adamdewilde wrote:
...Mitch Alland - Definitely a good call getting the 21 SEM, you are using it stopped down, which you predicted you would most of the time, so you've saved money and weight! How you liking the lens so far?
Actually not the 21 SEM, it's the Elmarit-21 ASPH, which I've always liked. I've been using it at f/2.8 for the night shots, but for a shot like the one above ("Me Tarzan, You Jane"), I had it stopped down because I had to make sure, in a dynamic, situation, to make sure I got the focus on Jane's face. I think that the difference between this lens and the SEM in terms of sharpness is so minor that it's not worth worrying about; and I prefer, for night photography to have the extra 1/2 stop, instead of the f/3.4 of the 21 SEM.
—Mitch/Bangkok Bangkok Obvious [WIP] Eggleston said that he was "at war with the obvious"...
Charles, That is excellent portrait, not surprising from you.
Ryan, Enjoy your family series. I agree on color and process are both nice.
Joakim, nice B&W conversions. The car looks great. Which version of 35lux you have?
Alberto, another nice portrait!
Allen, is that a reflection?
Leonas,looks very sharp!
rirakuma, Great! great color, I am surprised to hear your comment about color of D800 vs M, though.
Mitch, great 'am' shot
Phil, Another two nice BW. I echo your enthusiasm on MM with 50f1, your photos have been proven they are one of best combo out there.
More from Kauai with 50lux
the pics from my only 3 hours private shooting for a whole week there. That is the only time I was able to use tripod with Leica R and 6D. However, all M shots are still hand holding. zoom in 100%, they still look great as always! 50lux didn;t let me down this time.
These are not from Magic hour, around 9 to 12am. But the light still great there, and rain on and off all the time.
Michael, thank you for the kind words Very nice shots, particularly #1.
Phil, wonderful B&W shots!!! Great PP'ing with the tonality of the images.
Shot from Bangkok, virtually no light, ISO 2000 pushed +1 in Lr5, M9P 50 Lux f/1.4, 1/15sec. The was converted to TIFF first with the noise reduction Dfine 2, and then downsized. This seems to avoid the present issues with Lr5 in downsizing Jpegs with high noise content.
Mitch Alland wrote:
Adam, it's the model that was discontinued when the 21 SEM came out. I don't know what the used price is but, to me, it's a very desirable lens.
—Mitch/Bangkok Bangkok Obvious [WIP] Eggleston said that he was "at war with the obvious"...
Hmmm.. Wonder how it stacks up to the 21 2.8 ZM, another lens I really like.
rirakuma, beautiful shots....particularly #2. Color looks great
Phil, nice examples of the Nocti. No, you don't need to take the Nokton for a spin when you have that combo available. Love the rendering, that lens was made for the MM
Michael, too bad you were there for a week and only had a few hours to yourself. Those two shots are both excellent
Charles, wow....great example at ISO 2000. Though, I would personally prefer a little more noise and less noise reduction as it looks a little plasticy if you ask me. But I can't imagine how dark it must have been to use ISO 2000, f/1.4 and 1/15 sec, pretty impressive
35 Summaron f/2.8....this may be one of my favorite lenses I have used on the Leica, character is very unique
funny, this girl is just a natural poser , you just say 'can i take a picture' and she goes straight into posing
^rsolti, very nice pics. I've mentioned this before but I have doubts the M can render like that. I haven't had the chance to go and do a proper portrait shoot but from the casual ones I've taken the colors are fairly "dull" or perhaps "reserved" compared to the poppy ones I usually see from the M9.
Lots of nice pics as usual, particularly like Phils mono shots. I wish I could justify a monochrom .
Zhangyue, what did you find surprising about the color comment with the D800? I would occasionally get odd colors coming from the D800 which are very hard to fix, this was one of the biggest reason why I decided to invest in a Leica. I do hope that Leica will bring out a new firmware or color profile so that the ones from the new M will be closer to the ones from the M9.
I can't keep up. Some truly inspiring images the past few pages.
Phil your B&Ws rock..(sorry couldn't resist) but seriously really good stuff and no I was drinking coffee in a Starbucks and she was just outside. I shot through the sunscreen and the window.
rirakuma great color, beautiful landscapes.
zhangyue I really like the last two you posted and no it wasn't a reflection. I was sitting drinking coffee inside the Starbucks. I saw the triangular composition and I shot.
Gorgeous women Charles.
rsolti13 love the last one splashing in the puddle.
I can only go by what I've read in reviews of the 21/2.8 ASPH, but have used the ZM extensively. My understanding is the ZM is a technical match for the Leica, if perhaps with a slight edge in MTF values. I've read a number of recommendations for the ZM over the Leica citing this reason, and its much lower price. Might be similar to the ZM50/2 vs. 50 Cron debate. But I suspect from the Leica you're going to see color quality and rendering characteristics that are more in-line with the Leica family, vs. the contrast/micro contrast typical from Zeiss. Another difference may be how each lens performs on the M cameras relative to edge color shifts. The ZM definitely does have this problem with the M9, but is much better now with the more recent firmware versions as of June 2011.
Mitch: regarding your question about electric blues - yes, I definitely find this to be the case with the M9 at times and will selectively control blue saturation, or do spot saturation control. At higher ISOs I sometimes find the M9's colors look a bit 'painted-on' with sometimes unnatural looking transitions. Might be a consequence of treatment in post. As for the starbursts... usually you don't get them when shooting wide open. Interesting that you do with the 21 ASPH...
rirakuma wrote:
Zhangyue, what did you find surprising about the color comment with the D800? I would occasionally get odd colors coming from the D800 which are very hard to fix, this was one of the biggest reason why I decided to invest in a Leica. I do hope that Leica will bring out a new firmware or color profile so that the ones from the new M will be closer to the ones from the M9.
Cause I remember some shots from Zeiss thread with D800 from you, nothing short of brilliant I am with you about M9 and M color at least before More people get better profile or more familiar with M240. but general speaking. the color thing is not as easy as thought I would say.
Since I am kind of struggling with 6D's color, this topic only get my attention very recent, until recent I realize for landscape, certain type of shots, M9 has a edge on color and sharpness to both D700 and 6D I am having. However, I was RE-checking D800 thread, even at web size, from experienced shooters, I still can see IQ advantage. Great color depth, DR etc.. a monster IQ in right hand.
Thanks for all comments and like.
Adam, I echo Ron's opinion of 21zm. A great lens. I prefer my landscape shots from it than 50lux ASPH,(IQ, not focal length) resolving power is one of best make me curious of 25zm.
Charles, Impressive low light shot.
Ryan, another nice set. My daughter will give me her back if she saw me trying to take her pic
^^All great, second and last shot are my favorite.
Thanks guys for all the comments.. I've used the 21ZM both versions (slow and fast), but I've not used the 21 that Mitch has.. Hence asking.. I guess I'd probably just pick up the one I can get at the best price (probably ZM then).. Unless there's a clear advantage to getting say the 21SEM or 18SEM.. Which I'm eyeing.
rirakuma wrote:
^rsolti, very nice pics. I've mentioned this before but I have doubts the M can render like that. I haven't had the chance to go and do a proper portrait shoot but from the casual ones I've taken the colors are fairly "dull" or perhaps "reserved" compared to the poppy ones I usually see from the M9.
Lots of nice pics as usual, particularly like Phils mono shots. I wish I could justify a monochrom .
Zhangyue, what did you find surprising about the color comment with the D800? I would occasionally get odd colors coming from the D800 which are very hard to fix, this was one of the biggest reason why I decided to invest in a Leica. I do hope that Leica will bring out a new firmware or color profile so that the ones from the new M will be closer to the ones from the M9....Show more →
I'm really not sure, I think it depends on a lot of factors. I haven't used the M enough to really say, but I'm thinking it's a matter of getting use to the camera, more then the CCD vs CMOS debate. I mean, I loved the skin tones from my H3DII-39, but to get those popping colors, you REALLY need to work at it.
Maybe testing a S-system in a few weeks for a week, will let everyone know how that works out.
Luka, love these, especially #2 and second to last!
Adam, @f/5.6 and slower, you're not going to see much, if any difference between the 21 SEM and ZM21/2.8. The 21 SEM wide open is a better lens - much flatter plane of focus and already extremely sharp across the frame. The ZM21/2.8 has some field curvature and as a result, wide open sharpness is best in the central area with flat planes (walls, etc.). IMO, the benefit of the SEM is you don't have to think about what aperture you're shooting at. It's just sharp. Always. Therefore, for technically demanding applications, it's an excellent lens. 6-bit coding is also nice to have. With the ZM I found the hand coding sometimes wouldn't read due to strong, direct sunlight hitting the lens/camera mount interface in that area. And the ZM really does need to be coded to take advantage of edge color shift corrections (coded as the 21/2.8 non-ASPH), or you'll have to fix it later with Cornerfix, etc. You can probably get better coding reliability by having the flange engraved.
My 4-way 21mm M-mount shootout includes the ZM and SEM. Best bang for the buck is the Voigtlander 21/1.8, blending the speed of the Lux with stopped down performance of the ZM and SEM, though with lower contrast/micro contrast. Tradeoff is it's a fairly large lens.
I've read that with the M240, many wide lenses are performing even better into the corners (for sharpness), therefore my results might not be exactly what you'll get with the M. It would be interesting to see some technical comparisons of a lens like the 21 SEM on both cameras...
, you just say 'can i take a picture' and she goes straight into posing
. 
