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Glasfoyer im rechten Winkel M8.2, 'lux 35 preasph., ISO 2500, Würzburg, 20. Nov. 2013.

Rectangular Glass Foyer at Night M8.2, 'lux 35 preasph., ISO 2500, Wuerzburg, 20. Nov. 2013.

As I am processing tons of photos from the M8.2 over this weekend now, I still didn't put my jaw from the ground, as I am still amazed by the big difference, the new Lightroom 3 makes to high ISO Leica files. Leica really seems to have worked closely with Adobe, to come to better image quality during raw conversion. These samples are all straight out of camera + BW converted DNG files without further processing. You see 1:1 screen captures from my Macbook Pro 15" jpg without any processing or converting. The crops in the side by side comparison are 1:1 crops within Lightroom 3. Left side old Lightroom 2 - right side Lightroom 3: ISO2500 1/60 90 Cron @ f2 | shadow side badly underexposed With Lightroom 3 this is even good to print @ A3, as the grain gets even less prevalent during print. With Lr 2.6, it is more like pushed ISO12800 Tri X. ISO1250 1/125 90 Cron @ f4 I think | see the much smoother grads and the cleaned up under exposed surfaces in this cockpit shot in the pit lane? ISO 640 1/125 135 APO Telyt @ f3.4 | same as above - cleaner surfaces and slightly more detail without changing a setting - just converted the file into the new Lr3 processing engine. ISO 1250 1/125 135 APO Telyt @ f3.4 | much less grain, but a slightly softer look, as I missed focus by a hair in this shot. with the much better sharpening tool in Lr3 though, this is academic, to solve. The print will be awesome! All the issues, I had with the Leica M8.2 files, when I came from the mighty Nikon D3, then pushed Tri-X and then the surprising EPSON R-D1 seem solved now! Lightroom 3 let me push the Leica files now and clean them up to the natural grainy look, I prefer, giving me more light for the night shots, I love so much! I don't know about Aperture or all the other raw converters out there, as I am a Lightroom guy since I do digital photography, but this software is a must have, when shooting Leica digitals! For some, these might not look impressive - note, these files have not been touched yet! When adjusting exposure, noise reduction and sharpening, they look mind blowing. The difference between Lr2 and Lr3 is epic!

Here are some crops from the jpeg versions of pix I shot in Salt Lake. No post-processing except for cropping. I note that Leica has vastly improved the sharpening algorithms. None of the video-like halos that appeared in the M8 unless in-camera sharpening was turned completely off. I also note that ISO 2500 is extremely noise-free (for the ISO) Shot of the M8 on pedestal: ISO 2500, mixed tungsten spotlight overhead and window daylight, 135 TE @ f/4 and 1/60th (so a touch of camera shake), "normal" sharpening setting. Detail of the "Leica" shirt is from the same shot, in DNG form, that I posted on my original report. 21 Elmarit, ISO 1600, f/2.8, "soft" sharpening setting (according EXIF - I don't know which menu setting that corresponds to precisely). Anyway, for your consideration...