Risked life and limb to get this shot and the $7000 piece of crap let me down again

[Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS]

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While in Bali, I turned left when all the tourists turned right. To my wife's horror I climbed down a rock face, crossed some rapids to get a shot of a waterfall that was tucked away out of sight.

Set the M up on the tripod with my Noctilux and a 10 stop ND filter and shot away, in the mean time the tide was coming in fast and I just got out in time.

Anyway when I downloaded my pictures they have light getting in past where the lens joins the body....................it did it to me before but I had forgotten about it.

Why do Leica make equipment that doesn't work on there equipment. i.e. why can a Leica M 240 not hold the weight of a Leica Noctilux without light getting into the sensor via the lens mount..............$7000 piece of crap.

[sisoje]

Yeah, right!

 

Send me both those pieces of crap right away! No need to keep it any more...

 

(I'll pay for shipping...)

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[Leonil]

Id be interested in seeing those images to see how the light leak affected the images

[Tonki-M]

I hear your pain, Niel! My 21 SEM has the same problem when using with the big stopper. I learned of it after i had risked my life climbing series of cliffs and slippery rocks to get to where i wanted..then bam! light leek! aw well, now i carry a woman's hair band to close around the lens mount when i want to use the big stopper

[MarkP]

Neil

 

You forgot your wife's black elastic hair band to put around the mount to stop that light leak.

Just think how much leica could charge for that!

 

It has NOTHING to do with the weight of the Noctilux. I have had this problem using a 10x ND filter on my 21 SEM, 25 Biogon, 28 Summicron, 35 Summilux, 50 Summilux & C-Sonnar, and 90 Macro-Elmar. it occurs at about 2-3 o'clock at he lens mount on all of the digital M cameras.

 

It's unbelievable that this light leak exists.

 

Now I have two black fabric covered hair elastics (stolen from my wife & daughter) I my camera bag. iIn fact when my wife was complaining the other day that she forgot to bring something to tie up her hair she looked at very strangely when I whipped one out for her

[marknorton]

I'm confused because I see no light leak with my M/Noctilux combination, though light does leak in around the latches of the lens cap I put on to simulate the ND filter. Is the leak visible in Live View or only in an exposed image?

[MarkP]

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Hi Mark,

 

fit any lens to your camera with a lightproof lens cap (or put something over the front element to ensure no light leak. Get a very powerful torch with a focused beam (to simulate prolonged sunlight exposure), hold it close to the lens mount and expose each quadrant of the mount to about 30sec especially concentrating at about 2-3 o'clock position whilst the shutter is open on B setting (the light does NOT leak in through the rangefinder window).

 

You will see the light leak as flare in the lower right corner of the image.- ie prolonged exposures in bright light such as with a NDx10 filter in bright sunlight.

 

I think it was first described by someone from Leica Australia on another website.

 

These have been demonstrated in other threads before.

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m9-forum/300680-monochrom-long-exposure-issue-2.html

and my experiment in post #22.

 

Regards,

Mark

Edited December 22, 2013 by MarkP

[marknorton]

Thank you, I must have missed this.

[StephenPatterson]

Neil, I feel your pain and agree that this light leak is unfortunate. And I'm sure it's equally frustrating that your waterfall shots did not turn out properly, but I hope you have some ND filters less than ND3.0 (10 stops)?

 

I'm not sure what your vision for this shot was, and I don't mean to question your skill as a photographer (which I respect greatly) but perhaps you might have been able to use, say, an ND0.8, with 3 stops reduction, and still achieve the desired effect with a different exposure setting?

[Stealth3kpl]

I would think, if in bright sunlight, and requiring motion blur and wanting the shallow depth of field of f1, the 10 stop would be ideal i.e. 1/30@f1 (assuming 1/125@f16 without the filter).

Pete

[MarkP]

Hi Stephen,

 

long time no hear from.

 

As you would know here are times when anything less than 10xND will not do the job if in bright light.

 

Someone on the other thread recommended fitting a black fabric-covered women's (or men's for his ponytail hair elastic over the lens/base junction. This works exceptionally well, and simply shading the base of the mount tends to fix the problem - the term lens shade takes on a whole new meaning.

 

It's extraordinary that Leica can't even produce a lightproof lens mount .

 

Regards,

Mark

[Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS]

Sorry been out shooting in the pissing rain in Bali all day...............will post up the picture later plus answer some of the questions later

[Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS]

here's the culprit........I think I can still make a picture out of it with a little help from Nik and PS

Heading to the pub, I always get the best results with PS when I am half micked.

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[MarkP]

What a shame.

Good luck with the post processing - it'll be a hard job.

 

My son lost a whole day's photography for his school art project from this problem using my M9, and ZM 24/50/85mm lenses with the NDx10. And of course it was my fault .

[earleygallery]

Never noticed any such light leak on my M2 so I guess this is a 'feature' of digital M's.

 

It must be a feature not a fault or surely something would be done about it? I'm amazed quite frankly.

[Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS]

Neil

 

You forgot your wife's black elastic hair band to put around the mount to stop that light leak.

Just think how much leica could charge for that!

 

It has NOTHING to do with the weight of the Noctilux. I have had this problem using a 10x ND filter on my 21 SEM, 25 Biogon, 28 Summicron, 35 Summilux, 50 Summilux & C-Sonnar, and 90 Macro-Elmar. it occurs at about 2-3 o'clock at he lens mount on all of the digital M cameras.

 

It's unbelievable that this light leak exists.

 

Now I have two black fabric covered hair elastics (stolen from my wife & daughter) I my camera bag. iIn fact when my wife was complaining the other day that she forgot to bring something to tie up her hair she looked at very strangely when I whipped one out for her

Bought some yesterday and they will now be a permint fixture on my lens

[Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS]

Neil, I feel your pain and agree that this light leak is unfortunate. And I'm sure it's equally frustrating that your waterfall shots did not turn out properly, but I hope you have some ND filters less than ND3.0 (10 stops)?

 

I'm not sure what your vision for this shot was, and I don't mean to question your skill as a photographer (which I respect greatly) but perhaps you might have been able to use, say, an ND0.8, with 3 stops reduction, and still achieve the desired effect with a different exposure setting?

 

Hi Steven

When this first happen to me a few months back one of the members told me not to shoot the Noctilux over f8 so I remembered that bit but forgot about the other reccomendation to wrap a hair band around the lens

I have s 3 and 10 stop need to order some more

[Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS]

I would think, if in bright sunlight, and requiring motion blur and wanting the shallow depth of field of f1, the 10 stop would be ideal i.e. 1/30@f1 (assuming 1/125@f16 without the filter).

Pete

 

Peter

I used f4 and 8 seconds I SO 200

[Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS]

Leica jewellery for a botch job on there prime camera:D

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[Stealth3kpl]

Peter

I used f4 and 8 seconds I SO 200

 

Must've been dull light?

Pete