rscheffler wrote:
....
Michael - interesting set and very nice portrait of your daughter. I saw your post in the Leica R thread... so did you get the 21-35 & 80-200?
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Not yet, he ask for $1800 for 80-200 make me hesitate even ask 21-35mm. I like what I see from Leica R lens very much. mainly the rendering in color and in/out of focus transition. The price might keep rising, but for those good stuff like X0lux and APO, they are already gone pretty high. I don't expect them to go further much. I guess, if you patient, you can always get good price sometime, somewhere How about some long APO like 180 f2, 280 f4
I really love what I see from 35cron R. a really surprisingly good lens with extremely please Bokeh. So, Joe, I have to agree here that Leica R lens are dream for video. I think that attribute already insane price we have here instead of exciting news of M240
Somehow, they don't have as good reputation as their M brothers. But to me, if you like character instead of technical, R is even better for some lens I have tried and seen.
Zhangyue, Many thanks for your nice comments. Love the flare shot, as well as the say goobye and your daughter's portrait. Beautiful tones in the last one.
Joakim, the 1st shot is outstanding. You must work very early
Allen, very good catch in the 1st one
Joe, beautiful portraits. I like the inclusion of the bed cover in the 1st.
Edward, this is far up north and right now is the darkest time of the year with not much more than 6 hours of daylight. So if you work a full day there is a big chance you get to work before the sun is up and that it has gone down before you go home. On the other side if it's a weekend then you can sleep late and still be able to catch the sun rise then grab a lunch and it's time to photograph in the sunset, now that can give you some efficient landscape photography
Now that's an interesting way to think about it, Joakim!
Allen, love the first and third!
Ryan, I think I like this version better.
zhangyue wrote:
Not yet, he ask for $1800 for 80-200 make me hesitate even ask 21-35mm. I like what I see from Leica R lens very much. mainly the rendering in color and in/out of focus transition. The price might keep rising, but for those good stuff like X0lux and APO, they are already gone pretty high. I don't expect them to go further much. I guess, if you patient, you can always get good price sometime, somewhere How about some long APO like 180 f2, 280 f4
TBH, I already own the Canon 400/2.8 IS and 600/4 IS... Maybe the Leica R teles really are special... supposedly the 280/4 is... but for what I would use them for, I'd really want AF. The 180/3.4 is more out of curiosity to compare against the 70-200/4 IS, but also to give me a longer lens option on the GXR (or maybe a NEX-6) and at some point in the future, on the M. I suppose if I added a NEX I could get the Metabones AF adapter and just use my EF lenses on it...
Joakim, thanks for the explanation. It would be very depressing for me to go to work and come back when it's dark. On the other hand, I have not seen any sunrise for many many years
I've been quietly tracking your posts on this thread, your photos have been awesome. The work from others is of course excellent as well, but there is relatively less volume on this thread from ZM glass. You may have explained it before, but briefly, how much post-processing work do you need to do for corner color correction with the ZM25 and ZM35? Did you manually 6-bit code the lenses? Ideally I'd like to be able to avoid worrying about corner color shift and just do my normal adjustments in Lightroom 4.
I'll eventually be selling the bulk of my ZF and CV F-mount glass for a move to the M9 or new M. It's been fun shooting these M-mount lenses on the GXR, but it's made me yearn for an optical viewfinder. Hope to join in on this thread next year sometime.
Allen, another nice set with the MM. Like the expression captured in #1.
Edward, more nice shots with the ZM lenses. I envy you, not needing to see the sunrise! Just curious, have you or Charles ever met on the streets of Bangkok with your Leicas?
Charles, I agree, the MM seems to be a different beast altogether, in a good way.
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So last night while trying to reason out options for a 50mm M lens, I saw a RX1 in stock at B&H and my left side short circuited My (poor?) reasoning is that 35mm FL is what I mostly shoot and the Rx1 could just be made for me (excuses). Lets see if a RX1 can be a cheaper replacement to the new Leica M, in which case I will keep my current M9 and supplement it with the Rx-1 for high ISO and some video work. I have been looking at many of my M9 shots and prints and I still think its a great camera with superb IQ, especially if high ISO is not needed. It will be painful to part with the M9 but financially I really can't justify keeping 3 digital M bodies. I'll see if I have some time to make some comparison shots when it arrives later this week.
Hi Matt! Thank you so much for your (undeserved) compliments!
I always shoot with the lens profiles off. The 35 doesn't need any correction and the 25 may need it occasionally depending on the scene, but I prefer to leave the images uncorrected 99% of the time.
I have done some successful corrections on the 25 and 18 using Cornerfix and some excellent profiles kindly provided by thrice. It seems the new LR plugin is even better but I haven't tried it yet. Also Leica claims that the sensor of the new M does not need any correction for wides, of course remains to be seen if Leica was overly optimistic with this claim.
In case you want to use the camera lens profiles, it is recommended by Zeiss to use the 24/2.8 asph or 28/2.8 asph for the 25. I found them both to be good but they remove the vignetting entirely, which I don't like at all. The 35 doesn't need correction but again as per Zeiss recommendation, you can use the profiles of 28/2 and 28/2.8 asph for the 35.
Hope to see you on this thread soon! The M9 is a great camera and the GXR is definitely no match for it.
uscmatt99 wrote:
Edward,
I've been quietly tracking your posts on this thread, your photos have been awesome. The work from others is of course excellent as well, but there is relatively less volume on this thread from ZM glass. You may have explained it before, but briefly, how much post-processing work do you need to do for corner color correction with the ZM25 and ZM35? Did you manually 6-bit code the lenses? Ideally I'd like to be able to avoid worrying about corner color shift and just do my normal adjustments in Lightroom 4.
I'll eventually be selling the bulk of my ZF and CV F-mount glass for a move to the M9 or new M. It's been fun shooting these M-mount lenses on the GXR, but it's made me yearn for an optical viewfinder. Hope to join in on this thread next year sometime....Show more →
joe88 wrote:
Edward, more nice shots with the ZM lenses. I envy you, not needing to see the sunrise! Just curious, have you or Charles ever met on the streets of Bangkok with your Leicas?
Thank you very much Joe! In fact, it's not that I don't need to see the sunrise, it just happens way before I normally wake up
Perhaps I should move to Stockholm
It would be really nice to meet with Charles sometime. I know he comes to Bangkok quite often.
Thanks Edward! I could have the M9 now with some flipping, but won't have much opportunity to use it as it should be used during the winter months here anyway. Not to mention the arrival of a newborn in a couple months. Indoor kid pics mean DSLR, AF, and flash.... I'll probably wait and see how the new M performs with my lenses before committing. Fortunately it sounds like I can't lose either way. I'll continue to live vicariously through this thread
So, you're part of the reason R lenses prices are going up? Which lenses do you have now?
Sorry Joe. Forget answer you these, I have 50lux R v1 and 35cron R E55 and 50cron R E55. 50lux is very good WO, the same with 50Cron, but I think those two has average mid-distance Bokeh just like my 50cron rigid. 35cron is very sharp WO at center, it has most beautiful Bokeh from any 35mm I have used, Which I believe it is really good for Video. I might add 35 and 80lux depend on my luck
Ron wrote:
Actually, I think most 50s suffer from this due to the basic optics of this focal length, as I've also seen it from the 50 Lux ASPH, though somewhat less than the Planar.
That is a very interesting observation. I have the same problem with my 50cron Rigid in many case. My problem mainly happen at center, part of image just wash out. (I haven't seen from 50lux) I thought that is just old lens problem or chrome finish?. but your sample show is not the case. I wonder it has something to do with M flange distance. I never seen anything like that from my DSLR 50mm.
Thanks for comments! all.
Airfrog, 2nd is my favorite. interesting lighting.
Edward, Vignette add special effect to 2nd one.
Edward, wonderful shots! Love the composition of shot #1 We must make a time to meet! I will be in Bangkok within the next 8 weeks again.
Michael, very nice set! I really like the composition of the last shot
Joe, I have the same problem, I may also have a Sony RX-1 next week. I had not planned it all, but it became available, so it will replace the RX 100... maybe
Matt, good luck with your decision! It would be great if you can put your hands on a typ 240 early sample
Zhangyue, exactly! I love vignetting and I find that on most photos it does add something. Too bad the Leica profiles remove the vignetting, because I would be more than happy with just color shift removal.
Charles, thanks for the nice comments! It would be a great pleasure to meet you. I will be travelling abroad from Dec 22 until Jan 4 otherwise any time should be good.
uscmatt99 wrote:
I could have the M9 now with some flipping, but won't have much opportunity to use it as it should be used during the winter months here anyway. Not to mention the arrival of a newborn in a couple months. Indoor kid pics mean DSLR, AF, and flash....
Congrats in advance of the newborn! I agree, the M setup is not exactly newborn friendly, especially in the winter months.
Ryankarr, some really nice shots with the MM, especially the last one with the Nocti. Excellent set of lenses to boot!
Michael, I'm probably looking at a 60Macro for now. The other lenses do seem tempting, especially the 80Lux and the other longer lenses. Another nice set with the 35CronV1. Love the rendering on this lens, especially on #3.
How about some long APO like 180 f2, 280 f4 
My (poor?) reasoning is that 35mm FL is what I mostly shoot and the Rx1 could just be made for me (excuses). Lets see if a RX1 can be a cheaper replacement to the new Leica M, in which case I will keep my current M9 and supplement it with the Rx-1 for high ISO and some video work. I have been looking at many of my M9 shots and prints and I still think its a great camera with superb IQ, especially if high ISO is not needed. It will be painful to part with the M9 but financially I really can't justify keeping 3 digital M bodies. I'll see if I have some time to make some comparison shots when it arrives later this week. 
