Jump to content

M 240 arrives


Sully

Recommended Posts

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Picked up my M 240 from Ace Photo today in Virginia. After quick battery charge, everything seems to be working just fine. Both video and stills seem to be recording just fine. I am primarily interested in video, so, there is a lot of work ahead to refine the best settings. But early non-scientific tests seem to be OK.

 

Ciao, Sully

  • Like 8
Link to post
Share on other sites

Congrats, Sully! I'll be looking forward to your thoughts on the video capabilities of the new M (especially since most folks here are, like myself, still image shooters). I'm guessing that being able to use M glass for video will pose some intriguing possibilities.

 

How long ago did you get on the list at Ace?

Edited by Jager
Link to post
Share on other sites

Picked up my M 240 from Ace Photo today in Virginia. After quick battery charge, everything seems to be working just fine. Both video and stills seem to be recording just fine. I am primarily interested in video, so, there is a lot of work ahead to refine the best settings. But early non-scientific tests seem to be OK.

 

Ciao, Sully

 

Well, so Leica's email is not accurate. It says

>>Some Leica stores in Europe and Signapore received a small number of the new Leica M, US shipping should start soon too.<<

 

Only the Leica Store in Singapore received cameras as far as I can tell and they are all gone. They have a waiting list of 150 or more. The only positive thing about it is that so many people seem to want such an expensive camera. I suspect a number of customers are well heeled people from neighboring countries.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest WPalank
Well, so Leica's email is not accurate. It says

>>Some Leica stores in Europe and Signapore received a small number of the new Leica M, US shipping should start soon too.<<

.

 

How is that inaccurate? It is exactly what is happening. :confused:

Link to post
Share on other sites

Picked up my M 240 from Ace Photo today in Virginia. After quick battery charge, everything seems to be working just fine. Both video and stills seem to be recording just fine. I am primarily interested in video, so, there is a lot of work ahead to refine the best settings. But early non-scientific tests seem to be OK.

 

Ciao, Sully

 

it is nice to have someone interested in video using the Leica M. Most of us here are still shooters, and i, for one, am almost clueless about videography. would be nice to know how well Leica did on their video capabilities.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Jager, I got on the order list very early... right after Photokina. I have not downloaded the new FW yet, but we tried a brand new 21mm 3.4 M lens and it looked good. The real tests will begin when I get the R adapter. The R lenses will be used the most by us because they have very long focus rolls which make it more accurate for tracking the subject.

Since the M 240 doesn't have an HDMI port, we can't take a signal out of the camera and put it on a big HD monitor to see what the camera sees. We have to shoot something, take the SD card out and put it in a computer, and then transport it into an editing system to see it on a big HD screen. Fortunately, my son has an editing facility that can do this. I'm sure he will give his old Dad a few minutes on the system.

 

In the next few weeks, I'm just going to go out and shoot lots of different stuff for him to color grade. Our immediate job is to find out what the codec from the camera can actually deliver. What are the internal camera settings that will give us the biggest dynamic range? Then we can set up presets in the editing system (Avid, Final Cut) that will give us consistent results.

I'm really interested in what Michael Reichmann has to say about this codec question. He is doing a proper review on the M 240 and should have some advice on editing settings.

I, also, wish Leica would give a camera to Philip Boom to test. He is a very good video shooter who can write clearly about our problems. He has shot with many different video cameras, so, he would be very an ideal tester.

 

Ciao, Sully

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

This morning I paid a visit to the Leica dealer of my town (a little one, btw) : he received a M240 this week (sold to a people who reserved it last year) and have a 2nd black body arriving for March 15th (unreserved, but he's very confident it will go out in few days...), and also a demo unit around the same days. He also told me that at the moment the arrival of chrome bodies isn't yet planned (*).... speaking of finishing questions he told me also that Leica has made available in chrome also the Summicron 50 AA.... they have ordered one but haven't any info on delivery...

 

 

(*) a good relief for my pockets... I hardly could resist to the arrival of a unreserved chrome :o (such was for my M8...)

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Just collected mine from Red Dot, chrome, and I got a viewfinder too. Very happy :) just had time for a test shot with my 50/1.4, but now I have to go out for a friends birthday! We're doing some outdoor stuff where I can't take the camera sadly.

 

- Steve

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Did he give an indication if a batch of chrome 50AA have been made, or are they only being planned?

 

This morning I paid a visit to the Leica dealer of my town (a little one, btw) : he received a M240 this week (sold to a people who reserved it last year) and have a 2nd black body arriving for March 15th (unreserved, but he's very confident it will go out in few days...), and also a demo unit around the same days. He also told me that at the moment the arrival of chrome bodies isn't yet planned (*).... speaking of finishing questions he told me also that Leica has made available in chrome also the Summicron 50 AA.... they have ordered one but haven't any info on delivery...

 

 

(*) a good relief for my pockets... I hardly could resist to the arrival of a unreserved chrome :o (such was for my M8...)

Link to post
Share on other sites

Just collected mine from Red Dot, chrome, and I got a viewfinder too. Very happy :) just had time for a test shot with my 50/1.4, but now I have to go out for a friends birthday! We're doing some outdoor stuff where I can't take the camera sadly.

 

- Steve

 

Please show your pictures tomorrow!

 

/HD

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well it said dellivered to stores in Europe ans Singapore and I interpreted "soon in the US" to mean in a week or two. Maybe my interpretation was too pessimistic. I have had one on order from B+H since December I think, but no word on it yet.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Did he give an indication if a batch of chrome 50AA have been made, or are they only being planned?

 

He told me it was "available for order" to dealers... at the same price of the black (and they ordered one, having already sold a pair of blacks... :o) : it didn't come to my mind to ask him if it had a standard code...

Link to post
Share on other sites

Live view works with all my M lenses and the Visoflex system. However, I could only get live view to work with one LTM adapter (plain 9cm) with an 90mm Elmarit. All my other adapters with multiple lens indicators for M2 and M3 did not work with live view, but they bring up the correct fields in the M 240 optical viewfinder and make good exposures.

I hope somebody has an idea about fixing this problem. I would really love to use my old TML lenses with live view.

 

Ciao, Sully

Link to post
Share on other sites

Live view works with all my M lenses and the Visoflex system. However, I could only get live view to work with one LTM adapter (plain 9cm) with an 90mm Elmarit. All my other adapters with multiple lens indicators for M2 and M3 did not work with live view, but they bring up the correct fields in the M 240 optical viewfinder and make good exposures.

I hope somebody has an idea about fixing this problem. I would really love to use my old TML lenses with live view.

 

Ciao, Sully

 

 

Sully,

 

Thanks. Could you please elaborate on "did not work"?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for the details, I'm going to look into whether I can order a chrome 50AA for myself.

 

 

He told me it was "available for order" to dealers... at the same price of the black (and they ordered one, having already sold a pair of blacks... :o) : it didn't come to my mind to ask him if it had a standard code...
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...