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My two-day workshop in Rome is done. Two fabulous days with nice people around. The weather prediction said lots of rain, but we got a lot of sun. Only one little drip the first morning. Rome is a very interesting place to do street photography, especially in the older part of Trastevere. Here are a few Leica M9 photos through the Summilux 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH

Hi everybody, I’m a computer science engineer who has been working, as a hobby, the last three years in a new, more precise, way of recreating film look with digital cameras. I’m posting here for feedback, in case anybody of you would like to test the application (with the M9) and show the results and your opinions. I usually shoot film photography but also I like the comfort of digital. The problem is that I’ve never been happy with existing film emulations. Mainly because of that, because they are emulations instead of simulations. METHOD USED For doing so, instead of doing a generic conversion for every camera, I’ve done a specialised conversion for the Leica M9 based on simulating the chemical process and spectrum response, instead of applying curves and other stuff. In the end, I thought, if analog and digital are just two instruments which capture light, I thought, maybe is there any mathematical conversion to make the digital to look like film? I mean, if I take the same photo with analog and digital, under exact same conditions (light / aperture / exposition /…) could I make them look exactly the same? It’s based on chemical simulation and the Leica M9’s response to spectrum. Then LUTs and finally some extra calibration. I think that it could be improved because I’ve used home made or open source tools for calibrating and so on, which are far from perfect. EXAMPLES (Analog vs Converted Digital) Following are some examples of Superia 200 and TriX 400. Click in each photo to see high resolution. DNGs shoots taken with Leica M9 (left), and FILM shoots taken with Minolta CLE (right) at same conditions (aperture / exposition / ISO). All shoots taken with Zeiss Biogon T* ZM 35mm f/2. The examples show several photos, which are the following: +------------------------+------------------------+ | original DNG | | +------------------------+------------------------+ | converted DNG | scanned FILM | +------------------------+------------------------+ | developed DNG | developed FILM | +------------------------+------------------------+ For the generated simulated negative TIFF file and the scanned TIFF file I’ve applied exactly the same develop parameters. TriX 400 - 1 TriX 400 - 2 TriX 400 - 3 Superia 200 - 1 Superia 200 - 2 Superia 200 - 3 Superia 200 - 4 Superia 200 - 5 Superia 200 - 6 CONCLUSIONS Tonal range - Biggest difference between digital and film Dynamic range - Digital is faaar more detailed in the blacks, film never gets burnt, meanwhile digital gets burn quite fast. Film has more microcontrast, it's more sharpen Digital is a little bit more contrast after developing, I imagine it’s because it reach white level faster, then, when doing autolevels with the developing program, as a result, it’s a more contrast image. DOWNLOAD I'm having a console application ready, if interest is shown it will be ready quite soon! CAVEHEATS / LIMITATIONS The program only accept DNG, because I need all the light captured by the camera, instead of a JPG already converted and really dependent on camera self made adjustments. The program only accepts photos taken at the ISO of the certain film that is gonna be used. For example, for TriX400 it will accept only Leica M9 DNGs at 400 ISO. I’ve also done tests with ISO 200 and 800, and the results were quite satisfactory but, for complexity reasons, I prefer to let it be native film ISO for the moment. Highlights are not always correct, and sometimes they look weird, mainly in color film. This is due to bayer sensor pattern and its different intensity response (for Red, Green and Blue channels). FUTURE (& PAST) WORK Leica M10-D Leica M8.2 THANKS Super thanks to the creator of LibRaw, a wonderful C++ library for working with RAW files. Any questions I’m open to answer 🙂 Best regards everybody. Tomás AKA “Camalogica”

Winter came late to Lebanon this season, Acile was the first storm to put our mountains under the beautiful snow mantel. A pair of backcountry skis was all I needed to go up one of the most beautiful cedars reserves to witness what Acile had done. Hope you enjoy the view.

Hallo, ich habe mir vor Jahr und Tag eine M9 neu gekauft. Habe aber die M9 nicht benutzt , da ich lieber analog gearbeitet habe. Dann kam das Thema "Sensor" auf und ich habe um meine M9 zu prüfen einige Zeit mit der M9 fotografiert. Alles im "Grünen Bereich" - keine Probleme. Auf Nachfrage hat man mir gesagt, wenn da bis jetzt nichts passiert ist, dann kommt da auch nichts mehr. Sie brauchen nichts zu unternehmen. Also die M9 wieder weggepackt. Gestern nun M9 genommen , Objektiv angesetzt , Winterfoto gemacht .. und nix ! In der Mitte hell und an beiden Rändern irgendwelche Farbe. Karte formatiert. Das gleiche Ergebnis. Firmware kontrolliert und neu aufgespielt. Wieder Mist. Leica angerufen und 2 Beispielfotos an den Service gesendet. Aber man hat mir wenig Hoffnung gemacht. Es gibt keinen neuen Sensor mehr und wenn der es nicht ist, dann ist es irgendein Board, welches es auch nicht mehr gibt. So ganz kann ich mit dieser Sachlage nicht zufrieden sein. Eine recht teuere Digitalkamera mit weniger als 1.000 Auslösungen , gibt nach kurzer Benutzung und danach nur im Schrank gelegen, einfach den Geist auf und es gibt keinen Ersatz. Äußerlich sieht die M9 aus wie neu aus dem Laden. Die Update - Angebote habe ich auf der Leica Seite gesehen. Aber das kann ich nur als schlechten Scherz bewerten. Nach den Erfahrungen soll ich eine weitere große Summe in eine DIGITAL - LEICA investieren ? Gibt es ähnliche Erfahrungen ? Ich habe auch Digitalkameras von Nikon D3 und neuer die D810 von denen sind solche Probleme nicht bekannt. Na ja, die kosten ja nicht soviel. Es tut mir in der Seele weh, wenn ich nur denke die M9 einfach zu entsorgen. Es muß doch eine Möglichkeit geben.

We're happy to announce that we'll be hosting a monthly social meet up and photo walk, named Bristol Leica Social. The first meeting will be on April 1st, 2017, and on the first Saturday of every month thereafter. We'll be meeting at the store on Baldwin St (3 alliance house, Baldwin St, BS1 1SA) at 9am. We'll be heading out from the store in self picked groups to take images around the centre, aiming to meet at a café at 12 noon to compare images and discuss all things Leica. The shop will be open as usual, and we will be here as usual to have a chat or demo any items (depending on stock availability) There is no cost to attend, but attendees are encouraged to bring money for any refreshments required as you walk around. Leica users of all kinds are welcome, and so are those who don't own a Leica but wish to learn more about the brand and the beautiful products that they offer. For current updates and more information, we have an event page on our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lcebristol/.

My son and I continued our tour of the steam railways of Britain this weekend with a visit to "Buzzrail" a preserved narrow gauge railway originally used for hauling sand from the quarries to the mainline. Apparently Leighton Buzzard sand is so good they even sell it to Saudi Arabia. The railway runs about three miles to the Stonehenge works. These visits are always a great opportunity to add to my collection of candid portraits, full of characters who are willing to chat about their hobby whilst I indulge mine. LBLR-2

For all those who might not be aware of the issue.

Although I've shared a few pictures so far from my trip to Greece I thought I'd share a few more that don't really merit their own threads... All on my M9 and 50mm Summicron. Five Greek Men by Robert Michael Poole, on Flickr

Gibraltar Espanol Guitar by Robert Michael Poole, on Flickr

Went out to test newly acquired Canon Ltm 50mm 1.4 Version II. What an incredible lens ! So much character wide open, pretty sharp as well. Very strong stepped down. Great contrast all the way. Best 200$ cdn spent in the last few months. Strongly recommend it to whoever is looking for affordable 50mm option and wants it to have "balls" Love it.

Hello everyone. I'm a long-time M photographer who just joined this forum. My first M was a 6, followed by an 8, then a 9 and most recently a 10. I really love the M9 and my camera is one of the early production ones and in original condition (never repaired or had anything replaced.) I've not cleaned the sensor for about 5 years and today finally took the time to do so. The images in this post have been processed in Lightroom to add as much contrast as I could to increase the visibility of specs and dust. The small images inline in this post have had "auto levels" applied, so they are extremely compressed, greatly exaggerating the particles. Link to full-res images at end of post. I started with a reference shot against a light grey wall, summicron 50 at f16 out of focus. Pretty damn dirty: First round of cleaning was with a rocket blower. This got rid of quite a lot of minor dust particles: Second round of cleaning was with a VisibleDust Arctic Butterfly statically-charged brush, which got rid of a new "class" of particles: However there were still a few "sticky" particles left. Final round was wet cleaning with swabs of Eclipse. This is a really scary step as it's easy to make mistakes, but I managed to not screw up: There's now just a single impossible-to-get-rid-of spec (even after five Eclipse swabbings), and I can live with that one. Pretty remarkable how much cleaner the sensor is after this. Strongly recommend taking an hour out of your life to clean you sensor (very carefully) :–) Full-res images (lightly compressed and processed to increase particle visibility): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0q9tht2js82u1zs/AAB6M-98wkRWTfmDtTke-duha?dl=0 Equipent used: Giottos AA1900 Rocket Air Blaster VisibleDust Arctic Butterfly 724 VisibleDust Quasar R 5x Sensor Loupe Photosol Sensor Swab ULTRA (24mm) Photographic Solutions Eclipse fluid

Hallo zusammen, weil ich die Idee, Vintage-Objektive an modernen Digitalkameras zu verwenden, interessant finde, habe ich zwei Wochen lang das Heliar 3,5/50 mm VM aus der Classic Line von Voigtländer an meiner M9 ausprobiert. Kurz-Bericht: Das Ding hat mir Spass gemacht. Vom Design und der Verarbeitung her ein echtes Schmuckstück, zwingt das Heliar zum entschleunigten Arbeiten ... im besten Sinne. Zusammen mit der M9 hatte ich das Gefühl, mit einer Kamera aus den 1950er Jahren zu arbeiten (noch mehr als sonst, wenn ich mit der M9 fotografiere ). Die Bildqualität war top. Kann ich das Heliar grundsätzlich empfehlen? Ja und Nein. Wer hofft, dass das Objektiv den Bildern einen Vintage-Look vermittelt, wird enttäuscht. Das Ding ist einfach zu gut. Noch immer ein 5-Linser wie der klassische Vorgänger, aber völlig neu berechnet. Sehr gute Schärfe bereits bei der (mässig lichtstarken) Offenblende, farbneutral wirkendes Rendering, kaum erwähnenswerte Abbildungsfehler. Lediglich Vignettierung, aber das stellt ja heutzutage kein Problem mehr dar. Manch einer wird sich also fragen, warum man sich unter diesen Umständen die "Vintage-Arbeitsweise" mit geringer Lichtstärke, gemeinsam drehenden Blenden- und Fokussierringen und dem Blendenring ohne Raststufen antun muss. Wer es dagegen liebt, old style zu arbeiten und dennoch seinen Objektiven zeitgemäße Leistung abverlangt, wird mit dem Heliar sicher glücklich. So ganz nebenbei hat das Ding auch noch ein vergleichsweise geringes Eigengewicht und eine sich nach vorn verjüngende Bauform, die den Sucher nicht abdeckt. Nachfolgend noch ein Bilder, die ich mit dem Heliar gemacht habe. (Wer die lange Fassung lesen möchte, findet sie in meinem Blog: https://www.bonnescape.info/praxistest-voigtlaender-heliar-3-5-50mm-vm/)

I recently collected my M9 body from Leica Mayfair, London, after sensor replacement. I was delighted to get it back, but on my first day shooting with it I encountered some problems. First, it froze when I took 3 single shots in quick succession. The red light flashed for 10+ minutes and an error message appeared - can't remember exactly what it said, but it referred to writing to memory. I left the camera alone, hoping it would eventually write to the memory card (newly formatted in-camera SanDisk Ultra 32GB SDHC I 40 MB/s Class 10). When I picked up the camera a few hours later the light wasn't flashing, but there was nothing on the memory card. Trying a second time, with the memory card formatted again, the camera worked but would only deliver DNG files. The menu allows me to choose between Compressed and uncompressed DNG, but no JPG option. The DNG files are satisfactory, image quality is fine, limited only by my own lack of ability ... It's several years since I had last used the camera because I changed to a Sony A7 before I sent the M9 for sensor repair, so I cannot recall how I originally set it to record RAW+JPG, and now I cannot see any such option on the menu. I find it difficult to believe the camera won't provide JPGs, so I must be doing something wrong. Any suggestions welcome.

Hallo zusammen, da ich heute Abend etwas Zeit hatte, habe ich mir die Zeit genommen und die aktuell von LC zur Verfügung gestellte Firmware Version auf meine M9 zu installieren. Es handelt sich um die M9/-P/M-E FW-Versionen 1.210 und 1.216. Firmware Version 1.210 (Release Notes) Soweit so gut. Doch dann wollte ich mal schauen, ob man das Profil auch "manuell" auswählen kann. - Ich hatte keinen Eintrag in der Liste. Selbes Spiel mit der 1.216er FW, obwohl die Installation und der Neustart ohne Schwierigkeiten durchgeführt werden konnten. Firmware Version 1.216 (Release Notes) U.a. sind auch das neuere Noctilux 0,95/50mm ASPH nicht in der Liste auffindbar. Geht wohl nur bei Obj.typ-Erkennung "Automatisch", die ich nicht nutze. Finde ich jedoch schon etwas seltsam. Ist irgendwie nur die halbe Miete auch wenn es sehr löblich ist, dass LC für so ein "betagtes" Stück Technik noch FW-Updates ausgibt. Geht das mit der manuellen Auswahl im Menüpunkt "Obj.typ-Erkennung" nur mir so oder hat das noch jemand anderes beobachtet? Gruß, Stephan

I was excited to get a pre-owned M9 Monochrom in excellent condition with very few shots and a new sensor. Good looking camera, I have to admit. Coming from a Q2, honestly, the control/settings layout is a bit dated. But the pics show promise (I have to go out and shoot more). And the mechanical shutter sound and the file write delay...whoah. The settings offer two modes: soft and discreet. Both are so loud, forget about using this camera for wildlife shooting - it would scare away a bear. And the slow file write is...interesting. But if the pics live up to expectations, I can accept the annoying and tinny shutter sound. Cheers! CJ

We know that Leica M9 was launched 09.09.09 ... at such a nice period. For me this first digital full frame Leica has won Collector Status. I still use it, and the images from this old friend are great, even with today's standard. This is from old Kodachrome slide taken some years back in Colmar scanned with M9, macro 50mm lens on bellows, then only need some dust cleaning, resize for LUF nothing more needed !

Few weeks ago, I use my M9-P compared to Kodak 35mm film (Portra 160 & 800). Honestly, I don't think how good is M9 series image performance, but the CCD do makes M9 series become the unique one in Leica digital camera. M9-P w/Summicron 35mm f2 11673 (f/2.0, Auto WB, ISO 800) 👇 Kodak Portra 800 w/Summilux 35mm f1.4 11663 (f/2.0) 👇

Hi i don’t know why the site wouldn’t let me create a new topic in the M forum. My question: I have an M10 and Q2. I just bought an M9 which I want to get converted to Infra Red. Any recommendations for getting it done? I’m in the UK. thanks

Greetings everyone, I have been using the M9 since 2016. Earlier this year I traded it for an M9P and thought that will be good enough for my amateurish skill level and enjoyment. Until I started reading this forum to find out the black and white mindset change with the M9M which is exhilarating! I could not shake off this thought and now here I am, an owner of a used M9M (new sensor) in 2022. Thank you Leica Forum!

Hi all, Not sure there is any solution to this but my M9 screen has started to show what appear to be dead pixels, to be clear they are not on the photo but are the screen pixels. (excuse crappy phone photo). Anyone seen this before or have any idea if it is fixable. To be fair it isn't a show stopper since I rarely use the screen except in tricky light to check exposure which is still doable. Any comments/advice welcome but I fear I will have to put up with it until it eventually dies. Shame as it has an new style sensor and otherwise works fine.

Hello all I posted a message on the general beginner forum the other day about the best camera with which to start my Leica journey. From the reply I got, it seems that the M9 is a very good bet. However, in my reading up in this, I have seen various articles which suggest the better option is the M9-P. I am looking at one of each of the M9 (£1,800) and M9/P (£2,750) bit of which have low shutter actuations (c.3,500) and have had their sensors replaced with the non-corrosive sensors. Any advice on which may be the better option would be most welcome! Many thanks Ben

Dear all, I am totall new to the leica digital world. I currently brought a M9 in a excellent condition. But one thing makes me a little bit wondering: sometimes the LCD display shows me pictures with strange rings. It happened very often when I shoot in-door under poor/artificial light source. the rings disappeared when I shoot under higher iso (1600 or higher). Leica Care told me it is normal. The camera have to compress the original photo extremely to be able to show it on this small LCD screen. Due to the bad resolution and colour depth of the compressed picture, these rings may appears. The explanation by Leica is quite OK. But yesterday I have the chance to try a Leica M8.2. It doesn’t show any rings when shooting under the same condition. Now I am really confused. Can anyone tell me if it is normal bei M9 or my LCD is somehow defect? Thanks s lot for your help! Best regards Frank

I recently purchased a Leica M9, that appears to possibly be the first M9 produced. Serial number is 3803501. The camera appears to be in like new condition with all original packaging. I purchased the camera to use, not sit in a a collection. My thoughts are: Even though it is a digital camera, does it have significant collectors value that would make a mistake to use it as an every day camera? Is it likely that digital cameras will never have significant collectors value? I would appreciate anybody's thoughts. Tim

Hey, would you buy a Leica M 9 with an updated processor. So we could keep the nice sensor and have a more responsive camera. I would love to have the choice of using a CCD but with a faster response time and maybe live view could be achieved. I shoot the camera the way it is. And I can live with it's limitations. But if I could choose, I would love to have this option. Same with the M8. If I could get one with updated processor, I would buy it. What about you?