Through a glass darkly

[TDR]

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I'm excited about the new M, but there's one thing nagging me. How bright will the electronic viewfinder or the live view screen be if you are shooting with a small aperture or with a neutral density filter on the lens? Does the camera compensate for this? If not, the through-the-lens business would be of rather limited usefulness. There's still the rangefinder, of course, but it would be nice to employ the TTL view for general photography when using wide-angle lenses or long lenses.

[k-hawinkler]

Hello neighbor,

 

I'm excited about the new M, but there's one thing nagging me. How bright will the electronic viewfinder or the live view screen be if you are shooting with a small aperture or with a neutral density filter on the lens?

 

Of course, you can better focus with the lens wide open.

On my Sony NEX cameras I always focus with the lens as wide open as possible, but never smaller than about f/8.

 

Does the camera compensate for this?

 

Yes. I assume it will be similar to the NEXs.

 

If not, the through-the-lens business would be of rather limited usefulness. There's still the rangefinder, of course, but it would be nice to employ the TTL view for general photography when using wide-angle lenses or long lenses.

 

I am not worried about this particular point.

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[TDR]

Thanks for your reply. I would like to use the EVF for longer lenses, but I worry that the viewfinder will be too dark for anything but tripod work.

[luigi bertolotti]

I think that if one has to use the tripod, many times it's the EVF in itself that loses part of its usefulness : with camera on tripod one can probably use the LCD / Live view for framing/focusing.

k-hawinkler has posted many examples of his works with NEX and several combinations of long lenses : my idea is that, supposed the Leica M EVF is no worst/no better than a NEX' one, there will be a rather wide range of focals that will be decently usable with EVF and handeld.... let'say 135 to 400 around... of course depending a lot on subject - distance - light of the scene - DOF needs... but let's not forget that the new M will be, hopefully, really USABLE at, say, 2500-3200 ISO, with the capability to work at 1/1000 - 2000 in many situations even with lenses like the Telyt 400 at full aperture or next to (f 8), which ought to assure a good view in EVF.

[TDR]

An important difference between the EVF on the Leica M and the Sony NEX is that the Lenses on the NEX are at full aperture when you are looking through the EVF or looking at live-view screen. On the Leica M you will be looking through a manual-aperture lens that will be stopped down to the aperture you need for the exposure. Or, of course, you can open the aperture to focus and compose and then close it down for the exposure. That method is fine, (isn't that how the Visoflex works) but very slow and not useful for photojournalism and street photography. I wish that Leica could break free from its legacy design, keep its principals of unsurpassed quality and simple design, and design a full- frame professional camera that would really make full use of the new technology. In the meantime I will continue to use my M9s and eventually, I hope, Ms where I can. But I think I'll also give the Sony RX1 a try.

[250swb]

I'm excited about the new M, but there's one thing nagging me. How bright will the electronic viewfinder or the live view screen be if you are shooting with a small aperture or with a neutral density filter on the lens? Does the camera compensate for this?

 

If Leica have implimented this correctly, and why shouldn't they, the EVF will automatically increase in 'gain', keeping the image bright enough to compose and focus, but the quality goes down as the light goes down. As composing and focusing are the main ingredients it is only a matter of removing preconceptions about seeing detail in the image to take advantage of an EVF and all it can do, like precise composition and magnified focus.

 

Steve

[luigi bertolotti]

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An important difference between the EVF on the Leica M and the Sony NEX is that the Lenses on the NEX are at full aperture when you are looking through the EVF or looking at live-view screen. On the Leica M you will be looking through a manual-aperture lens that will be stopped down to the aperture you need for the exposure. Or, of course, you can open the aperture to focus and compose and then close it down for the exposure. That method is fine, (isn't that how the Visoflex works) but very slow and not useful for photojournalism and street photography. I wish that Leica could break free from its legacy design, keep its principals of unsurpassed quality and simple design, and design a full- frame professional camera that would really make full use of the new technology. In the meantime I will continue to use my M9s and eventually, I hope, Ms where I can. But I think I'll also give the Sony RX1 a try.

 

Right consideration : I think that's the reason for Leica opted for an ACCESSORY EVF : they know that a M camera with EVF as its main finder, apart the legacy of users who still like the VF/RF, will suffer of this basic drawback.

My idea (but just a speculation) is that, in due time, they could think of a gradual evolution of the M mount (in term of INFOS/ACTUATIONS to pass through the mount itself) if and when the rumored APS-H EVIL will be a real product : it could be announced with M mount in mechanical terms... but with more electronics signals and a small set of Zoom (+AF ?) lenses.. auto diaphragm... maybe partially incompatible with M camera but this wouldn't be a great problem for M users... then some primes... and in the meantime it arrives the moment for the intro of a new M....