enboe Posted January 30, 2017 Share #1 Posted January 30, 2017 Advertisement (gone after registration) The work week is done, the chores complete, nothing to get in the way of taking the M10 out for a spin. Off to Universal Studios Hollywood. Setup - Silver M10 with 28/2.8/ASPH/II. 64 GB Sandisk Ultra Plus. Leica Neoprene case to protect it during security inspection and when the crowds and rides started to jostle around. Center weighted metering, DNG files developed in LR 6.8, mostly auto ISO, auto shutter speed. Mix of sunshine and indoors artificial lighting. Rangefinder focusing. Viewfinder framing 90% of the time, Live View for the other 10% when I had to hold the camera at an odd angle. Total shooting time, around 4 hours. Yes, the new camera is a fine shooting tool, and a happy addition to the stable. The difference in thickness gives the impression of lighter mass, easier to handle than the M262, although the mass specifications say otherwise. It's all in the handling. No thumbie, no handle, no case, just the naked camera and strap. A camera and a small lens that can live around your neck all day without weighing you down. A tool that delivers great images, constrained only by the skill and care of the photographer. Yes, Leica remembers how to make the best rangefinder cameras in the world. The DNG files are great, with excellent color as processed in Lightroom 6.8, no surprises here. Images are as sharp as any of the other 24MP Leica cameras, again, as expected. I was pleased to find I could pull the files a stop and push them 2.5-3 stops without ill effect, as I wound up taking several pictures where the "averaging" metering was not quite up to the task. Battery life extrapolates to around 400 images for this first outing. I expect I will stretch that to over 500 by spending less time in the menus and maybe dropping the auto review to 1 second or even off. Limitations of high ISO are still out for debate. I had no problem with images up to 6400, and saw lots of streaking at 50,000. 32,000 seemed to clean up the streaks, but the details were lost to the noise. So, the limit for high ISO is somewhere between 6400 and 25,000. More tests next weekend to fine tune that characteristic. Center-weighted metering is very similar in performance to the M240, better than the M262, but not quite as reliable, or lucky, as the M-D 262. Net result, daylight shots are fine as-is, mix of shade and daylight requires you expose for the subject, and indoors with dim artificial lighting typically underexposed, but in 97% of the cases, the images were fully adjustable in Lightroom to a pleasant exposure. One quirk I observed three times - when I grabbed the camera for a quick shot, the camera grossly overexposed. More specifically, when walking around with the camera off and the lens cap on, I saw something I wanted to shoot quickly, and in one motion turned on the camera and removed the lens cap, then pushed the button to make the exposure. It may be that I had half-pushed the button too quickly and it locked in the cap-on exposure level, or the meter needs a few tenths of a second to wake up and settle out to the right reading. I will try this again more next weekend, I am betting it is the premature half-push locking the exposure, something that can be attributed as operator error and un-learned with practice. Speaking of learning and un-learning muscle memories, I found I had left the camera on several times. This is correctable with practice. That being said, the 2-position on-off is very solid and sure. I like it. Another observation on metering. The Auto ISO allows you to pick a max ISO and a minimum shutter speed, or 1/focal length, if desired. The algorithm for auto-shutter selection will allow the shutter speed to drop to the minimum before it allows the ISO to raise. For me, that meant the 1/28 second automatically picked for the lens caused me to have motion blur due to the subject and due to myself in certain cases. Again, all very fixable by making the right settings. So, after one outing is there anything concrete I would change, perhaps in the M10-P version? Can we have the strap rub inserts back please? How about shipping out some of those batteries so we can have a second? Any chance at a proper ever-ready case? Next weekend, more adventures with the M10. Eric Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 Hi enboe, Take a look here Inaugural outing with the M10. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
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