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Should I take the M9 jump!

RichardM8

By RichardM8
in Leica M9 / M-E

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ThorkilB

ThorkilB

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Perhaps Thorsten Overgaard got a point in setting the white balance correctly and manually each time (...when light has chanced a bit), but he point to remember to do at the light that hit the taget (...!)

leica.overgaard.dk - Thorsten Overgaard's Leica Pages - WhiteBal greycards for white balancing digital photography and video

then one perhaps one can save on all the sliders-doing...

 

and for the Fuji X100....even though it nicely pick up all our longings at a lower spending-point, it fail on the automatic focusing...! We all want the possibility to present the focus, dont we?, and that this little sweat camera doesn't fulfill ..unfortunatly

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Guest stnami

Guest stnami

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and for the Fuji X100....even though it nicely pick up all our longings at a lower spending-point, it fail on the automatic focusing...! We all want the possibility to present the focus, dont we?, and that this little sweat camera doesn't fulfill ..unfortunatly

 

dead wrong there my "big" bird knows a lot:D

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Clive Murray-White

Clive Murray-White

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Thanks for the kind words about the sculpture - re the video with me moving the rock with my Jeep - it was taken by a Korean resident artist we had here, Aehee Park, she'd make me jump out of my skin at least twice a day by sneaking into the studio while I was working, surprising I didn't have a heart attack, quite frankly I would never organise to make a step by step video - A thing that always amazes me is these young artists who elect to come to the middle of nowhere, the Korean girl had almost no English, lived all her life in a huge city and enthusiastically embraced the whole experience of rural Australia, very courageous I think.

 

I picked that sculpture to test the M8, I'd taken pretty much the same picture several times before with other equipment, it's a nightmare WB situation with both natural light and halogen spots, the gallery walls are cream not white, I did use a white card to set it up - in the result the thing that I found most exciting was what's often called the Leica "pop" were the subject differeniates itself from the background and the 3D modelling is almost unbeatable. It does feel a bit strange putting an M8 on a hefty tripod but I'm very happy with what it seems to be able to do.

 

I already feel that my choice was a wise one, logic and objectivity would have made me buy a 5Dmk11 but I had a niggling feeling that the images would be competant but lacking in sparkle.

 

Thanks all for your help - nice forum too.

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IkarusJohn

IkarusJohn

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I think Richard has already purchased an M9, and is just stringing us along!

 

Actually, to be fair, I started reading this thread on my phone and had to skip the middle 10 pages to see if he had purchased or not. I guess not.

 

I don't know if my experience will help, but here goes. I have always had cameras (we played with old bellows cameras as kids, then my first was a Canon range finder with a fixed lens and a photoelectric cell). Until about a month ago, my experience with digital had not been very satisfying - I still preferred film, and had a larger collections of cameras and lenses than I could use. I had fallen out of the habit, primarily because of the bulk and weight of the gear (F5, with three lenses, flash and other bits and pieces gets tiring).

 

I bought a G10 earlier this year, and had fun with the point and shoot aspect, but couldn't get too excited about it.

 

Then a month or so ago, I dusted off the Nikon and tried to get my son enthusiastic. He was keen. We left the bag in the car (in our driveway) overnight, and in the morning it was all gone. I struggled with the loss, and what to do. I considered an F6, but ditched the idea - time to move away from film, I thought. So, I looked at an EOS 5D mkII - it was nice, within my price range, but it left me rather lukewarm. HD video, endless options etc, etc

 

Then I started trolling the internet, and found Thorsten Overgaard's review of the M9, and Steve Huff's - they both ticked the right boxes for me. So, taking a bit of a leap, I sold my remaining film gear and searched the internet for a camera. I finally found a grey M9 from Meister-Camera in Berlin, and they recommended the 35 Summicron as a start.

 

The excitement of the box arriving from Berlin was way better than Christmas!

 

I have since had to learn (again) how to use the range finder, and to get used to the idea that pictures don't cost money so you might as well take as many as you need. I found two things - my timing improved considerably, and bokeh.

 

I had never heard of bokeh, and I still don't really know how to pronounce it. I had always taken pictures with the smallest aperture I could hold so that I used the best part of the lens with the biggest depth of field. Don't ask why - that's just what I have always done. It may have been to cover focussing errors (focussing screens are things I've always struggled with).

 

Reading Steve Huff's recommendation to take everything at the widest aperture seemed odd to me (ISO was fixed by the film, right?), but I decided to give it a try. Once I got the focussing under control, I was hooked. It's hard to imagine a bad picture with this set up.

 

So, Richard, I'd say stop torturing us and get out and buy an M9 with the 35 Cron (I got a Grey body with a chrome lens - looks fantastic, and feels great in your hands). The combination of a full frame sensor, and those remarkable lenses gives an extraordinary result - pop, bokeh, dreamy ... none come close to the results. It's so much more than just being sharp.

 

Some one, way above, said there is no point in getting an M camera without getting more than one lens. That advice doesn't work for me. The 35 Cron will take me a while to really come to grips with. I did buy a second hand 75 Cron (couldn't resist) and I'd love to add a 50 and a 24 Summilux, but I'm trying to surpress the urge and concentrate on the 35.

 

For me, I need to get a true understanding of field of view, framing, depth and composition before I'm comfortable to move on. Once I can look at a scene, and say - that would be good with my 75, 50, 35 or 24, I will stick with the 35 and I'll try to come to grips with the narrow DOF of the 75.. Your buying a system, sure. But with a full sensor, and the opportunity to use fantastic lenses to their full potential. I don't think I'd get there if I was always chopping and changing lenses randomly. That would miss the point.

 

Cheers

John

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zlatkob

zlatkob

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Reading Steve Huff's recommendation to take everything at the widest aperture seemed odd to me (ISO was fixed by the film, right?), but I decided to give it a try. Once I got the focussing under control, I was hooked. It's hard to imagine a bad picture with this set up.

 

Hmmm, I'm not sure about that. Shooting everything at the widest aperture can be as bad as shooting everything at the smallest aperture. All of the apertures are useful. The widest aperture and near to it are often very useful, but not always. Always using the widest aperture is a way of taking control but also a way of giving up control. Sometimes pictures are bad simply because they would have been much better if the photographer selected a smaller aperture.

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JBA

JBA

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I had never heard of bokeh, and I still don't really know how to pronounce it.

 

"Bokeh" comes from a Japanese word meaning "blurred" in this context, and in other contexts can mean to become senile or feeble-minded. It's pronounced "boh-keh," or adding a B to OK and clipping the syllables before getting as far as pronouncing a W or Y sound. (Hope that's not too confusing.)

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ThorkilB

ThorkilB

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shallow DOF, is only meningfull if....it has a mening, almost hate that it has become a new trend to nearly everything taking with shallow depth...cant help wanting to se more of the surroundings, but sometimes it can have a great point...but leave it to that, just sometimes....

Thorkil

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Clive Murray-White

Clive Murray-White

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The excitement of the box arriving from Berlin was way better than Christmas!

 

John I think we'll have to wait 'til Christmas for Richard, all the good and logical reason's are already there for him to take the plunge right now but my guess is he has to buy himself a Birthday or Christmas present to 'justify' his choice - it would be a done deal, I reckon, if his Birthday is between now and Christmas!

 

Clive

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wlaidlaw

wlaidlaw

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Apologies if these links have been posted before but here are two links to a pair of helpful videos on deciding whether or not to buy a rangefinder. They should be watched in order.

 

I want to buy a rangefinder

 

I want to buy a rangefinder part two

 

Wilson

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