Well, all of you Leica people ruined me, so I finally bit the bullet. I just got my M9 a couple of hours ago, and what a blast it is to shoot. I haven't shot anything interesting yet, so here's a candid family pic of my son getting excited about my new camera. 50 Summicron wide open:
edwardkaraa wrote:
Like father like son, Douglas Congratulations! Lovely photo and family!
Thanks, Edward. He's a little ham. He nearly always smiles when I aim a camera at him. He wouldn't be smiling if he knew that I just spent all of his college money on this new gear! Kidding.
I tell ya, this little camera is remarkable. When I fired off my first few shots, and then made the mistake of chimping on the LCD, I got a little worried, but, man, once I saw the shots on my real computer screen, I'm pretty blown away. No biggie, I don't like to review shots on the camera LCD much, anyways. High ISO seems about the same or a little worse than my old A900, but I'm ok with that, and it still seems usable. Everything else seems fantastic, so far. What a fun camera!
Thank you, Douglas. With my Transcend 133x stone age cards it takes the M9 exactly 5 seconds to show a sharp photo. Once done, the screen is not too bad. If anything it teaches me patience
The AWB is also horrible, and produces scary results!
With ACR, I find the high iso files to be as good if not slightly better than the A900. In fact, being without AA filter, you can afford to use some luminance NR and still get sharper results than other cameras with AA filter.
Edward, good to know about luminance NR. I'll look into that. I usually import all raws into Lightroom set to daylight WB and adjust to taste after than, so I can manage with the bad AWB. I don't mind the LCD thing. With my X100, I used a half case that even covered the screen, so I just shoot it like it is a pretend film camera.
Thanks, Gary. Resistance for 3 years finally caught up to me!
Edward, very nice series of shots! The portrait is stunning
Bruno, love that street shot "white hair".
Douglas congrats on the M9 Wonderful capture of the family with the 50 Cron As Edward had mentioned, the workability in low light with the DNG files, even at 2500 ISO color, is excellent with LR 4/CS6. The latest noise reduction algorithms are amazing, and for printing you do not notice it AWB becomes more intuitive, as you may find some other settings work better under complex lighting. I often use daylight or tungsten. The buffer can drive you crazy, and find it does slow me down, but it makes me think a lot more about the composition of the shot.
douglasf13 wrote:
Well, all of you Leica people ruined me, so I finally bit the bullet. I just got my M9 a couple of hours ago, and what a blast it is to shoot. I haven't shot anything interesting yet, so here's a candid family pic of my son getting excited about my new camera. 50 Summicron wide open:
whoa!!!
congrats on the new camera (and new baby, but i already said that)! are you gonna stick with the 50 cron or are you tempted to add something else? still have the sonnar?
congrats on the new camera (and new baby, but i already said that)! are you gonna stick with the 50 cron or are you tempted to add something else? still have the sonnar?
Thanks! Of course, I sold ALL of my ZM lenses already, so I had to start over. I got pretty great deals on the 50 Summicron, 28 Elmarit APSH, and an older tele-elmarit 90, so I'm good for a while. The lineup wasn't all that much more than the equivalent ZM lineup, and I'll be using the 50/2 ninety percent of the time. I've also got a CV 50/1.5 and CV 15 laying around, too, but I'm not sure if I'll keep them or not. The 50/1.5 might be good for lowlight and indoors.
$4K or less has always kinda been my magic number for buying an M9, and I managed to score one built in mid-late 2011 with only a little bit of brassing on a few edges. Of course, now I have to sell the NEX-7, X100, several lenses, three guitars, a tube guitar amp, etc. in order to legitimize this to my wife, since we have a 7 month old to worry about.
Douglas,
Take more family shots and make them look better than ones taken by Nex7 /X100 (I mean "better" from a women perspective) and I promise - your wife WILL legitimize your M9
It's proven strategy
douglasf13 wrote:
Thanks! Of course, I sold ALL of my ZM lenses already, so I had to start over. I got pretty great deals on the 50 Summicron, 28 Elmarit APSH, and an older tele-elmarit 90, so I'm good for a while. The lineup wasn't all that much more than the equivalent ZM lineup, and I'll be using the 50/2 ninety percent of the time. I've also got a CV 50/1.5 and CV 15 laying around, too, but I'm not sure if I'll keep them or not. The 50/1.5 might be good for lowlight and indoors.
$4K or less has always kinda been my magic number for buying an M9, and I managed to score one built in mid-late 2011 with only a little bit of brassing on a few edges. Of course, now I have to sell the NEX-7, X100, several lenses, three guitars, a tube guitar amp, etc. in order to legitimize this to my wife, since we have a 7 month old to worry about.
I really enjoyed the day with a rented M9. Being totally new to RF, it was a refreshing experience. Since that day I have been missing it. Eventually I couldn't resist and bought a mint M9 last week Have not been out doing any serious shooting yet.
Another reason for falling into the temptation is all the outstanding photos shared here and another forum. They are very inspiring. I have a lot to learn from them. Thanks for sharing
vovkinson wrote:
Douglas,
Take more family shots and make them look better than ones taken by Nex7 /X100 (I mean "better" from a women perspective) and I promise - your wife WILL legitimize your M9
It's proven strategy
JustinZ850 wrote:
I also just picked up a very clean M9 and 35 cron! I look forward to using it during my 3 weeks in the Philippines starting next week
Justin, welcome to FM! Don't be stingy with your photo posts
Wow, this is great... welcome to the 'M9 club' Doug, WeeSin and Justin! Doug, you're a bit of a surprise! Though I knew you liked the system, I didn't expect you to go for an M9. In any case, think of it as a chance to simplify your life by cleaning house a bit. Interesting this is all happening post M introduction. Used M9 prices are definitely quite attractive and certainly at their lowest ever, so a good time to give the system a try...
vovkinson - great set! I really like the first one.
WeeSin - really like the second one.
Edward - Love the Chinese restaurant set. The first one is a great graphic composition and the portrait is stunning!
Sorry to not comment on everything... traveling at the moment and checking in...
Here are some images I uploaded but hadn't posted... my aunt attending to the yard work...
I just got my M9 a couple of hours ago, and what a blast it is to shoot. I haven't shot anything interesting yet, so here's a candid family pic of my son getting excited about my new camera. 50 Summicron wide open:
Kidding. 
I got pretty great deals on the 50 Summicron, 28 Elmarit APSH, and an older tele-elmarit 90, so I'm good for a while. The lineup wasn't all that much more than the equivalent ZM lineup, and I'll be using the 50/2 ninety percent of the time. I've also got a CV 50/1.5 and CV 15 laying around, too, but I'm not sure if I'll keep them or not. The 50/1.5 might be good for lowlight and indoors.
