[Leica] I Tried an M8; Color Question

[firkin at ncable.net.au (Alastair Firkin)]

On 18/02/2007, at 8:59, Robert D. Baron wrote:

> I was in Dallas Texas last week and stopped by Cooters Village  
> Camera, the Leica dealer in Highland Park Village Center.  Very  
> knowledgeable and nice folks.
>
> They kindly allowed me to try their demo M8 with a couple of my  
> lenses (Noctilux and 28mm Summicron ASPH) and sold me an SD card of  
> my own I could then bring home and look more closely at the test  
> shots I took.
>
> I have been highly impressed with the shots and comments posted  
> here recently by the members of the Non-Whining M8 Photographers  
> Association (you know who you are).
>
> I did have the usual quibbles of my own (the shutter tripping and  
> re-cocking noise will take getting used to; too much digital image  
> noise compared to Canon at higher ISO; is it *really* worth  
> $5,000US?) but overall I can see how it would be great to use in  
> many situations instead of my current Canon digital behemoths.
>
> One question I have is about the color it produced on my test;  I  
> may be having brain fade and not remembering something I should  
> know, but please take a look at these 4 test shots from ISO 160 to  
> 2500 (you can see the ISO of each when you click through from the  
> thumbnails to the full size images) and tell me why there is such a  
> color shift as the ISO increases:  http://www.bobbaron.com/ 
> M8TestFeb07/index.htm

I have found that the wb on the M8 is pretty variable. I think it may  
be slow: if I take 3 shots of the same subject in a row, the wb often  
varies quite a lot. If I give it time to write to the card then take  
the second, it seems more reliable. Because I'm shooting all RAW, I  
just keep it on "daylight" most of the time and adjust later. I have  
set up profiles with slightly different settings:

Daylight on low ISO

Daylight on mid ISO with b/w preview

Autobalance on high ISO for interiors etc

I can move between the profiles quickly and change them on the fly  
from there.

Cheers

Alastair