Paul - great shots from Chile ... looks like a fascinating place.
Joe - looks like you are going to enjoy the new camera
Bruno - great Spanish street shots ... love to see more !
Charles - your street shots are always awesome ... the second shot of the guy BBQ'ing what looks like chicken feet looks perfectly captured but not very appetising A lot of chicken feet action goes down in HK as well ... tried them once ... a long time ago.
Joe, I rarely print, but when I do it's BIG. I think the real advantages for me would be the low light ability of this camera. I'll try to shake Leica down for a loaner MM one of these days.
Nice shot BTW!
bruniroquai - Great series, I miss my 35lux-asph.... Maybe I should replace it with the FLE (like charles suggested) see how that goes.
I'm off to Korea in a couple of weeks for a couple of weeks (work/play), thinking about checking out the DMZ, so perhaps I'll come back with a handful of photos shot with the M9p.
I almost always had to shoot ISO160 on the M9 to get these kind of clarity and detail, but this was ISO2500 on the Mono. Not too bad for a CCD sensor, I guess.
Joe, very nice shots! The last shot at 2500 ISO is quite amazing.
This is what I am finding at the moment, just sitting in a darkened office, with the Nocti, at 3200 ISO, and still getting very nice tonality through the image. It will take a while to get used of this beast
Charles, nice sets and comparisons. I actually prefer the jpeg on the first set, probably because it looks smoother on the skin tones. The ISO 10,000 files looks usable, has a high grain film like look to it. I do notice banding on my shots at ISO6400 and higher, especially in the shadows. I think I see some too in your ISO 10,000 shot as well.
Joe, the filter really made this picture something. You really do need to invest in a set if you buy an MM.
Charles, the black and white for me over the sepia.
Yeah definitely banding on the images, but I've found this on all my digital cameras after a certain point.
It's less noticeable with backlit subjects.
Thanks Joe and Adam
Joe, I agree with the Adam, having a complete set filters is a must! I still waiting on mine
The Jpegs are excellent directly out of the M-M, and maybe different algorithms working here. I have tried testing with medium contrast and some in camera sharpening, and finding some very high resolution results. Hopefully LR4/CS6 will have an update soon.
It was a good move sending the M-M to Camera Clinic, as the RF did need adjustment. Also I did ask Wayne, head of the lab to test for banding at all ISO's. Usually with a new breed of camera they run a full gammut of tests, and did not find any banding even at the high ISO's. It is not to say it is not there, but I do think there are other factors that may combine. It is easily adjusted with luminescence noise reduction though. In discussions, also it was mentioned that sensors may exhibit banding and can be heat dependent.
I do need to test my other lenses such as the 75 Cron AA, as this may be a good match for the M-M.
Adam, looking forward to your shots from Korea on your next trip, and you still owe shots from the wedding
I think having and changing filters is useful if you are shooting slow and deliberate and it does bring back the feeling of shooting B&W film. But then you have to clean them, plus various sizes, etc, its easy to end up with at least 6 to 9 filters in the bag just for 3 lens ring sizes. Plus I don't like the though of fiddling with filters out in the field especially with lenses such as the 35FLE where its a pain to remove the hood and insert filters. From what I have seen on my own shots, the filter effect is quite subtle and I probably can make some minor of the adjustments in SEP2/ LR4, etc.
Charles, glad you sorted out the RF on the mono. Looking forward to more of your posts with the other lenses. I disagree with your shop's test result. I'm seeing banding on my high ISO shots (5000 and higher) and I don't buy the Leica crap that after spending $$ on this camera, I have to watch out for heat, SD cards, etc etc. Luminance NR is not able to remove the banding on my shots. I can live with banding at ISO10,000 but not at ISO5,000. Sometimes I think Leica is threading a very fine line on making us pay a lot of money for such an unreliable camera, or maybe my camera is a lemon.
Joe, very nice shot! Yes, you are right about the colour filters. In theory, they will be in bag, but having them on may be another case.
I feel for you with respect to the banding at 5000 ISO. I have been testing the DNG files, and I am finding it very easy to induce banding with certain LR4 and CS6 adjustments. If I steer clear of these, I am finding very little.
Here is another PP'ing of yesterday's shot at 10,000 ISO with 50 Nocti f/1.0 and M-M, with LR4 with different adjustments. I avoided a lot of NR reduction, particularly detail as this induces some of the banding I have seen. Also there a lot of default settings that come up that don't help either. The RAW files, and OOC jpegs, pre PP'ing seem OK.
Another shot this morning, with the M-M and 75 Cron AA, thinking this might a good combo
Sorry charles, guys, I keep forgetting to put something together.
Here's a quick edit of a few shots from a wedding: http://www.adamsalt.com/GN/index.html
Decided to just link to a online album creator, rather then posting directly to the forum, since I wasn't using a M9 to shoot these.
Thank you Adam, excellent series from the wedding!!!
Shots from this afternoon with M-M and 24 Lux at the beach. All the shots at 320 ISO, and 24 Lux @ f/5.6 for most shots. I only used LR4 to PP, and no CS6 or SEPII.
I noticed that my 35 Summilux-ASPH would distort (bobble head) a head if I was taking a vertical half body shot. Whereas if I used the 35/2 ZM lens to shoot the same composition, the head wouldn't be that wonky.
Same goes for the 28 Elmarit vs the 28 Cron..
So which 35mm FL lens would do the least amount of bobble head distortion out of all the lenses that'll fit a M9?
I'm guessing the 35 Summicron-ASPH from what I've been reading, but maybe there's another? Oh and relatively fast, something f/2 or below.
Oh and I know you could just use a 50mm and step back. But I've also noticed (and this was mentioned when I talked about using the prototype lens), that if I use the 50 Summilux and I focus on someone then I recompose, they're always OOF. This happened less with my 50summicron, and even less with the prototype lens. It also happened less with my 35LUX-ASPH then it did with the 50summicron.
Adam, interesting question! I think this will depend on the lens design, and how you wish to shoot. The 35 Lux Asph II, is very nice. Fast and sharp, almost too much so, yet most cases it should not distort too much, in portrait mode. Maybe the 35 Cron, is better from a design perspective, as the lens diameter is smaller at max aperture, and less likely to distort the perspective, when you aren't completely parallel with your subject. The 35 Cron Pre IV is very nice too
A lot of chicken feet action goes down in HK as well ... tried them once ... a long time ago.
