enough to continue working with in post:
And finally the post processing, a before and after:
The M9 output is flat as flat can be. Most shots look like crap if not processed correctly. Even very basic levels adjustments can do wonder. It is however an absolute necessity if you really want good output from the camera. M9 raw files follow the same philosophy as the rest of the camera - minimalism. Everything from focus to noise reduction is left to the user to do. The benefit is maximum creative control. The disadvantage is that you can't use it like a P&S and get good results.
Let me give a final example of that. It's a combination of the M9's flat output with the neutral rendering of the 75 Cron and its drop in contrast at close focus range.
This is the unprocessed version:
And here is after black levels adjustment and LAB mode boost of a & b channels:
The M9 RAW files can take an amazing amount of abuse so don't shy away from post processing - it can often make the difference between a worthless photo and a good one.
Great post Luka! Can't agree more with the 'flatness' finding.
Just got back from a trip to Italy with the family. Had a great time, with lots of food and sun. Here are some pics:
Milan ::: 35 Lux v1
Bologna ::: 35 Summaron
Robes, '7 Churches' ::: Bologna, 28 Cron
Portico ::: Bolognia, 28 Cron
Testing the ham, DOP style ::: Modena, 35 Summaron
Guys - this thread continously delivers! And is essentially the reason why I'm giving this rangefinder business a go My M8, 28 Cron and Gordy's strap have all arrived and are ready for the first outing tomorrow - looking forward to it!
Luka - thanks the detailed write-up, we know it takes time to do so, but we really appreciate it!
Charles - Your Thai portraits are wonderful
Kl - neat set, and I especially love the 'depth' (not literally), feel and rendering of the tram shot.
Hi Doug! :-) Yes, Leica now. A lot to learn, but i do like the M9! Still kept the ZF 100/2 though, and will buy a D800 when it is available - just because of this Zeiss lens.
Boris looking forward to more of your shots with the 21 SEM 
