naturephoto1
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 Re: Leica M/X/T Picture Thread | |
CVickery wrote:
naturephoto1 wrote:
jfreak wrote:
I think I would like to correct myself. After reading all the CCD and CMOS and Ashwin\'s article, I was quite convinced that M240 was all about the newest and fastest and bestest etc and in terms of picture quality the M9 is probably still the best. Then I read some more and felt may be not so and as some have pointed out, m240 has higher DR and little more ease in shooting wide lens with live view help, has higher resolution screen, shutter sound and more res. So for 2k more, I get all this and 2yr warranty and if I trust these people who are more professional and put their prestige on stake claiming something, may be the IQ is different but not worse than M9. So all in all I found M240 for the price a better option.
I am writing this hoping that someone in my state of debate over the m240 vs M9 or a7 can get some help in the decision making.
I am very grateful to all of you who have written in response to my post on this debate and I hope someone else find this useful as well.
Think in terms of how you wish to use the camera. I was all set to take the plunge of purchasing the M240 to use with all of my R lenses and to supplement these with a couple of M wide angle lenses. There were just too many issues that soured the M240 for me. These included the inability of the camera to move the focus point (scroll) when using lenses with the add on EVF. This is a necessity to me for using longer lenses and macro work in particular. The M240 has a maximum shutter length of 60 seconds for some ISOs and still shorter for others. This was a 2nd strike against the camera. I need to have the option of using a bulb setting for potentially long exposures for work in some lighting conditions and using some ND alone and with Polarizing filters. The M240 is really designed as a hand held camera that allows you to mount the camera to a tripod. In order to access the camera to change the batteries and the SD cards you must remove the bottom of the camera and remove it from the tripod and re-position the camera on the tripod if you need to replace the battery or the SD card. In order to use a flash with M240 if you are using the add on EVF you must use the additional Multifunctional grip or the standard grip and to add a 2nd hot shoe. The A7 series cameras, the A7r in particular is a nature and landscape camera performing better on a tripod and probably better for tripod usage than the M240.
The M-240 is without question a better built camera than any of the A7 series cameras. But the M240 is 4 times the cost of the A7. I opted for the A7r because I found it to be a better R solution than the M240 would be. In order to get an M240 with the features that I required even living with the issues that I mentioned it would have cost me almost $8500 for the camera, the EVF, the Multifunctional Grip, 2 extra batteries, and the R to M adapter. The A7r only cost me about $2700 for the camera and 3 extra batteries and the Novoflex R to M adapter. And the A7r has a superior EVF that is built in that does not need to be added or removed for usage and protection of the camera and EVF when removed from or stored in my camera bag.
I opted for a Minolta CLE MC 40mm f2 M-Rokkor lens which is the latest incarnation of the Leica C 40mm f2 Summcron as my normal walk around lens on my A7r. I had hoped to get the M 21mm f3.4 SEM, but unfortunately I had to decide against this due to its poor performance on the A7r. I also had to reconsider which lenses that I would get for my wide angle lenses to perform well on the A7r. So, I opted for the R 28mm f2.8 Elmarit Version II which is the best performing 28mm lens on the A7r. And, I now have an order in for the M Wide Angle Tri-Elmar lens which is one of the best performing ultra wide angle lenses to perform on the A7r. The other Leica M wide angle lenses and many Zeiss lenses may perform better on the M240 and the M9 than the Tri-Elmar, but it is still a fine performer on these cameras. Consider that much of the performance of many of the M lenses on the M9 and the M240 is from the internal processing of these cameras.
Rich
As an owner of both an A7r and the M240, I\'m in full agreement with you, Rich, until your final statement. It\'s not the internal processing that yields the performance of the M lenses on the digital M bodies, if it were it could be replicated on the A7r and other bodies in post processing. It is the fact that the Leica M digital bodies have been designed with the aim of extracting the best performance from these lenses which has led to design decisions that are different from other manufacturers.....primarily the relatively thin filter stack over the sensor. While wider Leica lenses generally need software correction (internal) for light falloff and colored edges they generally do not suffer (as much) from the smeared edges that other bodies do with the lenses. Smearing AFAIK is primarily a \'hardware\' problem and can\'t adequately be corrected in software.
I enjoy using the A7r with adapted lenses, but I\'ve come to the conclusion that for me the best way to use my M mount lenses is on my M240.
Yes Leica has gone to great lengths to get the most performance our of their lenses with their internal processing of their cameras. But, it has also taken some real effort and tweaking for Leica and Zeiss to get such high performance out of their lenses. The first M camera, the M3 was introduced in 1953. The newer M8, M9, and M240 have now been around for a considerably shorter time. But, Leica and Zeiss have struggled to get their ultra wide angle lenses to perform as they do no the M bodies. In the case case of Sony and Zeiss, they have had a much much shorter time to develop lenses for the A7 series cameras. As to the smearing issue for the A7 series cameras, this has been a disappointment for many of us. And unfortunately for many of us, it has not been a priority of Sony to allow the ultra wide RF M mount lenses to perform nearly as well as we would have liked or hoped. There is no question that the M wide and wide angle lenses as a whole perform and will continue to perform better on the M platform the system for which these lenses were designed. The smearing issue observed by the A7 series cameras for the bulk of the M RF ultra wide and and wide angle lenses is as a result of the short distance from the camera sensors and the sensor filter stack. So, for those of us interested in using M RF ultra wide and wide angle lenses we have to be highly selective in a short list of lenses (including the WATE) that perform well on these cameras. We then have to supplement these specific lenses mainly with SLR/DSLR lenses that perform well on this platform (including as mentioned the R 28mm f2.8 V2 lens since no M RF performs as well on the platform as this particular optic). Sony and Zeiss have had a relatively short time to design FF E-mount lenses. But, hopefully Sony, Zeiss, and possibly some of the independents will be able to design much better performing lenses for the platform. I even suggested to some of the Leica Reps that I know at Leica Camera USA at PhotoPlus that they may wish to consider some new lens designs for the A7 series cameras. Brian Bell, the National Rep for Leica Sport Optics USA indicated that it is possible that Leica may have sufficient staff now with the completion of the new Factory in Wetzlar.
By the way for those that are unaware, I have a Leica fan and have been a Leica R user (now with 17 R lenses) since 1984 and have been using Leica cameras and lenses now for 30 years. I intend to continue to use Leica lenses and we will also have to wait to see if the hinting by Steffan at the Leica Camera USA Booth at PhotoPlus was made regarding a possible new camera that will work well with R lenses will actually materialize. We have heard these promises from Leica since 2009.
Rich
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