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MM -EATING MY WORDS


jaapv

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So, apart from the slightly modified sensor from Truesense the M9-M is for all practical purposes just an M9-P with different firmware loaded. I suppose this does leave open the possibility that in the future Leica might offer monochrome upgrades to M9s and M9-Ps. In this particular case it appears that the process would be exceedingly simple (i.e. no more difficult than replacing a faulty sensor).

 

 

I would not expect it, but such an upgrade programme would actually be rather tempting when the M10 arrives. Buy the M10 and convert your M9 to a monocrome :)

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I Buy the M10 and convert your M9 to a monocrome :)

 

Offering a transformation to Monochrom does not make sense from a business perspective. Some might wish it, but it makes more sence for Leica to spend their resources building M9s, M9Ms and whatever comes next.

Carl

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In terms of resolution and clean detail, the M-Monochrom looks like it is capable of breathtaking results. What concerns me, and Jaap's photos (especially the portrait of Andreas) illustrate this concern, is that it looks like it will prove very difficult to tame the highlights with this camera.

That is true. You don't have the safety net of some detail in one of the color channels. Blown is blown. But it does have endless detail in the shadows - so again- exposure, exposure,exposure.

 

These shots were converted in the Photoshop app on a Macbook Air, hitting auto, auto and auto...

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In terms of resolution and clean detail, the M-Monochrom looks like it is capable of breathtaking results. What concerns me, and Jaap's photos (especially the portrait of Andreas) illustrate this concern, is that it looks like it will prove very difficult to tame the highlights with this camera.

 

Ian, I'd be more concerned about that if Jaap had shot that photo at the native 320 ISO. But at 5000 ISO, which I can't imagine you'd use in light like that ordinarily, I don't think the results are so frightening.

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If I get my guesses are in order again. This all makes sense, dealing with production troubles. I still expect the M10 to be announced at Photokina.

 

Whether B&W performance will match/exceed or be behind the M9M is anyones guess.

 

I do think there will be a M9M upgrade post the 10 announcement, maybe when M10's are available secondhand if the king of B&W is still the M9M then my M9-P could be a candidate.

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What concerns me, and Jaap's photos (especially the portrait of Andreas) illustrate this concern, is that it looks like it will prove very difficult to tame the highlights with this camera.

 

there is SE2 in the package. With this software, beside a lot of other parameters, you can finetune some "film grain" to you picture, even the the zones where everything is white. Of course this is only a walk-around, a good exposure is the better way :-)

 

On what i've seen so far from the MM pictures, dark zones are very well rendered, with not much noise, so some underexposure can be made without much risk.

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Ian, I'd be more concerned about that if Jaap had shot that photo at the native 320 ISO. But at 5000 ISO, which I can't imagine you'd use in light like that ordinarily, I don't think the results are so frightening.

 

 

It was rather low light: 1/250 at 1.4 at ISO 5000

 

I understand there will be a firmware tweak before the camera gets delivered to address the exposure response because of the highlight response. Also the color response curve will be adjusted to match panchromatic film even more closely plus one or two minor bugs.

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I do think that Leica missed a trick here. With a base ISO of 320, the camera basically renders most lenses unusable wide open during the day. They should have added a built-in ND filter over the sensor like Fuji did with X100.

 

A 4-stop filter would have been very useful and very appreciated....

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I do think that Leica missed a trick here. With a base ISO of 320, the camera basically renders most lenses unusable wide open during the day. They should have added a built-in ND filter over the sensor like Fuji did with X100.

A built-in ND filter would certainly be useful, but where would you put it? Not in the lens (as Fuji did with the X100) since the lenses are interchangable. Putting it in front of the shutter would mess up metering and there’s no way it would fit behind.

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My apologies to Leica for the snarky thoughts I had upon reading the announcement yesterday. After reading the thoughtful commentary here and seeing the stunning images this lifelong B&W advocate is firmly on the M9M bandwagon.

 

Only four things prevent me from placing an order forthwith:

My wife- too smart to fool

Advanced age- 74

Insufficiently advanced income

Too modest photographic skills to justify

 

Other than that..........

 

Oh, and did I mention the wife?

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No I do not ;)

Well ... it's not possible to adjust the colour response curve in the firmware. The camera doesn't see any colours so there's nothing to adjust electronically. So any colour adjustments must be done in hardware (a.k.a. filter), before the light hits the photosites.

 

It is possible, of course, to electronically adjust the tone response curve. But that's a different thing.

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