[Leica] M8 RAW--high ISO improvement!

[Ken Carney]

It seems that some of the camera's capability was then compromised by 
the factory settings?  Seems strange.

On 3/10/2015 2:07 AM, Peter Klein wrote:
> I recently became aware of a way to shoot the M8 at ISO 1250 and even 
> 2500, without the horrible degradation in image quality that setting 
> the camera to those ISOs normally entails.  It seems that there is an 
> "Easter Egg" in the M8 that allows you to shoot 20 MB uncompressed RAW 
> files.  This was meant for Leica's internal testing, but the secret is 
> out.  :-)   A German programmer has written a command-line Windows 
> tool that converts these files into DNG format that Lightroom, Capture 
> One, etc. can process.
> <http://m8raw2dng.de/>
> The key sequence for the Service Mode, which enables the uncompressed 
> RAW files, is here:
> <http://m8raw2dng.de/help/m8-service-mode/>
>
> The 20-MB files retain information that is lost in the M8's standard 
> compressed files. This information leads to much better gradation, and 
> less of the awful noise and blotching found in compressed high-ISO 
> files.  Further, we shoot with the camera set at ISO 160 and 
> underexpose to a high ISO equivalent. This keeps dynamic range that is 
> normally thrown away at the high ISO settings.
>
> A week ago I attended an Armenian birthday party, which gave me the 
> chance to put the M8 Raw through its paces in a real-world setting. I 
> stuck to comparing the camera's own ISO 640 DNGs to the M8Raw 160 with 
> a 3-stop push to 1250. Here are two examples of each, screen shot 
> directly from Capture One at 100% magnification.
> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/temp/M8-640vsRawPush1250a.jpg.html> 
>
> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/temp/M8-640vsRawPush1250b.jpg.html> 
>
>
> You can see the pictures at normal screen size here:
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/friends/ErnaBday022815/?g2_page=2
> Pictures through L1009967 through L1009989 are taken at 
> 160-pushed-to-1250.  Earlier shots are at camera-640, as are L1010029 
> through the end.
>
> From an image quality standpoint, the Raw push to 1250 (marked ISO 
> 160) is almost as good as the "native" 640. It's got just slightly 
> less of the very finest detail. With the exposure compensation set to 
> -3 stops, autoexposure works fine. I would have no hesitation using 
> it. It's so much better than the camera's native 1250, which is 
> terrible--I'd only use that if there was no other way to get a shot.
>
> The disadvantages are that the files take almost forever to write to 
> the SD card. You can only take a couple of shots before the buffer 
> fills up. The playback is very dark, so you won't see what you shot on 
> the back of the camera. And you need to remember to turn the Power 
> Save to Off, because the Service Menu settings go away if the camera 
> goes to sleep or is turned off. Even so, pushed 1250 is very much 
> worth using when it means the difference between a shutter speed that 
> stops motion sufficiently vs. not, or when you need to stop down a bit 
> for DOF.
>
> I'll be giving pushed 2500 and 5000 a try next. These will be a little 
> harder, as the exposure compensation only goes to -3, so a 4-stop push 
> will require going all manual, including metering. I could also try 
> setting the camera to ISO 320 and 640 at -3 exposure compensation, but 
> this will probably lose some dynamic range.
>
> Some more explanation and more examples here:
> <http://www.leicaplace.com/threads/1081/#post-8304>
>
> There's life in the old M8 yet!
>
> --Peter
>
>
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