Nick Bedford Posted June 5, 2015 Share #1 Posted June 5, 2015 Advertisement (gone after registration) As an owner of both a Canon 5D Mark III and a Leica M 240, I've found the highlights in the M DNGs clip very easily, whereas a similar Canon raw file has at least 2-3 times the latitude in the highlights. I can easily recover highlight information in those CR2 files. Has anyone else noticed how poor the highlight latitude is on the M's CMOS sensor in raw files? Sometimes I'll accidentally meter wrong and not realise until it's too late and I have trouble getting much, if anything out of Lightroom when bringing down the exposure. The highlights are just pure white. I love the camera, but this has been bugging me. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted June 5, 2015 Posted June 5, 2015 Hi Nick Bedford, Take a look here Limited highlight latitude on M 240. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Manoleica Posted June 5, 2015 Share #2 Posted June 5, 2015 "Sometimes I'll accidentally meter wrong" - nickjbedford Take 1 shot then double check your exposure settings.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbl Posted June 5, 2015 Share #3 Posted June 5, 2015 This isn't something I've noticed but is it possible you're overexposing due to metering differences between the M and the Canon? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Bedford Posted June 5, 2015 Author Share #4 Posted June 5, 2015 "Sometimes I'll accidentally meter wrong" - nickjbedford Take 1 shot then double check your exposure settings.. We're not always perfect... Maybe I was in a hurry or it's a single moment that's never going to happen again, or I actually want to increase the apparent dynamic range of the photo in post. I've just noticed that the highlights clip far easier than the 5D Mark III (for example), despite the apparently larger dynamic range. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mornnb Posted June 5, 2015 Share #5 Posted June 5, 2015 Yes I know what you mean I am also an experienced Canon shooter who is also using a Leica. I think a large part of it though is that the Leica autoexposure tends to favour brighter exposures than the 5D. The sensors handling of highlights is not as good as the 5D, but it's not terrible. You should also notice the shadow recovery on the M240 is much much better and more noise free than the 5D Mark III, you can underexpose and get away with it far more easily on the M240. The 5D Mark III has severe noise issues in shadows which the M240 does not. Indeed I find the shadow handling of the M240 to be nearly as good as Sony/ Nikon. My recommendation, is to lower the exposure compensation. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwardkaraa Posted June 5, 2015 Share #6 Posted June 5, 2015 I agree with the above. It's a combination of M metering tending towards overexposure and M sensor preferring under exposure. After a while the meter becomes predictable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
250swb Posted June 5, 2015 Share #7 Posted June 5, 2015 Advertisement (gone after registration) Has anyone else noticed how poor the highlight latitude is on the M's CMOS sensor in raw files? You have a range of tools available, exposure compensation, manual exposure, where to make a light reading from, type of metering used, in fact all the tools that traditionally have been used by photographers to make decisions for themselves. If they are too advanced I imagine the Manual that came with the camera may have some tips on exposure. Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjh Posted June 5, 2015 Share #8 Posted June 5, 2015 It is not like one camera/sensor would clip more easily than another. This is actually a metering issue and easily corrected. Keep in mind that the M’s classic selective metering cannot – as matrix metering does – measure highlights and shadows individually and expose for the highlights. So you could either switch to matrix metering with the image sensor (which is a bit inconvenient as it increases shutter lag) or check for blown-out highlights after the shots (or proactively use exposure compensation whenever the situation is prone to blown-out highlights). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted June 5, 2015 Share #9 Posted June 5, 2015 Yes... for me it has became almost automatic to set compensation anytime I find snow around... works fine, and digital Ms, just from the start (I remember well my M8...), have been always excellent in capability to manage underexposed shadows when needed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanJW Posted June 5, 2015 Share #10 Posted June 5, 2015 Yes, I don't see this as a sensor issue. Blown highlights are an issue for all digital cameras, just as they were when we were shooting slide film (remember that?). After a while you adjust to it by either setting a minus exposure comp or metering off the right areas of the frame. You can also go high tech and use the setting that allows the LV/EVF to show actual exposure, which I have found to be very useful in tricky lighting situations. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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