Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/06/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Jun 16, 2008, at 11:20 PM, Peter Klein wrote: > Steve Barbour wanted to see an A/B comparison of an M8 shot with and > without an IR filter. > > My newly-acquired VC 35/1.2 arrived today (yeah, I bought one). > While I was checking it out, I took the same wide-open shot without > an IR filter (left) and with the filter (right). Tungsten lighting, > three 40w bulbs above my bathroom mirror. > > http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/temp/IRNofiltVsFilt.jpg thanks Peter... impressive, astonishing to me...in terms of magitude, thank you for getting this result... one scientist to another, I must ask... Did you repeat each several times? Tripod ? (just to be certain...) :-) the result seems marked to me; more astonishing is that with all the mish-mosh of talk, the only way to know is to do the test... btw that new 35/1.2 makes you look 20 years younger (and that's a fact), Steve > > > Here's the whole frame of the IR filtered shot, uncropped but > greatly reduced, for reference. > http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/temp/IRFiltFullFrame3382.jpg > > I stood on the exact same spot with both feet, and focused on my > eyeball for each shot. Shot RAW, converted in Capture One with the > JFI Plain BW profile. Identical exposures, 1/360 at f/1.2. Default > Capture One settings, so the same amount of sharpening was applied > to each. > > Notice the differences in tonal rendition and contrast, not to > mention the sharpness of my eyelashes and receding hair > line... :-) This is completely consistent with other test shots > I've made with other lenses on a tripod. Since it shows a real > person rather than cereal boxes or soup cans, I thought it would be > a reasonable real-world demonstration of what happens. > > The IR makes the skin a little lighter, and reduces the sharpness > and contrast a little. You might be able to play with local > contrast and get back some of the crispness of the filtered shot, > but the differences in rendition between the filtered and unfiltered > shots remain. > > All other things being equal, I prefer to use the IR filter while > shooting B&W with the M8. However, I have noticed that you can > often gain a half stop more exposure without the filter, especially > in reddish tungsten light. So if I was shooting at 1/15 or slower, > I might remove the IR filter, figuring that the half-stop faster > shutter speed I'd get might gain me more in clarity than the IR > smearing would take away. > > --Peter > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information