M240 image of London by Christopher Tribble

[wok64]

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Thank you very much for sharing those images. Very impressive, I really like what I see. The only image that bothers me a bit is the one from London Eye (l1000857). There are plenty of dark streaks in and below the clouds. I hope these are caused by typical British weather and not by the sensor. It seems following all these comments about M240 images the last weeks made me neurotic

 

Best regards,

Wolfgang

[chris_tribble]

Wolfgang - you're right - very slight streaking can be seen at 100% - though this doesn't show in a print.

 

A couple of comments.

 

1. this was taken with a prototype body - later iterations will do a better job I'm sure

2. I understand it Leica view 6400 as a PUSH option on the M240.

 

Will I use it in the future - YES! My experience so far has been that for many REALLY low light situations it works very well, though correct exposure is critical.

 

Would I have used it in the case of the shot of the Houses of Parliament from Waterloo bridge that you comment? NO. It wasn't actually necessary. Under normal circumstances I'd have used 800 or 1600 and a tripod. Even 3200 hand held would have been OK. I was playing with what I could get at 6400 and this is one of the images that Leica chose to post.

 

The original image has a huge tonal range (http://cdn.l-camera-forum.com/leica-news/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/l1000857.jpg) so it's not a bad test of the sensor's capacity.

 

The crops below have been processed in LR4 and have +15 Chroma NR and +25 Color NR (this is a default) applied. No sharpening. Given that this was handheld at 125th I'm also very very impressed by the sensor's capacity to resolve fine detail and to render the overall colour of different areas in the scene.

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Edited February 7, 2013 by chris_tribble

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[wok64]

Chris, thank you for your explanation. Indeed I should stop looking at 100% crops. For 24 MP sensors it simply doesn't make any sense at all. Your "when it's dark use a tripod, stupid!" advice can't hurt either .

 

Since I'm not a pro, a significant part of my photography takes place in the evening hours after work. Laziness then drives me towards higher ISOs. I agree I rarely need ISO 6400. But it's good to know it's there when required.

 

Best regards,

Wolfgang

[chris_tribble]

Chris, thank you for your explanation. Indeed I should stop looking at 100% crops. For 24 MP sensors it simply doesn't make any sense at all. Your "when it's dark use a tripod, stupid!" advice can't hurt either .

 

Since I'm not a pro, a significant part of my photography takes place in the evening hours after work. Laziness then drives me towards higher ISOs. I agree I rarely need ISO 6400. But it's good to know it's there when required.

 

Best regards,

Wolfgang

 

Dear Wolfgang - Thanks for the comments - though I certainly didn't intend to call you stupid with my tripod comment!

 

re high ISO, I think all of us who use digital are please to have access to higher ISO so that we can have more control over the way we make images - having useable 6400 on the M240 is a definite plus.

[pgk]

very slight streaking can be seen at 100% - though this doesn't show in a print.

Thanks for your efforts Chris. I've not had much time to examine the files in detail but the above comment does strike a chord as overprocessing of the darkest areas of my M9 files has always yielded surprisingly little streaking and this has been one of the attractions of the dMs for me. So I am very pleased to see that this suppression remains a feature of the files you have produced (I still find my 5D2 files struggle to match the cleanliness of the M9 files in terms of extreme shadow detail remaining satisfactory).

[Peter H]

Chris, did the camera feel very different from an M9 in use?

[chris_tribble]

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Most of the time I've worked with the M240 in exactly the same way I work with the M9. This means Manual shuter speed selection, Single Shot, Classic Metering mode, image preview on Shutter Button Release, and RF focusing. I was using a x48 Class 10 Sandisk 16GB SD card (with no problems throughout). In these circumstances, the only operating differences I notice are 1) I prefer the shutter release button and sound of the M240, 2) the overall responsiveness of the M240 is greater than that of the M9 (writing to card, clearing the buffer, availability of review, 3) the menus and back panel controls are faster to access and clearer to read.

 

A couple of nights ago I was shooting an opera dress rehearsal with the M9 + 28 cron asph and M240 with 50 lux asph side by side and there was no sense of difficulty or confusion ...

 

About the only thing I found occassionaly confusing was that there's a momentary wait for the RF framelines to light up - if you hold the camera to your eye with the electrics turned off, you get a clear screen!

[-ph-]

 

About the only thing I found occassionaly confusing was that there's a momentary wait for the RF framelines to light up - if you hold the camera to your eye with the electrics turned off, you get a clear screen!

 

Which reminds me of all the times I have carefully composed and focused a shot with my M9 only to have nothing happen when I press the shutter release as the camera was switched off . So having no frame lines visible might actually be a feature....

 

Peter

[Peter H]

Thanks Chris. I really appreciate the time you've taken to be helpful and answer questions and show photos.

 

I'm very encouraged by everything I'm seeing. Its looking as though the M is simply an M9 upgraded a small but significant degree in just about all respects, (subject of course to the controlled testing of images people are talking about in the other thread, but its looking very promising so far.)

 

Which is probably the most anyone could realistically hope for isn't it?

Edited February 7, 2013 by Peter H

[chris_tribble]

Thanks Chris. I really appreciate the time you've taken to be helpful and answer questions and show photos.

 

I'm very encouraged by everything I'm seeing. Its looking as though the M is simply an M9 upgraded a small but significant degree in just about all respects, (subject of course to the controlled testing of images people are talking about in the other thread, but its looking very promising so far.)

 

Which is probably the most anyone could realistically hope for isn't it?

 

Peter - thanks for your comments. re the upgrade - YES, the M240 upgrades the M9 and (IMHO) makes it a better range finder camera. But, as Jono has said in his piece, the M240 is also a very well specified full frame EVF mirrorless camera - so we can use it with PC and T/S lenses, in macro photography and with lenses longer than 135 (and I now prefer to focus the 135 with the EVF).

 

Given that the new camera costs LESS than the M9 I think we're getting remarkably good value for our money...

[pelagia]

Thank you, Chris, for your comments above. Please could you comment on these aspects as well (if not yet covered, sorry if I missed)

 

- Weather sealing. Any comments about this?

- My biggest problem with M9 is slow action in low light high ISO. I suppose you had the same issues at your concerts. What about the 240 in this respect? Hot pixel mapping, time needed for noise reduction within camera, how many sequential shots to fill the buffer?

 

Thanks!

[mtomalty]

Thanks for your contribution Chris. Every bit is helpful in getting a more accurate picture of what

to expect.

The camera has ticked almost all of the boxes I found wanting with the M9 for my needs and once we see

some wide angle work the picture should be pretty complete.

 

Was wondering of you could comment on the following statement extracted from the Blog specifically

relating to Canon and Nikon lens use.

With C and N lenses are you referring to older manual focus glass or can we assume there

are mount options for more current options from both companies that don't have aperture rings?

The coded adapters mentioned refer to Leics R only or also to C and N.

 

"I’ve also tried out an R 80-200 f4 and a couple of other Nikon and Canon lenses with coded adapter mounts."

 

Mark

Mark Tomalty Fine Art and Stock Photography

[AlanJW]

Mark, there is a Novoflex adapter that I've got on order (may be cheaper ones too) that allows aperture adjustment on Nikon G series lenses mounted on M mount. My understanding is that it is not click stop, so you would need to estimate the actual f/stop. Everything would be manual of course, as there would be no electronic connection betwen adapter and camera. I would expect you could work in Manual or Aperture preferred just like any other lens on an M.

 

I used a similar adapter a while back on a Nex7 and after you get used to it is quite workable.

 

I am looking forward to trying this out as soon as I get my hands on a new M. I suspect that there will be some variance and not every lens will work well. I'm hoping for -- and expecting -- good results with my Zeiss Makro 100 but am a bit worried about my Nikon G 28-300, or any zoom for that matter.

[skimmel]

Thank you, Chris, from me as well. I always appreciate and respect your opinion.

 

Would you be able to comment on whether you think there is a CCD vs CMOS difference in images between the M9 and M240? I realize this is a vague question, but in many ways the whole CCD vs CMOS thing is pretty murky.

 

Thanks.

[Tonki-M]

Thank you Chris for taking your time to satiate our curiosity! first-hand experience is what i've been looking for anyhow.

[chris_tribble]

- Weather sealing. Any comments about this?

- My biggest problem with M9 is slow action in low light high ISO. I suppose you had the same issues at your concerts. What about the 240 in this respect? Hot pixel mapping, time needed for noise reduction within camera, how many sequential shots to fill the buffer?

Thanks!

 

Weather sealing - the only thing you notice is a sealing ring around an area on the base plate where the electronics are situated . Otherwise you can't see anything - and I thought it better not to drop Leica's baby in the bath to see what happened

 

Slow action in low light - I'm not 100% clear on what you mean here, but working at 6400 creates no difference in responsiveness when compared with working at 200. I'm talking here about shutter speeds of from maybe 1/8th with wider lenses and from 1/30th with longer ones. In none of the work I've been doing has there been a need for very long exposures so I can't comment there.

[chris_tribble]

With C and N lenses are you referring to older manual focus glass or can we assume there

are mount options for more current options from both companies that don't have aperture rings?

The coded adapters mentioned refer to Leics R only or also to C and N.

 

"I’ve also tried out an R 80-200 f4 and a couple of other Nikon and Canon lenses with coded adapter mounts."

 

Mark

Mark Tomalty Fine Art and Stock Photography

ONLY with manual C and N glass in my experience. I'd love to be able to put my 300 f2.8 USM lens on the M, but I don't think it would be viable even if you could control the aperture (which you can do apparently with Nikon G lenses) as these lenses aren't designed for manual only focusing. I bought a manual Nikon 300 ED f4.5 lens from Grays of Westminster in preference to a later f4 model for this reason - the manual lens focuses beautifully with a long through and a very smooth operation. The later AF lens felt horrible (sort of remote / fly by wire).

Obviously, the R 80-200 is a joy to work with.

[chris_tribble]

Would you be able to comment on whether you think there is a CCD vs CMOS difference in images between the M9 and M240? I realize this is a vague question, but in many ways the whole CCD vs CMOS thing is pretty murky.

Thanks.

 

Running the M9 and M240 side by side I don't see a difference between the images I'm making that I'd attribute to CCD cs CMOS. What I do see is that I prefer the M240 at 3200 to the Canon 5D2 - Chroma noise is better controlled IMO and the file from the M240 has a clarity and flexibility that I don't find with files from the 5D2 + a Mk2 USM 70-200 L f2.8 IS lens - which is a pretty good piece of glass.

[kcnarf]

Chris,were you able to try the Olympus VF2 viewfinder on the M-typ240? If so, doesn't work on it? Rick Leica says that it appears to him that the tiny, skinny upright screw at the front of the Leica hot shoe is an obstacle to full insertion there of Olympus hot-shoe accessories, including the Olympus mic adapter as well.

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[jonoslack]

Chris,were you able to try the Olympus VF2 viewfinder on the M-typ240? If so, doesn't work on it? Rick Leica says that it appears to him that the tiny, skinny upright screw at the front of the Leica hot shoe is an obstacle to full insertion there of Olympus hot-shoe accessories, including the Olympus mic adapter as well.

 

Hi There

I don't know about the Olympus Mike, but the VF2 viewfinder works exactly the same way as the Leica one.

all the best