First results from M9

[Frank Sprow]

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After a long wait, but receiving excellent service as usual from David Farkas at Dale Photo in Florida, my M9 arrived a couple days ago. Since I rely on print comparisons to evaluate differences, I first photographed an outdoors scene with my M7 and Ektar 100 (my favorite color film) and then a street scene with TriX. The negatives were processed professionally overnight, the TriX printed conventionally (at least old time conventional!) and the Ektar drum scanned. Both to produce 13" x 20" prints ( a favorite of my clients; NGO's active in Iraq, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.

 

The M9 was set at ISO 160, uncompressed DNG and converted in Lightroom 3 Beta. Printed digitally from the same lab handling the film. Same scenes and same lens, the 50mm Summicron Asph.

 

For the first time (my previous digital M was the M8.2) the color prints have the same impact and beautiful rendering when viewed from 3 - 4 feet away. Up close to the prints, fine detail is quite comparable with only subtle differences (no favorite). For B&W, in my opinion the TriX is the winner for impact and the quality of blacks produced -- but I've been using this film for lots of years so I may well be biased. I will need to work harder in PP to try to achieve this look from the M9.

 

Thanks, Leica. I've been using M's since the M3 double stroke and plan to continue indefinitely.

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[jonoslack]

After a long wait, but receiving excellent service as usual from David Farkas at Dale Photo in Florida, my M9 arrived a couple days ago. Since I rely on print comparisons to evaluate differences, I first photographed an outdoors scene with my M7 and Ektar 100 (my favorite color film) and then a street scene with TriX. The negatives were processed professionally overnight, the TriX printed conventionally (at least old time conventional!) and the Ektar drum scanned. Both to produce 13" x 20" prints ( a favorite of my clients; NGO's active in Iraq, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.

 

The M9 was set at ISO 160, uncompressed DNG and converted in Lightroom 3 Beta. Printed digitally from the same lab handling the film. Same scenes and same lens, the 50mm Summicron Asph.

 

For the first time (my previous digital M was the M8.2) the color prints have the same impact and beautiful rendering when viewed from 3 - 4 feet away. Up close to the prints, fine detail is quite comparable with only subtle differences (no favorite). For B&W, in my opinion the TriX is the winner for impact and the quality of blacks produced -- but I've been using this film for lots of years so I may well be biased. I will need to work harder in PP to try to achieve this look from the M9.

 

Thanks, Leica. I've been using M's since the M3 double stroke and plan to continue indefinitely.

 

Now that's the way to compare properly.

Great that you're satisfied

Congratulations on your new arrival

[noah_addis]

Yes, prints are the best way to compare.

 

You may want to give printing at home a try, I've found that lab prints, especially for B&W, are not nearly as good as what I can get at home on my Epson 4880.

 

Have fun and keep working on those B&W conversions:D

[microview]

You could try The Power of Black and White which emulates a range of b/w films and is available for Lightroom v.2 which comes free with the M9 as you know (v2.6.1 currently).