[Leica] IMGS: Comparing SL and M240 and 19R and Noctilux

[John McMaster]

Then why bother testing or comparing? Just practice for what you bought it
for ;-)

john

-----Original Message-----

I'd much rather practice focusing on chickens' eyes.  That's a more useful
test for the kind of photography I do!  Ferns and peeling paint and rocks
that don't move are not my thing ;-) To me, whether the corners are in focus
or not is not nearly as important as whether I can get sharp eyes in a
moving subject.  With the SL, my hit rate is much higher and getting even
higher as I learn to use it.  The real test will be when I take it on a
trip.  I'm hoping right now with all of this testing to be able to use the
camera automatically without having to stop and think about which button or
which wheel to use for the setting I want.  The settings are pretty
intuitive but they do take more practice and learning than the M cameras,
but not nearly as much as the Fuji ones!!

Tina

On Mon, Nov 30, 2015 at 4:33 PM, John McMaster <john at mcmaster.fr> wrote:

> A more useful test is where the subject is near infinity and should be 
> in focus, see what the corners look like with the 35/2.0, that is 
> where the SL may be weaker than the M... Tripods are the only way to 
> do decent A-B testing, that is not real photography ;-)
>
> john
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> I hate tripods.  I did put the camera on the rail of the porch. I'd be 
> glad to send anybody a full DNG or blow up any section to 100% and post
it.
> You are probably right about the lens weight; however, I did carry 
> around a Canon 1DMII with an 85/1.2 lens for over a year before Leica 
> finally came out with a digital camera.  That combination weighs 2623 
> grams and is not nearly as easy to handle as the SL and 24-90 at 2095
grams.
>
> Tina
>
> On Mon, Nov 30, 2015 at 4:24 PM, John McMaster <john at mcmaster.fr> wrote:
>
> > That you could/should have used a tripod to get similar framing ;-) 
> > You, looking at the DNGs, are the only one who is likely to see a 
> > real difference..... There will be no native SL lens weighing less 
> > than twice (more likely 3x) the weight of a 35/2.0....
> >
> > john
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> >
> > I took some photos in the rain to compare the SL with the R19/2.8, 
> > the SL with the 35/2.0 Summicron and the M240 with the Summicron.  
> > As I was carrying the cameras out to the deck, I passed the kitchen 
> > scale so I weighed them.  The SL with no lens weighed 966 grams.  
> > The M240 with the
> > 35/2.0 attached weighed 961 grams, so not a huge difference.
> >
> > When I attach the M lenses, the SL automatically recognized the 
> > coded lenses with no further attention from me.  When I attach the R 
> > lenses, I go to the menu and tell it which R lens is attached.  It 
> > recognizes the lens but does not record the correct aperture.  I 
> > know I took several at F/8 and used hyperfocal focusing, but none of 
> > them came up as having f/8 for the aperture.
> >
> > The SL is much easier to focus.  I tried out both the magnifying in 
> > the EVF and the focus peaking.  Both work fine but the magnified EVF 
> > is much easier to see.  You press the bottom right button once and 
> > it zooms to 100% in the EVF, press it twice and it zooms to 200%.  
> > Focus and touch the shutter button and it zooms back out and takes the
photo.
> >
> > With the auto-focus SL lens, there are several focusing formats to 
> > choose from in the SL and  you can also touch the screen and have it 
> > focus there or move the toggle switch (they call it the joystick) 
> > next to the EFG to choose a focus spot.  I find the screen and the 
> > toggle switch to be easiest and fastest.  But these are all manually 
> > focused with M and R lenses.
> >
> > The first one is an experiment with the Noctilux last night using 
> > the magnified EVF to focus on Tom's eyelashes instead of the glasses
frame.
> >
> > http://www.pbase.com/image/161961923
> >
> > The next three are straight from the camera as DNGs, converted to 
> > jpegs as they are exported with no other adjustments.
> >
> > Leica SL with 19/2.8 Elmarit R:
> >
> > http://www.pbase.com/tinamanley/image/161961755
> >
> > Leica SL with 35/2.0 Summicron M:
> >
> > http://www.pbase.com/tinamanley/image/161961757
> >
> > Leica M240 with 35/2.0 Summicron M:
> >
> > http://www.pbase.com/tinamanley/image/161961758
> >
> > I did some bracketed exposures and merged the photos for HDR with 
> > each camera and each lens.  These are adjusted for color and exposure:
> >
> > *http://www.pbase.com/tinamanley/leica_sl&page=7
> > <http://www.pbase.com/tinamanley/leica_sl&page=7>*
> >
> > The SL will also bracket the 3 exposures as DNGs and make a merged 
> > jpeg from them automatically.  I found those needed more adjusting 
> > than making them myself.
> >
> > What do you think?
> >
> > Tina
> >
>