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 p.416 #16 · Leica M/X/T/S/Q/CL/SL Picture Thread | |
corposant wrote:
Question to M9 users:
I am starting to phase out of 35mm film and will probably look to buy an M9 once the M10 is announced next year and I can hopefully catch somebody who's anxious to upgrade.
I am curious, though, about what I could expect from anything in the ISO 800-1600 range, but only in B&W. I still shoot a lot of high speed B&W, and so while some sensor noise can be masked in a good conversion to B&W (Silver Efex, etc), I have seen some examples of how the CCD can get ugly starting around 800.
I will probably keep my film camera, either way, but some anecdotes would be helpful....Show more →
I think the M9 in B&W at high ISOs is pretty good. There are a couple things though to watch out for:
1) You'll get between 4-7 shots off in a sequence before the buffer fills and the camera bogs down.
2) If when the buffer fills and you're also trying to review images on the LCD, it can possibly cause the M9 to induce banding in random images. In my non-scientific testing, I found that if you filled the buffer and let it clear without shooting any more images and not reviewing any, banding was unlikely. Banding was considerably more likely if trying to force more shots on top of a full buffer, or as single frames became available, and/or reviewing images. Some have also claimed that setting the advance mode to C rather than S is another cause of banding.
My points are more related to the shooting experience than end image quality, but I feel this is aspect is a particular weakness of the M9 if you're used to shooting quickly with a digital Canon, Nikon or film camera.
Ash: I hear the 75 Summarit is a nice lens and on an M8 might give you a decent portrait crop. I agree on a 50, which on the M8 would also be decent for portraits. I'd also suggest considering the Zeiss 50 f/2 Planar. It's a very good all around lens. I agree with Cory about difficulty focusing the longer lenses accurately. I have the 90 Summarit and I'd say it was fairly consistent, but after sending my M9 with the 50 Lux for calibration, it appears the 90 is now back focusing considerably (didn't think about it at the time, but should have sent the 90 in along with the 50 at the same time). I plan to add a viewfinder diopter soon, which based on what I tried at the Leica Store in Munich, should help somewhat. But I'm also considering one of the viewfinder magnifiers... 1.4 would probably be better, but was also hoping to use it with the 50, though I agree with Charles that it's a relatively easy lens to focus in most situations. Definitely easier than the 90 has been recently.
Very nice images lately:
KL, Charles, Gary, Ash, Cory, LL, Martin...
Here's one from the Ostfriedhof in Munich:
M9 & 50 Lux SOOC
Kind of had a frustrating experience with the M9 during this outing. It was the second day in the week that I went out on a wet day. Today it was near freezing with it alternating between snow and rain. The camera got somewhat wet, but not soaked. However, the viewfinder slowly but surely fogged up. First starting with the a patch dead-center behind the front viewfinder window glass (when viewed from the front), then slowly also inside the viewfinder behind the eyepiece. It never fully cleared up while I was out (about 4 hours total) and the condensation behind the eyepiece took a few hours near the radiator to clear... I could still shoot and get clear images because the lens wasn't fogged up, but it was nearly impossible to focus accurately with any lens at or near wide open (it was a dark day). I wonder if it's body heat as the camera is held to the eye that induced the condensation...?
Condensation wasn't a problem the other wet outing earlier this week, where I got totally soaked and the camera pretty wet, but it was a few degrees warmer, which I guess made a difference.
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