Strange Image M9

[iwctoys]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Any idea what would cause this in a M9.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[adan]

Does that image look that way when reviewed on the camera's own LCD screen - or only later in the computer?

The gross error (what it is, not why it is) is that the image has been reduced to a bit-depth of (likely) 2 per RGB color channel (instead of the normal 8- or 14-bit depth). I.E. a total of only 64 different colors instead of 16 million or 64 million colors. Posterized.

If it shows up as soon as the shot is taken (still in the camera), that would seem to be either a broken analog-to-digital converter chip that is clipping the data to just two bits, or corrupted camera firmware that is doing the same thing.

If it looks fine on the camera screen (and in zoomed-in views) then either there is some error occuring in transferring the image to a computer, or some setting in the post-processing software (LightRoom or whatever) is clipping or posterizing the data.