M9 to M10

[Csacwp]

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For those who love the files of the M9 and have bought the M10, how are you finding the M10 files? Are they similar to those from the M9 or yellowish and flat like those from the M240?

[jdlaing]

If you have flat yellowish files something isn’t set right.

[blacksinner]

its not flat. its punchier. sometimes over saturated on skin. i like M9 equally. the files on M9 seems to be sharper, crisper. while the M10 is punchier and already good out of camera. 

 

one thing i hate, on the M10 the highlight clipping is so sensitive. it clipped so easily with sky on the background. and the transition is not smooth on the JPEG. the DNG file is very hard to play with on high contrast situation. 

 

for example is this. this is no sky background. but look at the yellow on the hand. it already shows some clipping. and it is not over expose on the face. but the yellow is already overexpose with the same light. and it is very hard to recover the over expose highlight on M10. it is almost impossible. until now i still very hard trying to balance the exposure on M10. 

[Guest Nowhereman]

I would say that the M9 has somewhat more acuity than the M10. My feeling is also that the M10 requires substantially more underexposure than either the M9 or the MM not to blow highlights — to more than a reasonable degree, as far as I can remember the other two cameras. I wonder whether that could be fixed by Leica in a firmware upgrade?

 

Otherwise in it's handling aspects it's superior to the M9 and MM but, still, it's not an M3.

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[tobey bilek]

Put a person under a green tree and they turn green, every camera.    The yellow in the face and hand is reflection from her sweater.

 

Small on camera flash are very contrasty light with rapid fall off.   Notice the hand on bottom is exposed correctly.     It is also flat because of its position.   There are settings to control contrast of camera generated JPEGs      

 

If you shoot on auto,  the mechanism sees the dark background and gives overexposure and her face is overexposed.  

 

This whole thing is user error

[albertknappmd]

prefer the M10... better handling and files are very vivid... 

No issues as of yet with blown highlights. Each camera has its own distinctive behavior and I preset the exposure to -1/3 or -2/3 for standard scenes anyway as per my histogram and obviously change it depending on the circumstances (desert, beach, snow... Histogram is final arbiter....

[pgh]

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This whole thing is user error

Nonsense. The highlight clipping on the M10 is a pain - "user error" might be applicable if you're shooting slide film and used to no latitude whatsoever, but the fact is that the M10 clips highlights in a way that is much more of a pain to deal with than other modern cameras. It's about as bad as sensors from 6-8 years ago or more. At some point it is not worth it if, to get a usable image, you have do to things that are not in the spirit of the M. I've made plenty of completely correct and proper exposures for a given scene with my M10 and other cameras side by side. Highlights are lost in the M10 easily. Sometimes 2 (or more!) full stops before highlights are gone on other cameras. It is the difference in retaining full tonality and having a usable image or not. The M10 simply can't handle some scenes like other cameras can, and this is frustrating because it is very applicable to street and documentary photography where there is dynamic lighting, and the preferred method isn't always to underexpose for that dramatic shadows drop to near total darkness look. 

Edited February 9, 2018 by pgh

[Guest Nowhereman]

Yes, exactly what I meant: the degree of underexposure necessary sometimes is 2-3 stops. It can be quite annoying, and I don't like to underexpose that much and then have to lift shadows to that degree. Sometimes that can make it impossible to make large prints. 

 

Is this solvable in firmware, or is this the limitation of this sensor?

[JDFlood]

I run my M10 at -2/3 ev and seldom blow and highlights. My Nikon 800, Fuji Xpro 2 and Leica X2 are exactly the same.

[tobey bilek]

Look to see your exposure compensation is not set to plus.    Controlled with thumb wheel right hand and easy to screw up. If there is a red dot next to shutter speed in viewfinder,  it is turned on.

 

I have tried a few M10 and they do not blow highlights more than any other digital.

[Mic77]

 

I run my M10 at -2/3 ev and seldom blow and highlights. My Nikon 800, Fuji Xpro 2 and Leica X2 are exactly the same.

It`s not realy true at all.

I have also to underexposure my xpro2 -0,33 to -0,66 EV constantly

[Printmaker]

I also set my exposure compensation to -1/3 stop on the M10. Seems to work just fine. As to which is better, the M9 or the M10? The M10 is a better camera but there was a Kodachrome quality to the M9 files that I really liked. You can get there on the M10 by bumping the contrast, clarity and blacks a tad but I seldom bother. I just accept the beauty of the M10 files as are right from the camera with minimum tweaks.

[farnz]

It`s not realy true at all.

I have also to underexposure my xpro2 -0,33 to -0,66 EV constantly

 

I read JDFlood's post as the same as what you wrote: -2/3 EV exposure compensation as a matter of course.

 

Pete.