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Leica m9 with Noctilux f1 and B+W ND 1,8


Vincentvandenberg

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Hi I went out for a walk before brunch today with my new m9 with a 50mm noctilux f1 and b+w ND filter 1,8.

 

I shot all the pictures at f1 / 250 sec to get that super shallow depth of field, however when I returned home and downloaded the images into LR pronounced vignetting is highly visible. Colors also shift somewhat. I believe this maybe the characteristic of this lens.I set the m9 to manual lens detection with the 50mm f/1 selected. Is this correct? How can I see if my lens is coded? For me the vignetting is a bit much!

 

I also noticed in lightroom that the f stop is not being recorded correctly. I shot most of these images at f/1 250 sec iso 160 but Lightroom shows iso 160 50mm f/9.5 1/250

 

Does anyone know why this is happening?

 

Please seem my images attached:

 

L1011859.jpg

 

http://web.mac.com/vincentvandenberg/m9_with_noctilux_brightsunlight_f1/L1011820-Edit.jpg

 

http://web.mac.com/vincentvandenberg/m9_with_noctilux_brightsunlight_f1/L1011917-Edit.jpg

 

http://web.mac.com/vincentvandenberg/m9_with_noctilux_brightsunlight_f1/L1011911.jpg

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The vignetting you are seeing is perfectly normal for this lens on a full frame sensor or film. On the M8 (crop factor of 1.3) the vignetting is cut off.

 

It is more noticeable in light plain areas such as sky. If you shoot at night in a pub or street scene, most likely it will not be noticeable, but it always occurs. Some users prefer it, others don't. It can be considered an artistic 'tool' in your lens kit. Pre (my) noct, I sometimes burned an artificial vignette into my darkroom prints. I believe filters were available to create vignettes.

 

You must treat it as a technique available in your kit to use when desired, just as an artist will have a special brush fot a particular type of stroke. Learn its foibles and enjoy it for what it does.

 

An after thought: The noct does have a different, somewhat warm colour compared to other Leica lenses. I find this 'comfortable' as I shoot a lot of interiors, stage and night scenes with it.

Edited by erl
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Vincent, there are a lot of threads that explain why the M8 and M9 can't know the actual aperture: There's nothing in the lens to tell the camera what it was. ;)

 

Remember also, when the camera estimates the aperture based on the difference between the ambient and metered exposure, it can't know you've got an ND filter attached, so that will throw it off more than usual.

 

 

Coded or not? Look at the back of the lens bayonet to see if it has a set of black and white stripes that match up with the position of the coding sensor in the camera's bayonet. (examples: Leica M Lens Codes)

 

Or just make a picture with the camera set to auto ID and see whether the ID appears in the EXIF and on the review screen.

 

 

Don't like the vignetting? Stop down a couple stops.

 

Or, if you want to try other vignetting compensations in camera, you could try turning off lens recognition or manually choosing other lenses from the list.

Edited by ho_co
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Thanks for your help guys, really appreciate it.

 

I love this lens in low light and thought it would be interesting to see how it would perform in bright daylight. I actually like the vignetting effect in the black and white images.

 

I'll keep on playing with it for sure..... the cinematic manner in which this lens renders seems quite unique and interests me a lot. Plus the challenge of focusing on moving subjects should really improve my skill level!!! I fear however that it is going to take me some time before I can confidently pull this lens out of my bag for paying customers. For now I'll stick to my 50mm f2 cron + auto focus canon 5d mk 2 plus primes for most applications and save the noctilux for low light where it really comes into its own.

 

Have you seen any work from other photographers shooting this lens on an m9 with a ND in bright light?

 

Cheers,

 

Vincent

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For now I'll stick to my 50mm f2 cron + auto focus canon 5d mk 2 plus primes for most applications and save the noctilux for low light where it really comes into its own.

BTW, is there a huge world of difference between the DOF+bokeh at f/1 vs. f/2? I'm contemplating the VC Nokton for shallow DOF applications in daylight, but I can't seem to find any comparisons which would allow me to judge whether the Nokton is a worthwhile addition, or whether I could do more or less the same with my current 50/2 cron shot at f/2 (again, I'm talking about daylight only).

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