[Leica] Unsharp with 90mm

[rgacpa at gmail.com (Bob Adler)]

Hi Herb,

Since you seem satisfied with the post Leica calibration test shots, my 
guess is it is camera shake caused by the longer lens and heat of the 
moment. My suggestion would be to manually set the shutter speed at 1/250 or 
higher, set the ISO via the menu to AUTO with the max ISO being your limit 
of tolerance (maybe 1200 for daylight shooting, higher for indoors), and 
then simply choose the f/stop as you would on aperture priority (which is 
what you use now probably). So really no change in your shooting style. 

The only thing I am unsure of on the M9 is whether exposure compensation 
still works when using manual mode. So you may have to meter the way older M 
film cameras did (M6 and after with the built in meter) by finding an area 
to meter and depressing the shutter half way and reframe. Just watch your 
histogram to avoid over exposure.  

Walk around and shoot a few flowers and see what you think. 
Best,
Bob

Sent from my iPad

On Sep 27, 2013, at 10:41 AM, Herbert Kanner <kanner at acm.org> wrote:

> Since 99,9% of my use of my M9 (and my M6 years ago) has been with a 35mm 
> Summicron, I confess to being a rank amateur when it comes to the 90mm 
> Chron. After being irritated by too many soft-focus shots with the 90, I 
> did a careful test of a fence from about 12 feet and found that the 
> rangefinder/lens coupling was slightly off. So I sent it in to Leica, got 
> it back about $350 later, checked out out and found it to be spot on.
> 
> OK, now here's my experience. When I went to the first of two outdoor band 
> concerts in a park, a couple did some very spectacular dancing to the 
> music and I failed to get a picture. So, for the next concert, I brought 
> my 90mm so that I wouldn't have to get under their noses or have to do an 
> extreme crop. 
> 
> Well, the dancing couple didn't appear, but I took a lot of snapshots and 
> every one of them came out very fuzzy. I don't have a record of shutter 
> speeds or f numbers, but I was outdoors at reasonable ISO and lighting, so 
> I assume the I was probably around f/8/of f/5.6 and probably around 1/250. 
> I should have had a depth of field of about twelve feet or more for some 
> of those shots and at least two feet for the close couple I took. None of 
> them appeared to be sharp anywhere.
> 
> Could it be the increase in the effect of camera shake with the longer 
> lens?  I would have thought that the inertia from the extra weight of the 
> lens would have compensated. Yesterday, wondering if the lens had 
> mysteriously lost its calibration, I did a hand-held test at 12, 50, and 
> essentially infinity feet and the pictures were needle sharp. However, to 
> be critical, I did the test at f/2, so I got pretty high shutter speeds.
> 
> Any advice from users of longer lenses on Leica M series? 
> 
> Herbert Kanner
> kanner at acm.org
> 650-326-8204
> 
> Question authority and the authorities will question you.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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