Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2015/06/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Your reasoning certainly strikes a chord in my heart and wallet! Bob Adler Robert Adler Photography www.robertadlerphotography.com > On Jun 1, 2015, at 8:52 PM, Peter Klein <boulanger.croissant at gmail.com> > wrote: > > George: I picked up the MM a few days ago. I'm still learning. I'd had a > chance to try Jay Burleson's MM last December (thanks, Jay!). Plus I've > looked at a lot of pictures and files, and read lots of reviews by people I > respect. All of which convinced me that this was the camera for me. Thanks > to the release of the M246, people started upgrading, MM prices dropped > from [expletive] insane to merely expensive, and it was time for Peter to > get one. > > The image quality is superb. I've made very nice B&W out of M8 files, but > this is on a whole different level. The dynamic range is significantly > wider than the other CCD digital Ms. The shutter is quieter than my M8. ISO > 320 and 640 are virtually grainless. 1250 has a little texture, but less > than most films, and even 2500 is less grainy than Tri-X. At 2500 and > above, you do see grain, but it's like fine pepper rather than coarse > sandpaper. No degradation from Bayer interpolation. 5000 is quite usable, > like Tri-X in Accufine. 10,000 is pushing it, but still usable in a pinch. > > > The MM handles just like the M8 or M9. The files are flatter out of the > camera, so they usually need some sort of S-curve (or at least a shoulder > in the high values). The flexibility is amazing. You can take a picture > where the shadow values look almost black out of the camera, then dodge > them up to near medium values, and it looks great. > > The DNG files are big. 34.7 megs big. This is actually a good thing, > because they are not compressed. Having seen the difference between > uncompressed raw and compressed DNG in my M8, I'll deal with the size. It > matters a great deal at higher ISOs. This does mean that if you take four > or five shots in quick succession, the buffer fills up, and you can't shoot > until it clears sufficiently. > > I've shot a bit with a yellow filter, and a bit with no filter. Nothing > conclusive yet. Other people have reported good results, typical of what we > got with film, using green, orange, and red. Some have reported that the MM > with no filter is like film with the yellow filter. > > A big disappointment of both the M8 and M9 was that they were not true > available light cameras. A skilled person could make them work that way, > but it was a stretch. So half the reason that people historically bought > Leicas was missing. The MM doesn't have color, but it has the available > light chops as well as the resolution for the Panatomic-X and tripod crowd. > > It's nice to do available light with some depth of field. All my 50 mm > lenses are begging to go out and play. > > Black-and-white is my first photographic love. I look forward to > re-exploring it with such a fine tool. > > --Peter > > > On Monday, June 1, 2015, George Lottermoser <george.imagist at icloud.com> > wrote: > >> >>> On May 29, 2015, at 10:43 PM, Peter Klein wrote: >>> >>> <https://www.flickr.com/photos/24844563 at N04/18253781151/> >>> >>> Leica MM (yeah!), 50/2 tabbed Summicron >> >> nice snap >> >> when did the MM land in your hands? >> >> and >> >> your thoughts on the camera and image files? >> >> Regards, >> George Lottermoser >> >> http://www.imagist.com >> http://www.imagist.com/blog >> http://www.linkedin.com/in/imagist >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information