M9 at the North American Road Show

[JMacD]

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I just got back from attending part of a M9 Leica North American Road Show.

I can strongly recommend going to one in your area.

 

I had gone to the S2 version first, and that analysis is on the S2 forum.

The Leica people kindly invited me to attend the M9 version the next day. Thanks Linda. I foolishly had figured that I had already taught myself all I needed to know about the M9, and of course I was wrong. Jason, the Leica M master taught me a few new handy tricks, corrected some mistakes, all while explaining the details to the others. Leica also had guest shooters who discussed their shooting style, which was well worthwhile. I don't know how the Road Shows very from one city to another, but the actual program was much more useful to me than what the promotional materials promised. Meeting other users is always fun and educational too.

 

I had been considering an M 21mm f1.4 as an upgrade to my 21mm f2.8 and got a chance to shoot one extensively in the very darkened meeting room. I posted an example picture over on the photo forum,(the reduction in the size of the photo to fit the L-forum oddly increased the noise however):

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/other/122096-m9-north-american-road-show.html#post1296391

I found the extra two stops very handy as the low light work I sometimes do in bars requires 1/30 to 1/60 in order to stop movement, as I prefer. With the 1.4, I can shoot at 640 no problem, 1250 just fine. With the f2.8 I had been forced to shoot slower or up the iso to 2500 where as we know, noise will be part of the picture. I can also anticipate some very nice effects with DOF in low light, but didn't experiment with that in the room. For examples of my bar work, go to:

"Bars Eye Like" - MacDonough's Photography

Now all I need is someone to buy my 2.8.

 

Even if you already have an M9, I believe the $99 for the Road Show will pay off for you, and you get some Leica stuff too. If you are still considering an M9, going to the Road Show is a must. Remember, the $99 is refundable if/when you then purchase an M9. If you are still waiting for your M9 to arrive, they will have plenty there to work with. Most of the technical stuff we argue about here is discussed in detail and resolved. And the talk by highly accomplished photographers is worth the price anyway. Good job Leica!

[Overgaard]

Agree with this. I attended the road show in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago and everyone can learn interesting stuff at the event that cannot be read in the manual or elsewhere.

 

Also, all existing M lenses are present along with a handful of M9 cameras to play with.

 

Plenty worth the 100$ and the time spent. Hope they continue this in Europe and Asia as well.

[Baptiste]

I had a look at your bar pics, and I'm surprised to see that much noise on the M9 + 21 f/1.4 ISO 640 pic. I did practice the 640 ISO on M9 as well, without noticing that much noise... Did you try to recover a pic that was somehow underexposed to get such a result?

[Jamie Roberts]

I had a look at your bar pics, and I'm surprised to see that much noise on the M9 + 21 f/1.4 ISO 640 pic. I did practice the 640 ISO on M9 as well, without noticing that much noise... Did you try to recover a pic that was somehow underexposed to get such a result?

 

Probably the forum re-compressed an oversized JPEG image and added noise in the process. Doesn't look like any ISO 1250 shot I've taken with the M9.

[Fotomiguel]

In most of the info pictures show that are M8 pictures, just two M9:confused:

Anyway I'm getting much better IQ in Low light with less noise from my dear M9.

[tdtaylor]

Slightly off topic.

 

I am attending the Washington DC M version this Friday. I assume you don't need/shouldn't take any camera gear?

[JMacD]

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1. If you go to the Road Show you do not need any gear. I brought mine since I had an M and thought I might as well use it, but they have plenty of 9s and all the lenses. They also use the Leica digital projector if you want to see how good that is. Basically, they have a couple of hundred thousand dollars of Leica gear in one place that you can work with.

Hey, I applaud and appreciate that they are doing it for us.

 

2. Regarding the noise of the 21 image, I had no real noise problem until I reduced the huge file to the small file that was uploaded. I noticed it only after it was up on the forum, which is when I warned viewers that it wasn't like that in the full image. I was hoping someone might suggest how to avoid that in the future, but I added the photo to give people an idea of the room we were in. Sometime in the future, if I don't get any other suggestions I will try to see if I can undertand how to avoid a noise build up on a down res image. Makes me realize the Internet is not a great place to judge IQ.

[Norwin]

Sirs,

 

I attended the first Leica Roadshow for the M9 in Miami. And, like yourself I gained a great deal of knowledge and information I would have had no other place to have learned.

 

The only problem is that the roadshow was given in the space of one afternoon. And, I would have enjoyed the and received far more value had it been offered more like a workshop where we could have been given an assignment based upon what was taught and then to shoot that assignment and report back the following day for a critique...where we each could have reabsorbed what was taught the previous day and again learned and captured more of what we needed to have learned.

 

Nonetheless, the experience was terrific.

 

If it was given again tomorrow, near by, I'd attend all over again.

 

It's simply difficult to absorb and hold-onto, all you want to remember...without forgetting something essential.

 

I was told they may have made a video presentation of the roadshow and will be offering it in the future. I hope so, as I really can't remember all I had learned nor all that I had wanted to retain.

 

Nonetheless, thank you Leica, Roland and the staff who put on the roadshow in Miami.

 

With my respects,

 

Norwin

[Jeff Day]

That's great news about the Road Show being so good. I'm attending the one in Seattle and afterward spending a little time in the area to visit the surrounding area and shoot some photos.

 

I understand that about an hour north of Seattle in Skagit Valley that the Skagit Valley tulip festival will be going on. Quite literally, tulip fields as far as they eye can see, or so I'm told. I'm hoping there's still some good photo ops, it looks like a beautiful area.

 

Best,

 

Jeff

[fishdrummer]

Nice to meet you all at the Road Show in Mclean, Va. Hope I was able to give some insight. Antoine

[Englander]

Jason, the Leica M master taught me a few new handy tricks, corrected some mistakes,

 

Jack-

Would you care to share for those of us who can't attend a Road Show? I would surely appreciate it. Thanks,

Joe

[anupmc]

Jack, not sure if its just me, but quite a few of your "Bars Eye Like" series shots seem to have a magenta tinge to them... I've not seen that on with M9. Was that intentional?

[tdtaylor]

Just attended the Washington DC (McLean, VA) show. There were 20 of us, with 10 M9s, so it makes sense to bring one. Our was a class of many newbies, going over the basics of operation and menus. How to set up profiles, setting of the menu. etc. Lightly touched Lightroom workflow. The level was very basic, with a large number of the participants not even having a M- a lot of very basic questions.

 

If you wanted to handle the M9 and lenses, worth the admission. Several were comparing M8 and debating whether to upgrade, so it was EXTREMELY helpful to have them side by side, take identical photos, etc.

 

I was actually interested in the Nocti, 21 and 24 lux. All three were absent, although every other lens was on hand- just my luck. We had a guest speaker from NBC who had used Leica in the White House and around the world, and this part was excellent. He couldn't answer technical questions, which I thought was great- he just knew how to use the camera- probably something we all should aspire to.

 

Overall, it was nice to get out of the office on a Friday afternoon. But all in all, did not learn much of anything. Spent much of the off time showing others, which I do find satisfying.

[tdtaylor]

Antoine, just saw your post above. I really appreciated your joining us. As I mentioned above, I was a little disappointed, but your attendance made it worth while. I just which you could have stayed longer.

 

Thanks again (I'm the one that showed you the Express 34 reader for the SD card).

[fishdrummer]

Antoine, just saw your post above. I really appreciated your joining us. As I mentioned above, I was a little disappointed, but your attendance made it worth while. I just which you could have stayed longer.

 

Thanks again (I'm the one that showed you the Express 34 reader for the SD card).

 

Nice to meet you and thanks for the kind words. I really appreciate the the tip re the SD slot.

 

A

[JMacD]

In reply to a few questions:

What I learned from Jason:

OK, some of us already may have discussed this in many other forums I know, but Englader nicely asked.

1. Reformat your cards after each use, rather than doing a simple "all delete" just better insurance for card stability. I haven't had a problem but I'll now do this.

2. In choosing reformat, no need to do an overwrite as it takes way way too long.

3. Use smaller cards than 16 Gig, so when a card goes down you lose fewer pictures. I am still using 16 Gig.

4. Don't bother trying to create special files on a card, easier to switch cards and let light room set up files. This was my workflow, but I wondered if I was missing something and I guess I am not.

By now you are wondering if all he talked about was cards? No, that was what was useful for me.

5. He encouraged us to choose the best way to set the exposure compensation, which I don't do much of since I shoot manual except when shooting HDR.

6. He said never use a "soft" release on "auto" as the exposure lock will get hit on the soft release. Again, not a problem for me as I shoot manual. May have misunderstood his rationale.

7. He said he never shot uncompressed files, as he could never see any difference, so why use up the memory file. I got the impression Leica included it merely in response to requests.

8. Suggested we not "expose to the right" as shooting what looks good in the screen is smarter, and the CCD has more latitude in shadows than we realize. That said, he once screwed up some shots when a friend had switched his display brighteness to high!

9. Lots of side discussion on CCD vs CMOS. If someone wants to discuss, that's another posting.

Side discussions were very reassuring. Nice to talk directly to the expert. Yes, much of the discussion is basic for those who haven't used the camera before, but still useful for an experienced user. Worth $99 if you can't redeem the "coupon"? Yes, if you figure you have spent $7,000 on the camera, you might be able to afford it. That said, I was there to experience a 21mm 1.4 which fortunately, they had there.

 

 

Anupmc asked me about the magenta in my bars eye like site. No that was not on purpose . I have not pixel peeped that site, but I never count on the web for accuracy. I shoot for printing. Secondly, that page is not exclusively Leica, some were shot with a 1Ds before Leica M went digital. Net, don't use my web photos as a judge of the camera's

abilities after so much compression and variation in displays.

 

Sorry to be slow about responding, but I was off on a three day shoot in Southern Utah with the M and can report that the camera performed flawlessly. That said, I would have appreciated an S2. I did not take any bars eye like shots while in the landscapes. Now off this forum while I "develop" my shots.

[ohdannyboy]

Went to the San Francisco Leica Roadshow for M cameras today. Was very much the same as the other experiences. Our guest photographer was Chris Weeks, who was on hand to show us some of his photos and talk about his experiences. We also had a guest speaker from Apple who just happened to stop by on his way home. He spoke about Aperture 3 and showed us some of the new features as well as some tips/tricks. All in all, it was a pretty good day of Leica goodness.

 

Also, they had a $100 rebate for those that attended. It was good for any new Leica gear you purchase (e.g., M9).

 

The Leica rep who was there gave us some indication that more M9's will be starting to flow into the US. They seem hampered by the Iceland volcano right now (in terms of getting them shipped here). He said by June/July, there will be enough quantity for everyone...possibly surplus.

[ohdannyboy]

Forgot to mention that they also had a V-Lux 20 there too (with prototype firmware). They shot hi-def video on it and I must say it looked really sharp!

[WaterDog]

Also, they had a $100 rebate for those that attended. It was good for any new Leica gear you purchase (e.g., M9).

 

Just wondering, does the rebate have an expiry date? Was it for any Leica gear? Or just M-series stuff?

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[tdtaylor]

The certificate is good for any North America purchase from an authorized dealer. The product must have a serial number. The Wash DC was given certificates that expired this month but the 2010 had been marked out and replaced with 2011.

 

After you purchase the product you send in the certificate with the receipt.

 

Don't have it at work so I can't answer if it was just for M.