^ Awesome tones Doug, the mood is great, strong powerful blacks that go well with the base of the tree! Good control of highlights, very good artistic rendition!
This is the best Iv'e seen from you my friend
Phil
HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!
P.S. My partying days are over - Military had to tone me down
Thank you Phil for the critique, and complement! I think I was a bit out of practice. I'm slowing getting back to form maybe... I really hadn't shot much over the last year really before fall.
Katie, thank you too!
I saw this tree when I looked up in the edge of the woods on Hyatt Lane in Cades Cove, and I said, man, I got to shoot this tree! There are some enormous trees in the smokies, The MM is made for this shooting with leaves off.
Just some questions.
So far the photos i'm seeing in the thread seems to be in focus but not sharp.
Is this signature of leica? or is it difficult to focus with this type of camera?
It's not like eye p;opping sharp like my 5D3, some of the shots i see here when in focus has an organic look, is that the character of the camera?
Hi Justin. Good questions - this is the place to ask, for sure! Here's my $.02 on the subject...
I came from a Canon 5D2 background (among maaaany other digi models) so I AM a bit familiar with Canon files vs. Leica files and i can honestly say that there is absolutely no difference in sharpness between them; granted you are using quality glass on the body. I, for one, cannot stand over-sharpened, crispy to the point of pixelation, crunchy images on screen. I don't really add any additional sharpening to my images, as I prefer them to be (as you so correctly pointed out) "organic". I like my images to have a film like look (as I do also still shoot/develop/scan my own film images on a RF camera with the same lenses that I use on my M-E).
Anyone else can chime in here; but I am thinking that it is possibly just a difference in processing that you are seeing. The files are so lovely from this camera, I just think Leica folks don't over-process them. Just my thoughts...
djarth wrote:
Hi all,
I'm looking to get M9 to try the leica look.
Just some questions.
So far the photos i'm seeing in the thread seems to be in focus but not sharp.
Is this signature of leica? or is it difficult to focus with this type of camera?
It's not like eye p;opping sharp like my 5D3, some of the shots i see here when in focus has an organic look, is that the character of the camera?
KatieInTexas wrote:
Hi Justin. Good questions - this is the place to ask, for sure! Here's my $.02 on the subject...
I came from a Canon 5D2 background (among maaaany other digi models) so I AM a bit familiar with Canon files vs. Leica files and i can honestly say that there is absolutely no difference in sharpness between them; granted you are using quality glass on the body. I, for one, cannot stand over-sharpened, crispy to the point of pixelation, crunchy images on screen. I don't really add any additional sharpening to my images, as I prefer them to be (as you so correctly pointed out) "organic". I like my images to have a film like look (as I do also still shoot/develop/scan my own film images on a RF camera with the same lenses that I use on my M-E).
Anyone else can chime in here; but I am thinking that it is possibly just a difference in processing that you are seeing. The files are so lovely from this camera, I just think Leica folks don't over-process them. Just my thoughts... ...Show more →
I agree with you that over-sharpened, crunchy images are a disaster. The present thread is not short of those.
Leica folks don't need to over-process their images, because the lack of an AA filter will to this for them under certain conditions.
now take this with a grain of salt since I own neither an M9 nor 5Dii, but I acquired raw files from both cameras and compared. and not just random shots either; lab shots where focus was walked through and the best samples were provided from both cameras. setup one was 5Dii with 50MP. setup two was M9 with v5 summicron 50.
understand 50MP is a sharper lens, and much higher contrast. I have seen on film that it is beyond what the old (v4/5 formula is from 76) summicron formulation can do, especially at lab focus distance.
but the M9 raws were WAY sharper than 5Dii using ACR. and nothing I could do in PS could make up that difference. when I downsize to web dimensions, 5D looked sharper because 50MP has such high contrast.
POP or "sharpness" from websize images almost all comes from sharpening/contrast enhancement and the contrast of the lens at the relevant frequencies FOR THE ENLARGEMENT.
I have a good example of such things happening. I owned a while ago a ZM50 Planar, for Leica, and a Dual Range Summicron, and a Zuiko 50/3.5 Macro. I have seen measured MTFs for all 3; DR has highest extinction frequncy, ZM highest "global" contrast and Zuiko best at 40 lp/mm. I shot all 3 on the same roll of Delta 100 developed in Xtol 1:1 and compared my perceived "sharpness"
on scan:
1. zuiko
2. zm planar
3. dr summicron
on downsized scan (multistep sharpening)
1. planar (perception of fine detail)
2. zuiko (lots of "crunch", my favorite but not "sharpest")
3. dr summicron
examined with loupe
1. dr summicron
2. zuiko
3. planar
which was "sharpest"? if you enlarge enough, DR summicron. but I sold it quickly, because I realized that even at 11x14 (the largest I can do with my scanner with high quality) it looked the worst by a lot. I sold the ZM planar shortly after, when I got other lenses that made me question value of ZM planar and used that money to buy my own 50MP.
post processing is very individual and most people are bad at it (as they are indeed bad at most things). if you are seriously considering purchase, track down some raw files from a lens you actually intend to purchase and use with it and process it yourself and compare. if you are really lucky, you might get someone with good PP flow to send you a PSD with their method on it so you can see what you could get.
btw I hate the word "pop" when describing images so much. funny enough the image I saw with the most of that had missed focus lmao.
A lot of great photos as usual, I've been to lazy lately with comments and resorted to the like button instead.
I "fixed" my 28 Cron the other day by unscrewing the screws in the front ring and adjusting the ring before locking it down again and it seem to have worked. Lets's see for how long it lasts...
Here is from a walk the other day where the theme became fallen tress. I used the 28 Cron and the 50 Lux but in this selection everyone is with the 28 Cron.
Sister shot from my shot yesterday. Not as much perspective as the first one, but still has character when processed similarly to yesterday's file. Though I will admit, I used different processes for each.. I think it has a lot of things for your eye to wonder around looking at. That to me is part of a really pleasing image. Well, it can be. Light helps with that too.
I added no sharpness to this file, I actually used minus clarity to dial it down some. It was actually to sharp to begin with.
- Military had to tone me down 
I like it. 
