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Hello, I want to share with you my last experience with the SL. It was the first studio session on location I had, mixing strobes and ambient light, since I purchased the SL. During this session I have had a really hard times trying to focus on some faces during this group & portrait session yesterday! I was in a white walls area and the ambient light was rather normal (sunny day). I was shooting with a moderate natural and clear back-light coming from 2 windows. I used 2 strobes on the persons. Most of the time, I was more or less able to focus easily, but on one face it was almost impossible, wherever I set the focus point on the sensor, to focus! I had to add a side continuous light to be able to focus. And even so it was not obvious to achieve it right all the time.😳 To be honest, I am a little disappointed by the "lack of power" of the AF response. Even my previous DSLR (Nikon D800 & Pentax K1....) were better in low or contrasted lights than the SL. 🤔 On a more positive side the image quality (especially skin tons) is far better than everything I had in hands before. 🤩 Has anyone gone through such difficulties and is there a better camera setting to insure better results? Many thanks in advance for your educated advice. 😁

Schon immer habe ich gerne in den späten Abendstunden Fotografiert. Zu Analogzeiten mit einem 21 DIN Film war das trotz Leica M6 und 2/35mm Objektiv nicht leicht. Leider haben die meisten Digitalkameras das gleiche Problem, es sei denn man geht auf Kleinbildformat/Voll Format. Mit der Q besteht für mich jetzt die Gelegenheit diese Bilder zu machen. Die Bilder sind in meinem Heimatort gemacht worden nach 20 Uhr. Viel Spaß beim anschauen. Gruß Hermann

Dear all, I am currently making a big part of my photos with my M(240) + 50/0.95 (also using the 75/1.4) with the 1,4* viewfinder magnifier. In low light I 'd like to have more clarity. I am considering the M10 and wonder if the better viewfinder of the M10 (particularly brightness) is still much better than the M(240) with the viewfinder magnifier (as you need to use an adapter to screw it on, do you reduce the advantage ?) Do any of you have experience with that ? thanks Didier

Thank you to everyone who took part in April's Barnack's Monthly theme, which was filled with a wonderful array of more than 300 pictures and excellent ideas and interpretations of the theme! Thank you to everyone who helped to make it another successful month by generously posting their pictures and in particular to those people who posted for the first time - I hope you found it an interesting and rewarding experience and I hope it encourages you to share more of your pictures with us! The Barnack's Monthly theme for May 2017 is: "Darkness" This month's theme is "Darkness", which could be at night or in low light or a subject in the shadows where the light fears to tread. We did a similar theme four years ago and it was very popular so here's an opportunity to dust off and post those shots again or find others that you've taken in the meantime - it might even be an opportunity to re-work pictures you've taken before with all the knowledge you've gained since. "Darkness" could be a star-lit night, dusk by the Danube, a fox in the shadows behind the bins, a bear having a feast behind a dumpster, late-night party-goers straggling home, a church in the moonlight, twilight over Tuscany, dawn over Duckberg, midnight in Marseilles, the gloaming in Glasgow, nightfall in Nigeria, the gloom in Gdańsk, first light in Firenze, daybreak in Detroit, cockcrow in Córdoba, dim light in Dunedin, darkness in Dargaville, blackness in Baghdad, murkiness in Mumbai, shade in Shaolin, sunrise in Sun City, shadows in Shadowlands, aurora in Argentina, evening in El Paso, midday in winter in Reykjavik, a midnight gathering on park benches, crowds leaving the theatre, a street scene in the small hours, a darkroom, the inside of a cupboard, a car in a poorly-lit garage, a Duesenberg in night time - it's entirely your choice so let your imagination run free! It would be a help if you give your picture a title so to help us understand your point of view but it's not compulsory. Members have asked if we'd very kindly name the camera and lens used - if you can remember - because it's interesting to know but, again, it's not compulsory just helpful. The rules are deliberately loose so go out and shoot with this month's theme in mind or start searching back through those pictures you took oh-so long ago that you'd forgotten about and start posting! It doesn't have to be your best ever shot and it's not a competition so you might surprise the rest of us and yourself - it's just about sharing some pictures, seeing others' take on the topic, and enjoying it! Everybody's welcome to contribute, any interpretation, any number of posts, pictures that have been posted on the forum before, any equipment as long as it and the photo complies with the forum's rules of either camera or lens or both made by Leica. Please post freely - especially newcomers and please remember there's no judging or criticism (good or bad) in this thread. So, if you'd like to show your acknowledgement or appreciation that someone has posted their picture then instead of posting a comment please use the "Thanks" button that you can find at the bottom right of every post. Please post away and I look forward to seeing your interesting interpretations of this month's theme. Note: Moderator Pop has very kindly assembled links to all of the past Barnack's Monthly threads as a single archive that can be found here: Barnack's Monthly Index. Thank you, Pop! Pete

Leica T + 50mm f/1.4 Summilux-M ASPH ISO 400, f1.4, 1/125 "Gear Up!"

Leica T + 50mm f/1.4 Summilux-M ASPH ISO 400, f1.4, 1/160 "Illuminated Humans"

Mercury prize nominated Eska (Eska Mtungwazi) performing at the Turner Sims Concert Hall in Southampton, England. This was taken using only the stage lighting with the Leica M9 set at 1200iso. The lens was the Zeiss 50mm Sonnar f1.5 with the camera set manually at 1/125 and f2.8. The image is virtually straight out of the camera but has been cropped slightly and tweaked. This was the first time I have used the M9 during a live performance (I normally shoot at soundchecks) and I was very happy with the results. I hope you like it, and thanks for looking. Gerry

I jsut received an email from the forum advertising Denoise software. I was just curious if anyone has used this product and what their impression is. It is certainly affordable at $35 and I would like to use it on some older files.

This image was taken in a small bar in the El Raval district of Barcelona using the Leica M9 and Zeiss 50mm Sonnar f1.5 lens @ 1600iso, and then post-processed in LR CC 2015.3 with some difficulty because of the low light levels, and the window to the extreme left which threw the exposure out a bit (this is a cropped image). This has turned out to be one of my favourite images from the trip. Gerry

munich - germany february 2013 leica m9p with 50mm summilux

I used my M9 + Summilux 50mm at a wedding banquet and noticed quite a few photos with too much red exposure (red faces, etc). I also used my Nikon D3s + 24-70mm and no such problems with this. Can anyone advise...

Hi, I've been spending days reading about these wonderful Leica M Series lenses. Some questions: 1. Are the Summilux, Summicron and Elmarit-M lenses yielding very similar sharpness and picture quality (given that you don't get the wide open F stops with the very expensive ones)? 2. Amongst the experienced Leica users are the Summicron lenses seen as being significantly improvements over the Elmarit series lenses (other than faster)? 3. Are the Elmarit series lenses seen as being a definite step up from ANY of the Zeiss ZM series or Voightlander lenses? 4. If # 3 is yes, then are there any exceptions where the Zeiss ZM or Voightlander are very very close in image quality (I already read that the Leica M Series are significantly higher build quality). 5. If I follow the wisdom of investing in lenses (the M9 will in fact will be replaced or upgraded, but the Leica lenses will be very current no matter what for decades), then are there any digital larger sensor size bodies available that can accept the M Series Leica lenses that cost significantly less than the M9 (until someday when I can afford to buy it used). 6. I have to wear reading glasses. Please direct me to any sites (forums) that talk about the use of rangefinder cameras for those who have to wear reading glasses (diopter 2.0) at this point. (Just use slightly greater magnification?? like a diopter 2.5 for more precise rangefinder focusing?) 7. I also want to find out about focusing rangefinder cameras in very low light. Any forums or sites you can direct me to ? In essence, I'm looking for the smallest body with smallest lenses that are wonderful in build and image quality potential so I actually wind up using them, having them on me, having them in my backpack (or with me on daily walks with the dogs) without weighing two tons and taking up all the room (and so I can have that special feeling that money investment has gone toward something very special--- in the end for me artistic photography has to have that feeling tone, so it might as well start with me and my equipment). Thank you for any directions to relevant forums, sites etc, and thanks for any wisdom, insights, encouragement, lessons learned along the way, pitfalls to avoid while purchasing Leica stuff for the first time. Spike

Hallo, ich interessiere mich für die Digilux 2, hab aber in diesem Forum gelesen, das die Kamera für Low-Light Fotos nicht gut geeignet ist. Kann mir jemand erklären warum? Ich dachte das Blende 2 bis 2,4 eigentlich ganz gut wäre... Eignet sich dann die D-Lux 4 besser dafür? Danke im Voraus mfg P.S.: Wenn jemand eine Digilux 2 oder D-lux 4 loswerden möchte, dann bitte um Email an kic1977 at hotmail.com

Hello, I just got my Dlux 4 the other day. One of the main reasons why I bought it was the fantastic reviews of users shooting in low light conditions. Granted im still toying around with this beast but the initial shots I've taken have all been a bit soft. I've played around with different settings but I haven't found one that gets me a nice crisp shot indoors with min lighting. What's the recommended settings that I should use to get sharp shots in low light settings (without a tripod)?