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Bye bye Monochrom....


flanoizele

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It was a year ago in September that I bought my Leica Monochrom. Let me tell you it was Love at first sight. :)

 

Since then I have been spending quite some time to learn how to, more or less, master it and you guys contributes a great deal on all my struggles to finally get a grip on how to expose "correctly" with it.

 

However something which never stopped bothering me was the dammed screen on the back of the camera. The fact that I am never able to check the focus after I took a portrait and even the trouble I have to check the composition when I underexpose a little due to the sensitivity of the Monochrom is really a major show stopper for me.

 

One of the reasons why I so loved my MM was that it slowed me down and that I really enjoyed photographing with it. Today I still feel the same way. Even just looking at it brings a smile on my face.

But unfortunately in some cases I do need to focus a bit faster. Sometime I do need to make sure the picture is sharp and correctly framed. And in these rare cases I can't trust it...

 

So now I decided that next Saturday I will go out and test the new M-P. If I find this focus peaking thing in combination with a EVF workable I am almost sure I will buy it...

 

I would never had imagined writing these lines on this forum and it breaks my heart to get separated from my MM but I can't see any good reason to keep both of them....:confused:

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If you dislike the MM screen there is a good chance you will dislike the EVF even more. In my experience focusing with peaking is useful from 90 mm upwards and gets progressively useless as lens angles widen.

I too find focus checking suboptimal, even on better screens, but with the MM it helps not to zoom in to the ultimate stop, pull back on magnification and it is a whole lot better.

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Beside mystique, class and wallet draining price tag, of which Leica camera have in spades, modern digital camera is supposed to provide certain degree of user satisfaction, which can be different from user to user.

As happy user of M9 (same interface as MM) and even happier user of M240 (despite it being on service at the moment) I think the latter being more advanced digital device will provide you with user features you are looking for.

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Don't be too confident on the EVF (not to speak of Liveview, which I NEVER used really on my M240... is an awful way of framing... :mad:) : as Jaap said, is NOT the panacea for problems of focusing; for me, is an accessory that sometime is useful (135 mm), sometime is VERY useful (macro, long focals I used to mount on Visoflex...(*) ), sometime is simply unnecessary (28 to 75 mm), sometime is an alternative to external OVF (15/21 mm) of questionable usefulness.

 

(*) BUT : if you are on tripod, EVF is perfectly OK (but on tripod is ok the Viso, too), if you are handeld with lenses like 200/280 , is better to forget the focus peaking...

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i think the EVF is what sucked most on the m240.

 

:o..well,maybe there had been too high expectation about... given also the excellent EVF specs of some EVIL cameras that were already available when M240 was introduced... personally I bought my M240 (coming from M8) not for the EVF.. and treated it (which bought - Olympus version, together with the M) for what is it : a decent accessory for a RF camera, period.

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I find it quite good with 280 and 400 lenses and manage very good focusing -with peaking- handheld and the magnification of 5x, but I do use a handgrip, beanbag or monopod. It is also fine for framing wideangles, but those I focus with the OVF

It is one of those things one must use within its limitations.

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If you dislike the MM screen there is a good chance you will dislike the EVF even more. In my experience focusing with peaking is useful from 90 mm upwards and gets progressively useless as lens angles widen.

I too find focus checking suboptimal, even on better screens, but with the MM it helps not to zoom in to the ultimate stop, pull back on magnification and it is a whole lot better.

 

Hi Jaap,

 

Thanks for your answer. I completely agree with you. I will never use EVF (nor LV for that matter) when shooting with my 35 Cron. I just love the OVF and manage to focus quite well.

 

But unfortunately I also do a lot of portrait work using my 75. And this is where the issue is. I am not yet confident enough on my focus capabilities with the 75mm so I need to check the screen on the back of my camera :) I tried not zooming al the way, someone even told me that I should shoot RAW+JPG because the JPG give better detail on the screen. Well let me tell you that both of these solutions don't work for me. The image keeps that "soft" look and I can't see if the eyes are perfectly sharp.

 

Best regards,

Frédéric

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BTW, thinking of the OP issue about focusing... I recently started to learn to use the method of focus bracketing (on which I remember to have read in the Forum a good explicative post year ago) : I thought that you can master it just for 2-3 lenses max, so decided to concentrate on Summicron 50 at f2 and Elmarit-M 90 at f2,8... one must learn with experience the micromovements to the focus barrel, and to synchronize the shooting action with it... I am still on learning curve (it is also distance-depending...:o), but have the feel that can be, at the end, the quickiest way to nail focus in some situations, expecially with people.

Edited by luigi bertolotti
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BTW, thinking of the OP issue about focusing... I recently started to learn to use the method of focus bracketing (on which I remember to have read in the Forum a good explicative post year ago) : I thought that you can master it just for 2-3 lenses max, so decided to concentrate on Summicron 50 at f2 and Elmarit-M 90 at f2,8... one must learn with experience the micromovements to the focus barrel, and to synchronize the shooting action with it... I am still on learning curve (it is also distance-depending...:o), but have the feel that can be, at the end, the quickiest way to nail focus in some situations, expecially with people.

And to sound nasty, if you have time to chimp and refocus-reshoot, you have ample time to focusbracket ;)

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BTW, thinking of the OP issue about focusing... I recently started to learn to use the method of focus bracketing (on which I remember to have read in the Forum a good explicative post year ago) : I thought that you can master it just for 2-3 lenses max, so decided to concentrate on Summicron 50 at f2 and Elmarit-M 90 at f2,8... one must learn with experience the micromovements to the focus barrel, and to synchronize the shooting action with it... I am still on learning curve (it is also distance-depending...:o), but have the feel that can be, at the end, the quickiest way to nail focus in some situations, expecially with people.

 

Don't let me be misunderstood... Focussing is not so much the problem (anymore). The issue is that I can't check and when doing portrait shoots with models or clients I just need to be absolutely sure that I nailed it.

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I use the EVF with a 70-210 Vario Elmar R and 400/6.8 Telyt. I find focusing them hand-held extremely problematic if any magnification is applied, with or without peaking. With no magnification it's much easier. Those lenses already magnify enough by themselves. With the 400 it's even a tiny bit jittery in the finder with 5x on a mid-size Gitzo CF with an A/S ballhead.

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You may find the new M is easier to focus accurately than the MM simply because the viewfinder is superior.

 

I don't think Leica users have been waiting 60 years to be able to get a picture in focus, this is more about over optimistic expectations, not the camera.

 

Steve

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Don't let me be misunderstood... Focussing is not so much the problem (anymore). The issue is that I can't check and when doing portrait shoots with models or clients I just need to be absolutely sure that I nailed it.

 

So why did we shoot 2 or 3 36-sheets to pick one portrait? No matter if RF or SLR.

 

It appears to me that the Capture One focus tool would be ideal for you, but I do not know whether the MM has tethered review in C1.

Edited by jaapv
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It was a year ago in September that I bought my Leica Monochrom. Let me tell you it was Love at first sight. :)

 

Since then I have been spending quite some time to learn how to, more or less, master it and you guys contributes a great deal on all my struggles to finally get a grip on how to expose "correctly" with it.

 

However something which never stopped bothering me was the dammed screen on the back of the camera. The fact that I am never able to check the focus after I took a portrait and even the trouble I have to check the composition when I underexpose a little due to the sensitivity of the Monochrom is really a major show stopper for me.

 

One of the reasons why I so loved my MM was that it slowed me down and that I really enjoyed photographing with it. Today I still feel the same way. Even just looking at it brings a smile on my face.

But unfortunately in some cases I do need to focus a bit faster. Sometime I do need to make sure the picture is sharp and correctly framed. And in these rare cases I can't trust it...

 

So now I decided that next Saturday I will go out and test the new M-P. If I find this focus peaking thing in combination with a EVF workable I am almost sure I will buy it...

 

I would never had imagined writing these lines on this forum and it breaks my heart to get separated from my MM but I can't see any good reason to keep both of them....:confused:

 

I had the same arguments when I switched from my MM to the M240.

Today I have not regretted the swap, but I still use the rangefinder on my M240 to focus.

Although my eyes are not the best ones, I do not use focus peaking anymore.

I have tried FP as I thought it would be the perfect solution, but it was not the perfect one for me!

 

Give it a try, maybe you can rent and try an M-P for a few days before you sell the MM!

 

Good luck

 

John

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I had the same arguments when I switched from my MM to the M240.

Today I have not regretted the swap, but I still use the rangefinder on my M240 to focus.

Although my eyes are not the best ones, I do not use focus peaking anymore.

I have tried FP as I thought it would be the perfect solution, but it was not the perfect one for me!

 

Give it a try, maybe you can rent and try an M-P for a few days before you sell the MM!

 

Good luck

 

John

 

Thanks a lot John!!!! I will only use this EVF (and Focus peaking) when I am out on a portrait shoot with my 75mm. For all the rest I will continue to take my time and use the rangefinder to focus. I am sure however that, rangefinder or EVF, I will be able to check my focus much better on the M-P (or M240) screen than on my MM.

 

My Leica dealer is more than happy to let me shoot with it for a couple of hours. Furthermore there's a good looking girl working in this Leica store who will be my model for half an hour. Then I will download the files on my laptop and if I like what I see I am SOLD :)

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I don't think Leica users have been waiting 60 years to be able to get a picture in focus, this is more about over optimistic expectations, not the camera.

 

Steve

 

Maybe, but the viewfinder is superior and that may help people who have some difficulty focussing. What's wrong with that?

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