[Leica] More images with MM and more

[Henning Wulff]

Lenses that have problems with colours can cause focus shifts with strong filters (typically, red). Lenses that don't have to be refocussed much for infrared don't exhibit the shift with red filters. Apo and many other well corrected lenses that don't exhibit significantly different magnifications for different colours don't have problems with good filters. 

The latter part of that, the 'good filters' isn't as common among older filters as you might think. Filters from the 50's very often didn't have parallel faces, and this continued but slowly got better through the 90's. Now all the major brands produce decent filters, but from the 50's...:-(. 

Kodak and Tiffen series filters from the 50's have a reject rate (from me) of about 90%. Tiffen got better in the 60's, but still have to be watched. Leica have a reject rate from the 50's of less than 5%. Good filters from the 60's include Leica, Nikon (most), most of the other German brands but not many of the Japanese 'filter brands'. Harrison and Harrison, which made a lot of filters for the movies, were fairly terrible, and I don't think I ever saw a filter from them with parallel faces.

If the faces aren't parallel, they can still work with little detriment on lenses of 35-90mm at smaller apertures, but super wides and longs and fast apertures show marked degredation.

In any case, I use mainly use Leica filters on the Monochrom, because I have had them for a long time. Full sets of 39, 46, 60, ser.VII and ser.VIII. For 49 and 55mm I use good Hoya filters.

Henning



On 2014-09-15, at 12:51 PM, John McMaster <john at mcmaster.co.nz> wrote:

> They have a similar effect to film, not as pronounced. Red, and to a lesser extent orange, filters often affect focus IME.....
> 
> john
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> 
> 
> On Sep 15, 2014, at 9:28 AM, Henning Wulff <hjwulff at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Thank you Tina, Ted, Steve & George.
> 
> 
> perhaps I am unneccessarily confused. I was under the impression that filters are of no use when shooting RAW.
> 
> 
> thanks, steve
> 
> 
>> 
>> I shoot RAW only since the files almost all do need some work. The 'Changing weather' I shot with a red filter. My usual preferred filter is a yellow-green or yellow but about half my shots are without a filter. I try to carry filters for any lenses I have with me, so I'm glad I didn't sell any when I started shooting digital.
>> 
>> Other than that, I just try to shoot so the highlights don't clip. So on A, exp. comp has to be set to about -2/3 without a filter all the way to +1 1/3 with a (Leica) red, which is darker than a Kodak 25 and lighter than a 29.
>> 
>> Henning
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On 2014-09-15, at 7:24 AM, Steve Barbour <steve.barbour at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> hi  Henning, curious how you use the Monochrom..
>>> 
>>> 
>>> please share....do you shoot RAW?  with an extra filter?  other settings ?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> many thanks,
>>> 
>>> Steve
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 10:40 PM, Henning Wulff <hjwulff at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Thanks, Ted.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Yes, I got a Monochrom a little while ago for a good (user) price.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Last summer (2013) I got to use one for a couple of weeks. The 
>>>>> files were so amazing, and also, having a camera that only shot B&W 
>>>>> meant I was seeing things differently again. It's hard for me to 
>>>>> see in B&W properly if the camera I'm shooting has colour as its default mode.
>>>>> 
>>>>> In any case, while it still has the slow and small buffer of the M9 
>>>>> and M8, and can't even shoot compressed DNG files, all that is 
>>>>> easily overlooked when one shoots with it and sees the results. I 
>>>>> might keep this camera for a very long time. And I still have the M8. For infrared.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Here's another Monochrom shot, taken from our deck at our place in
>>>>> Courtenay:
>>>>> 
>>>>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/hwulff/various/L1007090-2.jpg.html
>>>>> 
>>>>> Guardian of the sidewalk:
>>>>> 
>>>>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/hwulff/various/L1006826.jpg.html
>>>>> 
>>>>> All of these have to be seen large.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Henning
>>> 
>>> 
> 
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