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SL Firmware 4.0 update wishes


MRJohn

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I would like the same changes since I have been asking since V1 of FW. 

 

 - focus peaking AND horizon on same Liveview screen 

 - focus magnification to stay in the same place between shots 

 

also

 - bring back the indicator of aperture (with non-SL lenses) in the viewfinder

Good summary.  I am in favor of all three, but I would perhaps favor horizon plus histogram on the same screen.  Since we now have the option to have the AF point either stay in place or recenter after each shot, it would be natural for non-SL lens users to have the same option with the focus mag point.  Apparently this may not be so easy for the firmware coders, as they are different actions.

Edited by scott kirkpatrick
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On/Off switch for LENR can be made available for DNG ONLY file format (IF Leica is worried that without LENR, jpg quality will get deteriorated). I am assuming that LENR will have affect only jpg and not DNG. 

The drawback to LENR is that it doubles the time elapsed when you make a long exposure because the dark frame (which will be subtracted) is shot for the same time as the actual exposure.  This would be the case even if the corrections were only applied to the jpeg.

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The drawback to LENR is that it doubles the time elapsed when you make a long exposure because the dark frame (which will be subtracted) is shot for the same time as the actual exposure.  This would be the case even if the corrections were only applied to the jpeg.

Agree. That is the reason for requesting the option to turn OFF LENR ONLY for DNG storage, if Leica is worried that jpg quality will be affected if LENR if turned OFF. If DNG+jpg or JPG options are selected, then LENR OFF can be grayed out (not available).

 

I had to reconsider using SL for night photography because LENR cannot be turned off!

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What pray is LENR?

 

Long Exposure Noise Reduction.

 

Essentially it's a dark frame exposure that just sees "noise" which is then subtracted from the proper exposure to give a cleaner file. With most manufacturers it's optional. But it's mandatory with Leica with any exposure over a second. If you do a 30 minute exposure you'd "have" to wait an additional 30 minutes while the camera does a dark frame, rendering the camera useless for that time. That means you can't do things like stack star trails and some other long exposure tricks. I find it a pain when doing lightning exposures.

 

It should be up to the photographer to decide whether ultimate IQ is worth the trade off of camera responsiveness.

 

Gordon

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#10. Change the behaviour where exposure preview is automatically disabled in Manual mode when using a TTL flash. It's a daft, stupid and pointless firmware decision. Which twit at Leica thinks a photographer using a mirrorless camera wouldn't want to be able to see exposure preview in M mode with TTL flash. Has no one at Leica ever wanted to balance fill flash with a background exposure in M mode??? The whole point of mirrorless is to let us do stuff that a DSLR doesn't.

 

The SL is the only mirrorless camera I know of that has this ridiculous behaviour.

 

Another thing that should be a user choice that Leica thinks it know better than us. It doesn't.

 

Gordon

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Long Exposure Noise Reduction.

 

Essentially it's a dark frame exposure that just sees "noise" which is then subtracted from the proper exposure to give a cleaner file. With most manufacturers it's optional. But it's mandatory with Leica with any exposure over a second. If you do a 30 minute exposure you'd "have" to wait an additional 30 minutes while the camera does a dark frame, rendering the camera useless for that time. That means you can't do things like stack star trails and some other long exposure tricks. I find it a pain when doing lightning exposures.

 

It should be up to the photographer to decide whether ultimate IQ is worth the trade off of camera responsiveness.

 

Gordon

 

Thank you.

 

I have not had a problem but can well understand that it could be frustrating, to say the least.

 

I suppose the key question is what and how much does it achieve?

 

Perhaps it's very beneficial to image quality - perhaps not.

Can the same, or similar, noise reduction be achieved using Post Processing software?

 

Could this be another manifestation of the Leica brand's desire to always achieve the "Highest" quality image?

It would certainly help if Leica was a bit more explicit on these matters - but I'm not holding my breath.   

Edited by Peter Branch
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I'd like to see the focal length with the zooms before taking the shot. Now I have to take a test shot and see it from there.

 

I prefer to use manual focus and joystick press for AF, it would be great to be able to zoom in to check the focus using other button than the lower left which is hard to reach and shakes the camera while doing so. A problem especially with the 90-280.

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Thank you.

 

I have not had a problem but can well understand that it could be frustrating, to say the least.

 

I suppose the key question is what and how much does it achieve?

 

Perhaps it's very beneficial to image quality - perhaps not.

Can the same, or similar, noise reduction be achieved using Post Processing software?

 

Could this be another manifestation of the Leica brand's desire to always achieve the "Highest" quality image?

It would certainly help if Leica was a bit more explicit on these matters - but I'm not holding my breath.

It is possible to manually perform this operation in post processing. Some brands allow this, some do not. It is frustrating to wait for a second exposure.

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It is possible to manually perform this operation in post processing. Some brands allow this, some do not. It is frustrating to wait for a second exposure.

To clarify, I believe Leica cameras are the only full frame cameras that do not allow the user to disable LENR. I have never seen a camera from another manufacturer that imposes this restriction on the user.

 

Another positive attribute of manual LENR - if you take a number of dark frames (say 6-10) at the end of the session, you can then average these frames and provide a better correction than any one single frame can achieve. You could of course set the camera to do this at your convenience, while you are breaking down equipment, etc.

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I think in switching from exposure preview only on half press to exposure preview always on in PAS or in PASM we still miss some scenarios.  I'd prefer to see

 

Exposure preview   -- Always ON ( in PAS or in PASM) or on half-press only  (the old setting)  Yes, I suspect it takes two lines of menu space to do this.

 

And I'm still waiting to have file numbering that rolls over into a new directory when the numbers pass 9999 instead of 999.  The present system never uses one of the file number spaces.

 

scott

Agreed completely on the file numbering. 9999 is definitely the logical rollover point. The change in 3.0 to the card writing protocol is a step forward, but they still need to let us choose which card to play from and give us the ability to copy from card to card (these capabilities have been standard on Canon pro cameras forever and are quite useful).

 

I also wish that we could display the level and histogram or peaking together...this seems like a no-brainer.

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Another wish I had today; when using manual focus lenses, I would like the rear knob when pressed to give me the choice of 5x or 10x magnification. I find 5x mag is good enough to focus a noctilux exactly but 10x narrows down the view too much. 

 

 

I frequently open to full aperture to focus accurately with manual (R or M) lenses.  Seeing the estimated f-stop reminds me to stop down again.

 

Hi Scott, Exactly why I also want the f-stop guesstimate. 

 

Good summary.  I am in favor of all three, but I would perhaps favor horizon plus histogram on the same screen.  Since we now have the option to have the AF point either stay in place or recenter after each shot, it would be natural for non-SL lens users to have the same option with the focus mag point.  Apparently this may not be so easy for the firmware coders, as they are different actions.

 

In which case, why not be able to choose which options we want displayed on a single screen instead of having to choose between multiple screens offering a subset? I think my Nex7 gave me this option, but it is so long since I used it. 

 

 

#10. Change the behaviour where exposure preview is automatically disabled in Manual mode when using a TTL flash. It's a daft, stupid and pointless firmware decision. Which twit at Leica thinks a photographer using a mirrorless camera wouldn't want to be able to see exposure preview in M mode with TTL flash. Has no one at Leica ever wanted to balance fill flash with a background exposure in M mode??? The whole point of mirrorless is to let us do stuff that a DSLR doesn't.

 

The SL is the only mirrorless camera I know of that has this ridiculous behaviour.

 

Another thing that should be a user choice that Leica thinks it know better than us. It doesn't.

 

Gordon

 

Hi Gordon, Sorry I rarely use flash or TTL flash ( I know what they are), but I do not understand your request, for how exposure preview can show this without firing the flash itself? I can imagine it to show how dark the background is when set, but not the effect this would have on the exposure of the subject? 

Edited by Sandokan
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Hi Gordon, Sorry I rarely use flash or TTL flash ( I know what they are), but I do not understand your request, for how exposure preview can show this without firing the flash itself? I can imagine it to show how dark the background is when set, but not the effect this would have on the exposure of the subject? 

 

That's what I want it to do. Here's a scenario I actually have.... Imagine you are shooting an interior that has a view and you'd like to blend the exposure you see through the window with the inside by filling the inside with flash. Normally the camera will show an average exposure, which would have the interior visible and the outside light blown. But I want to be able to underexpose the shot to get the outside exposure right and then fill the room with flash. In M mode with TTL flash I can't see the exposure simulation. But if I turn the flash off, I can. And if I use a non TTL flash I can. But NOT if I use a Leica TTL flash. STUPID!!!!

 

Here's a sample. This is a single exposure...

 

28208071032_c2de87fa99_b.jpg160629HillsGosford-3.jpg by Gordon Cahill, on Flickr

 

Without flash the room would be dark. But exposure preview with TTL flash shows a nice bright room and a blown exterior. I NEED to be able to see the exposure for the exterior. It's the whole reason I shoot mirrorless (pre-chimping). Here I used a manual flash so I could see the exposure for the outside and then I can fill the room.

 

And don't get me started on how they removed the option to turn exposure preview OFF in P,A and S modes plus removed the half press option I used every single day...........

 

The most annoying bit is how easy it would be to get most of the things we ask for implemented. It's just not that hard, except for Leica.

 

Gordon

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On/Off switch for LENR can be made available for DNG ONLY file format (IF Leica is worried that without LENR, jpg quality will get deteriorated). I am assuming that LENR will affect only jpg and not DNG. 

LENR (dark frame subtraction) is done on a pixel by pixel basis, so it is applied to the raw file before  the JPG is derived from it.  A pixel in the JPG contains information from many surrounding pixels under the Bayer filter array in the raw file.  LENR ON/OFF is the option that we need.  There are ways to do this kind of noise reduction in post processing.

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LENR (dark frame subtraction) is done on a pixel by pixel basis, so it is applied to the raw file before  the JPG is derived from it.  A pixel in the JPG contains information from many surrounding pixels under the Bayer filter array in the raw file.  LENR ON/OFF is the option that we need.  There are ways to do this kind of noise reduction in post processing.

Thanks for the clarification. I guess LENR is one of the few camera settings which affects the DNG files.

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Would prefer if Copyright Information is "sticky" (stores the information permanently in the camera). I find that this information (and few other toggles like GPS on/off, which drains the battery) are not stored in default mode, once changed.

 

I have created and saved few profiles like tripod/long exposure, and flash. When I switch back to default, copyright information is lost. To overcome this, I have to create another profile with user information and save it to use as "default". 

 

Manual says this is available only in picture recording mode.

 

Is this a bug in firmware 3 ? If no, then I would like it changed in next firmware update. 

Edited by su25
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@SU25, I think what you are asking is for some configuration settings to be set once, in the basic profile, and then applied in all user profiles.  That sounds sensible, but you never know.  There may be someone who wants to have different copyright names used in different user profiles.  The way I would handle this (if I were using multiple user profiles, which I still don't do) would be to get those things right in the default profile, then modify just the things which are different in a specific situation and save that modified profile as user profile #1,2, or 3.  If that doesn't work, then there may be a bug.

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Nr. 3: Make "zoom" for focusing with manual lenses "sticky". Meaning remember where "the focus point" last was and do not recenter when switching in/out of zoom.  (I know it is no focus point, but alas.)

 

Yes, please. It was in a way promissed from day 1...

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Nr. 4: ...(whatever the M10 users tell you, this is no M. First I thought how glad I am to own a SL, and not to have to follow the stupid ideas of M fans - how mistaken I was !!)

 

What do you mean here? What does M users tell us? What stupid ideas do they have? Sorry, I do not understand... :( 

 

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When I update the copyright information in default profile, and save the profile as user profile # 1, then when I go back to default profile, the copyright information is no longer available. Therefore, I need to update this information for each profile I make. However, if I DON"T save it as a user profile, then  ALL changes (including copyright information) remain. :(

 

@SU25, I think what you are asking is for some configuration settings to be set once, in the basic profile, and then applied in all user profiles.  That sounds sensible, but you never know.  There may be someone who wants to have different copyright names used in different user profiles.  The way I would handle this (if I were using multiple user profiles, which I still don't do) would be to get those things right in the default profile, then modify just the things which are different in a specific situation and save that modified profile as user profile #1,2, or 3.  If that doesn't work, then there may be a bug.

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