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Leica M10 Monochrom – 41 MP in Black & White


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6 hours ago, BerkMillers said:

The only thing I can see from this video is, that there is only a marginal difference from a 12000€ combo to the Fuji X-T3.

The Fujis are exceptional good cameras with outstanding good glass and 10 times worth their money.

I totally agree. My XT3 is excellent and the lenses are superb. Just for fun yesterday I took a few casual comparisons with my M9P/Zeiss 35mm f2 and the XT3 with the 23mm f2. I can easily make then look absolutely identical in Lightroom, both great!

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Welcome. If I were you I would first decide what kind of images to take, as both choices depend on your subject matter (lens) and light (filter).

IEither a 50 mm or a 35 mm lens can be your style, you decide, here is a choice between a Suummilux and a Summicron  lens here as well. With the ISO performance of the camera lens speed is not relevant for low light. There is also little difference in the DOF performance of both lenses, so the foirst thing to decide is which angle of view suits your style. The you need to decide which type of rendering suits your photography..

If I were you I would get the 35 Summilux.It is the easiest lens to use, and less demanding of photographic technique.
To get the best out of the Apo-Summicron 50 , especially on a high resolution monochrome sensor. you  need impeccable handholding, or a tripod, and above-average postprocessing  and printing skills. Otherwise any Summicron 50 will give results that are at least as good.

As for filters, the choice depends on way that you want to influence tonality. Start off by buying a mid-yellow and experiment with the use for sunny outdoor shots. Be aware that you may experience focus shift, especially with deep red filters - although less so on an Apo lens..

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It's certainly worth playing with filters to see whether you achieve an effect which is more to your taste. Look for some very cheap poor quality filters on eBay but which will give you an idea of what happens when you use them. Maybe start with a yellow one and an orange one. Red can be very dramatic.

Try taking a photograph of a particular scene and immediately – in the same light and circumstances, remove the filter and take the photograph again. You'll soon start to get a feeling for what it does and what works for you.

If you find that you like the idea of using filters then start looking around for better quality/more expensive ones.

Edited by marcg
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If you want to get a general idea of how color filters work on b&w, you can experiment with the color sliders on a color image converted to b&w in e.g. Ligthtroom or color filter simulations in. e.g. Silver Efex Pro. But this is of course not the same as the real thing.

Edited by mujk
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On 1/30/2020 at 8:45 PM, michaellanda said:

Hey, can someone explain to me how the different filter colors affect the images on the M10 Monochrom. Just purchased the camera and still deciding what if any filters should be purchased and if I should purchase the 50mm APO or the 35 summilux lens. Thank you 

I followed the path of what others have suggested. I dabbled with older cheap color filters I had on the MM1, on the MM246 I added better quality ones. With the M10M I am completing my filter collection. That said I do not use my filters that often on any of the Monochroms, they only go on when mainly just for some effect. The other day when shooting the bench I noticed the bench had an orange yellowish color so I decided to lighten up the bench by putting the Orange filter on. 

Without filter

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With Leica Orange filter

The bench has lightened with the Orange filter and the sky has darkened a little.

 

Look at a color wheel colors on the opposite side of the wheel will darken and colors the same as the filter or just next to it will lighten. 

Additional filter information on the impact in images which I referred to often when using filters with my Monochroms. 

Black and White Contrast Filters

Example of 1 scene with different filters

This link below has an excellent chart of labelled filter colors along the top with rows of normal color and how it would appear on the camera. 

Excellent cross reference chart

 

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I have regularly used medium yellow for b&w films and now having the M10M I decided to add orange. Just ordered a used Leica 39mm and a new Heliopan 46mm. Should be with me in a few days.  Will then need some blue skies with fluffy white clouds! ;)

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One other example for you with use of filters on an overcast day

M10M Lux 50 Unfiltered

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Leica Yellow filter

B+W 090 Red Filter (R25)

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33 minutes ago, burningheart said:

One other example for you with use of filters on an overcast day

M10M Lux 50 Unfiltered

Leica Yellow filter

B+W 090 Red Filter (R25)

I may prefer the unfiltered file as a starting point. I often use yellow and orange filters but they only provide very slight alterations that I do believe you can overcome in LR. 

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On 1/31/2020 at 1:47 AM, jaapv said:

Welcome. If I were you I would first decide what kind of images to take, as both choices depend on your subject matter (lens) and light (filter).

IEither a 50 mm or a 35 mm lens can be your style, you decide, here is a choice between a Suummilux and a Summicron  lens here as well. With the ISO performance of the camera lens speed is not relevant for low light. There is also little difference in the DOF performance of both lenses, so the foirst thing to decide is which angle of view suits your style. The you need to decide which type of rendering suits your photography..

If I were you I would get the 35 Summilux.It is the easiest lens to use, and less demanding of photographic technique.
To get the best out of the Apo-Summicron 50 , especially on a high resolution monochrome sensor. you  need impeccable handholding, or a tripod, and above-average postprocessing  and printing skills. Otherwise any Summicron 50 will give results that are at least as good.

As for filters, the choice depends on way that you want to influence tonality. Start off by buying a mid-yellow and experiment with the use for sunny outdoor shots. Be aware that you may experience focus shift, especially with deep red filters - although less so on an Apo lens..

Jaapv, wouldn't this be better suited to a separate thread on filters, rather than the pinned thread specifically about the camera?

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On 1/30/2020 at 10:45 PM, michaellanda said:

Hey, can someone explain to me how the different filter colors affect the images on the M10 Monochrom. Just purchased the camera and still deciding what if any filters should be purchased and if I should purchase the 50mm APO or the 35 summilux lens. Thank you 

All the monochrom's do a great job with color filters, and react the same way as film cameras.  So, you can google the color filters and any article that shows black and white photographs with color filters will give you an idea of how the M's will look.  You can also think about the color of the filter - the filter color will essentially be white.  So, for a yellow filter, yellow signs, yellow stoplights, yellow sunsets, will all be white.  Any color near yellow, will be light grey and any color far from yellow will be dark.  So, green filters make light green white and darker greens lighter - great for springtime fresh growth in the woods.  Orange and red are normally used to darken the sky and are the highest contrast, meaning blues are dark and anything near blue.  I reserve the orange and red for work at the beach because the sand stays light and the sky dark with the clouds a brilliant white.  The same is true for snow.  Have fun @michaellanda!

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The issue of filters slowed my acquiring a monochrome camera since I was used to being able to virtually add filters in post to a color image conversion to B&W. But the last few years I have been using SilverEfxPro2 and noticed that it was very rare I would use in post a red or green or even orange filtration on conversion. The effects the SilverEfxPro appplied were more essential than a color filtration. I learned I usually used yellow and left it at that.

Years ago it was a real pain to have a bunch of color filters that would fit each lens. But if I was shooting B&W film it was necessary. Worse, the filters cut down light transmission so I needed to shoot at slower speeds.  With the M10M I’m satisfied with a yellow left on, and the incredible ISO range means I don’t worry about less light transmission.

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In general, I use a yellow filter on everything.  However, I have found over time that landscape photography benefits greatly from green, orange and red filter.  Even with a yellow filter, brown leaves, brown trees and green ferns on a cloudy day just turn out the same dull grey - a green filter punches the ferns through the muck.

It can be a pain to carry some extra filters, but I also plan my lenses to share filters depending on where I'm going.  For example, the Summilux 28, Tri-Elmar MATE and APO 135 all share a 49mm filter.  The 21mm SEM, 28mm summicron, 35mm Summilux, 50mm Summilux and 90mm Elmarit (f/2.8) all share 46mm.  

So, yes, I have a ton of Yellow filters and a one of each green, orange, red in the 39mm, 46mm and 49mm range.

Also note that yellow filters come in #8 and #5.  #8 is a full stop of light loss and more contrast, while #5 is about 1/2 stop and less contrast. 

Slower shutter speeds used to be more important with film where the top speed was 1/1000 (leica) and 1/2000 (nikon).  But, I still like being able to open up closer to f/1.4 in daylight, which is easier with a filter.

To the OP, great question.  Good thing with digital is that you can play around to see what you like the best!

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