menos I M6 Posted April 22, 2015 Share #41 Posted April 22, 2015 Advertisement (gone after registration) Nice! I get your feeling about the little thing ;-) Definitely get at least one (better two) spare batteries, number them in sequence and use them in sequence, always topping them off after using. Do not get suckered into cheating out on off branded batteries for the M9 - they sort of work for a while but you will deal with all sorts of issues with them, the original ones will not produce in years of daily use. As you are a working man, one very important advice with the M9: When you are now out late hours after work, shooting - I suspect ;-) try to underexpose the shots by simply shooting at maximum ISO800 and dial in exposure compensation of -1ev or even -2ev and then push these files in Lightroom by the underexposed amount. The images will look dark on the LCD when chimping but they will do great after pushing in Lightroom. This way you will get much more usable color files from the M9 than using higher ISO shots in camera. Another tip to overcome the "rangefinder focussing newness": When I had my first RF camera, I was hanging on the sofa, watching a TV show (preferably some action flick with fast paced cuts) and simply focussing the camera. After every "shot" refocus the lens all the way back to infinity and start over with the next shot. This way you quickly get used to seeing the RF double image and focus quicker and quicker without wasting film (or your time on the computer). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted April 22, 2015 Posted April 22, 2015 Hi menos I M6, Take a look here Can't stand wondering any longer...Renting an M-E and Summarit. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
rpavich Posted April 22, 2015 Author Share #42 Posted April 22, 2015 Thanks for the good tips Menos...I appreciate it. One thing I noticed that I need to stop doing is putting people's heads in the middle of the frame because that's where the focusing patch is. I am so used to moving the focus point around that I forget to recompose. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpavich Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share #43 Posted April 23, 2015 Ok....experiment over. Much quicker than I'd have dreamed it would be...and I'm as surprised as anyone about how this came out. Conclusion? It wasn't for me, being an X00T shooter. If my reference point was a huge DSLR, then things might have turned out differently. While I will say that I loved the files it spit out, it had negatives that I couldn't see accepting for the kind of cash I had to lay out. 1.) Heavy. It was like a brick. Coming from a huge DSLR I might have saw the weight in a different light but I shoot light Fuji cams so it was much heavier than I'd have liked. 2.) Speed. It's a slow camera; glacial by today's standards. Again, if it were much more reasonably priced, I'd have accepted this but I was paying a premium for it. 3.) Minimum focus distance. The minimum focus distance for M cams in general is .7 meters. (Not quite 3 feet for Americans) and I didn't like that. The positive: The rangefinder "experience" is really nice. Unfortunately Fuji has nailed that experience about 85 - 90% in my opinion so I couldn't see spending $4500.00 for that last little bit. I found focusing to be slow but that, of course is just time-on-camera and would be improved, so I'm not calling that a negative. I LOVED the focus tab and the fact that it wasn't "focus by wire" but all in all...in my opinion, not worth the cash. Keep in mind, these reasons are based on my style of shooting and the circumstances that I shoot in, if I were a street photographer or news journalist, I might have decided differently. So my conclusion is that while the M9 experience in general is nice, it wasn't for me at the current price of admission. If Fuji were to somehow replicate the "focus patch/rangefinder" thing even more closely than they have done, that would be my dream camera. So...back to the X100T it is for me. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tookaphotoof Posted April 23, 2015 Share #44 Posted April 23, 2015 Focussing speed depends on your own capabilities. It takes practice. Weight is something you can't do a thing about it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpavich Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share #45 Posted April 23, 2015 Focussing speed depends on your own capabilities. It takes practice. Weight is something you can't do a thing about it. Yeah..I know, I thought I was careful to not give "focusing speed" as a negative for that very reason. I know that I'd improve. Weight is what it is...I agree and of course everyone has their preferences, I prefer not to spend that kind of money to carry around a camera that weighs that much...others prefer something different....I get that. My initial post (and experiment) was to find out if the M's "suited me" not to make absolute statements about them...it's all preference. And so I did decide that FOR ME it wasn't worth the price of admission...I get that others will have a different set of expectations and values and they will decide just the opposite. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tookaphotoof Posted April 23, 2015 Share #46 Posted April 23, 2015 Make no mistake, I can absolutely understand why one wouldn't want to spend that much on a camera. About the camera being slow, even on the M240 it can be irritating at times when I quickly want to check. Luckily so hardly chimp, otherwise I'd sold it long ago. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BerndReini Posted April 23, 2015 Share #47 Posted April 23, 2015 Advertisement (gone after registration) I think a lot of us have been shooting film rangefinders for a long time, and others bought into the digital M line at a time when there simply was no light weight full-frame alternative. Times have changed and I understand that it will be hard for Leica to draw new users into the M system after they have become comfortable with more affordable mirror less options. Good for you that you made your decision so quickly because the rangefinder can have a magical pull where the sheer mechanics of focusing and making a photograph get you to spend thousands of dollars. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomB_tx Posted April 23, 2015 Share #48 Posted April 23, 2015 My experience was just flipped: I've used Leicas since the 1960s, but tried a Fuji X100S as a carry-around. Nice results, but too much fuss to focus and force it to do what I wanted, when an M model (or R) is just so simple for my old habits. I do like the A7 as an R solution for my old SLR manual lens collection. It's my digital R4. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
A miller Posted April 23, 2015 Share #49 Posted April 23, 2015 Just a random comment that, if you ever decide to purchase a CCD M camera, you might be better off buying a really beat up but operationally sound M9 for real cheap and then having it upgraded to the M9-P. You'll get a beautiful resulting camera at a good price and better residual value than an M-E. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tookaphotoof Posted April 24, 2015 Share #50 Posted April 24, 2015 If I ever buy a ccd camera I will make sure to get a MM. [emoji5]️ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpavich Posted August 8, 2015 Author Share #51 Posted August 8, 2015 I ended up buying an R-D1x and I love it. It's about the most perfect camera I've ever used. However...the siren song of the M240 is still calling my name and so sometime in 2016, I'm going to purchase one. By that time, the new M will have come out at Photokina and the resulting price of M240's will have dropped enough for me to afford one.If it's everything I think it will be, it will last me a lonnggg time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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