fiftyonepointsix

No difference in High ISO, unless you have a lens with 6-bit coding that requires a new Rev- 1.176 is more reliable for shooting than newer releases.

Version 1.176 was the last that had the reliable discreet mode. After that, a function to monitor battery condition was added, where the camera would not perform certain functions if the battery was deemed to be too weak. Other firmware changes included increased reliability when writing to the SD card, to avoid problems with certain cards. I think it all added up to a number of operations that took priority away from polling the shutter release to determine when the user let up on it. I kept my M9 at 1.176 and it has never had a problem when using with discreet mode, but my M Monochrom has the unreliable discreet function.

Nikkor 3.5cm F2.5, in LTM. ~$300. Wide-Open on the M9. Udvar Hazy Air and Space by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr Udvar Hazy Air and Space by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr Udvar Hazy Air and Space by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr I've taken pictures of these same aircraft with many different lenses. This one stands-out for the illusion of 3-D.

The gear list doesn't even scroll off the page. Look into some of the older lenses, single-coated, uncoated, put some variety into your selection. Buy from the age when lenses were formulated without computers, the designers wanted to have the effect that you inquired about designed into the optics.

Shadow, texture gradients, and color are three of the depth cues that produce a three-D perception of a photograph and are probably the most dependent on a particular lens. Other depth cues are relative size, occlusion of objects, orientation, elevation, and linear perspective. A proper combination of all will produce the strongest illusion of depth. A lot has been written on this subject. It's called depth perception, been around long before Leica. Paul Rudolph formulated the Plasmat to specifically to have the "plastic", ie stereoscopic, image characteristic. Neblette, "Photographic Lenses", 1973 edition states that the Plasmat had the "plastic", stereoscopic, characteristic of lenses with undercorrected spherical aberration. The Nikkor 10.5cm F2.5 is a well-known lens that was undercorrected for spherical aberration. Mt Vernon by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

I forgot to post pictures from the Jupiter-8 in this thread! Wide-open on the M Monochrom, G1005267 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr I saw Bob Hoover fly this Airplane, I'm sad that it's not still in an airshow, but glad to see it in the Smithsonian. G1005265 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr The Jupiter-8 has that classic Sonnar signature, at about $40 in LTM- a bargain. G1005240 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr This particular lens is shimmed for the Leica, and modified to focus to 0.65m, RF coupled.

I have the 3.5cm F1.8 in S-Mount, and the 3.5cm F2.5 in S-Mount and LTM. I've shot the 3.5cm F1.8 and 3.5cm F2.5 on the same roll with the Nikon SP, will post those images to Flickr. The 3.5cm F2.5 runs ~$300 in LTM, Grass-backlit, corner flare test by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr grass_into_sun_f25 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr Udvar Hazy Air and Space by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr Udvar Hazy Air and Space by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr All wide-open. The 3.5cm F2.5 is even smaller than the F1.8. I put a little teflon tape (plumbing dept) around a standard 34mm filter to use with mine. I also found a 34.5mm to Series VI adapter. 34.5mm filters are hard to find. I have an insane number of Nikkor lenses in S-Mount, LTM, Contax RF mount, and F-Mount. ~125 or so. The 3.5cm F2.5 is well worth grabbing for the price.

Try a Zeiss 50/1.5 C-Sonnar. You get more field curvature, less astigmatism, and more spherical aberration. The shape of the aperture is is designed to spread out the focus over a wider range as you stop down to F4 or so. Between F1.5 and F2.8, less contrast across the image. The 3-D effect is more pronounced with a Monochrom camera. Very different lens than what you already have.

Too funny- I worked in a camera shop paying my way through school in the mid 70s as a Physics major. A customer had made some remark that I had overheard about how salesmen didn't know anything about the equipment that they sold. He stepped up to the counter and had me pull out a zoom lens and then stated "Okay, explain to me how this works"... Told him, good timing for you. He did buy the lens. I worked on Digital imagers in the 1980s, did the data acquisition systems and signal processing algorithms for them. The M Monochrom is special, a way of thinking about the image before releasing the shutter rather than hovering over a computer. I'm currently in my home office, surrounded by Ten computers. But I get paid to write code for the other 9.

The Summilux shows out-of-focus regions characteristic of residual astigmatism. The price you often pay for having flatness of field. Bokeh is a matter of taste. Lenses that are not critically sharp are often preferred for portraits.

I've been using Sandisk and PNY 4x, 8GByte cards. I had one Transcend 10x card Fail, and two Sandisk "Extreme" UHS-1 cards fail. Never had a problem with the 4x cards.

https://www.leicaplace.com/threads/1145/ I know how to convert a color DNG file to monochrome. The M Monochrom produces higher resolution monochrome files without conversion artifacts because it can be used with optical pre-processing. Better monochrome image, in terms of resolution and being free of artifacts.

http://www.the.me/lesson-in-history-the-magic-of-the-value-for-money-zeiss-c-sonnar-50mm-f1-5/ The above article has some explanation of focus shift with the C-Sonnar, and examples. Below is a write-up on the original Sonnars. http://www.the.me/unique-blend-of-compactness-super-speed-and-perfect-imperfections-1930s-sonnar-lenses-on-the-leica-m9-and-m-monochrom/ Focus shift takes a little getting used to. Field curvature on the C-Sonnar is greatly reduced compared with the original lenses. Field curvature is greatly reduced in the reformulated Sonnars of the 1940s, but those are rare and one in mint condition will cost almost as much as a new C-Sonnar.

The Sonnar formula lenses sit much closer to the image plane compared with most lenses. It does much better on a Leica Digital sensor, which is optimized for such lenses. With a little practice, you learn to deal with focus shift: focus with the RF then back off a little, or leave the RF image slightly off perfect coincidence. As much as I like my C-Sonnar, Window Shades by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr I like the original Sonnars even more. I have a collection of Sonnars and Sonnar formula Jupiters, Nikkors, Canons, Tanars, ... going from 1934 to the C-Sonnar.

I tend to stick with Class 4 cards in my M8 and M9. In the camera. After my experience with Sandisk UHS-1 cards failing after being formatted with the utility from the SD Organization, I believe they do not adhere to the standards.