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Goodby M9


tobey bilek

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Took three photos in 15 minutes last week.  Last one had a fuzzy black spot on right edge.   

Glob of something appeared to create it.  Tried all forms of cleaning, none worked.  I have not cleaned the sensor in three or more years, not even a blow off.  Before that maybe one time.  Sent it to Leica store Miami and they confirmed corrosion start.   A/c home and packing in plastic bag with desiccant in summer did not save it.

Leica will replace it with M10P at a cost naturally.  M10 is a much better camera anyway.

Edited by tobey bilek
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OTOH there is the touted color of the M9 sensor.  If you enjoy that you can have the sensor replaced by a non-Leica service for prices from US$700 to US1,500.  And for your M9 plus US$700 what can you purchase?  Granted the M9 colors can be approached, even equaled, with deft PP manipulation.  And granted, while I way prefer Agfachrome over Kodachrome, there is no arguing that out of the camera images from the M9 do have their own special charm.  Maybe we have imbued them with too much poetry.  That's an individual decision.  For my place, I will be hanging on to my M9 as long as it works.  Then I can use it as a paperweight of happy memories.  Yes, mine has a factory replaced sensor.  As always YMMV.

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ACR/photoshop has provision to make camera colors match and profile can be automatically made by serial number.

Also  I do not trust third party to do repairs and if they screw it up, M9 is not even a good trade in for M10.

I was willing to have Leica replace sensor on my dime and they refused.

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5 minutes ago, tobey bilek said:

I was willing to have Leica replace sensor on my dime and they refused.

Interesting, given these refurbished bodies with new sensors... 

https://leicarumors.com/2021/03/16/a-batch-of-leica-m9-m9-p-cameras-with-new-sensors-listed-for-sale-at-keh.aspx/

I guess it’s possible the sensors were replaced at an earlier date, prior to the other upgrades.
 

Jeff

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No it's not true

In order to get some sort of approximation of the "M9 look" from any other camera you'd have to profile both cameras, then devise a profile that matches as close as you can the M9 profile

Once you've done this, you can set ACR/LR to apply that profile automatically to the target camera based on its serial number, but that's true of any camera

M9 images look different depending on if you open them in DxO or LR or C1 or whatever

The Leica userbase argues about whether the M9 looks like Kodachrome or not? (and if you say yes which KC exactly? 25? 64?)

Or perhaps you think the M9 looks more like Portra 400/800??

Maybe the best bet is too simply look at the M9 image thread here on the forum, after all the M9 has such a distinct look that all the pics here will broadly be the same....

Nope, clearly not...

The M9 look is what you make of it IMO and if you can quantify it to yourself, then you can probably create some sort of approximation that makes you happy...

But LR can't do this for you, you'd have to do the heavy lifting yourself

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5 hours ago, Cobram said:

This info is a deal breaker for me? Is it true? Can you specify how the adjustment is made?

https://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-create-a-custom-color-profile-for-your-camera--cms-24339

Separate step for auto camera serial number.  I have done above and it works well.  Wedding people coordinate their cameras.

Red Dot or Miami Camera ran a three episode with extensive examples of same time, same place shots.

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5 hours ago, tobey bilek said:

https://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-create-a-custom-color-profile-for-your-camera--cms-24339

Separate step for auto camera serial number.  I have done above and it works well.  Wedding people coordinate their cameras.

Red Dot or Miami Camera ran a three episode with extensive examples of same time, same place shots.

https://www.reddotforum.com/?s=ccd+vs+cmos this is link to above

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On the subject of the M9 'look' and if/how it can be replicated/approximated on a CMOS camera, this three-part article might make for interesting reading:

https://www.reddotforum.com/content/2015/02/the-great-debate-ccd-vs-cmos-part-1/

https://www.reddotforum.com/content/2015/02/the-great-debate-ccd-vs-cmos-part-2/

http://www.reddotforum.com/content/2015/03/the-great-debate-ccd-vs-cmos-part-3/

Edited by logan2z
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David Farkas writes a good article and is very, very nice to offer his preset FOC

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!

 

 

 

 

Never really got it o work for me TBH, of course OMMV...

(images are 240 and M9, both WB'd to the same spot, exactly the same lens and exposure settings used, and taken as far apart as it took to swap lenses. 240 Images have WB and the Farkas preset applied, M9 ones just the WB.)

The last one is a little bit close I guess

I mean sure side by side like this, I could make exposure and HSL adjustments to get them closer... but that's not really applying a setting to make camera A look like camera B

That would mean having to take two cameras out every time !!

I think it's not really just CMOS v CCD...

it's DR, pixel size. tonality, CFA density, cover glass and sensor stack.... these things are harder to match in post 🙂 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On 3/18/2021 at 7:38 PM, Adam Bonn said:

David Farkas writes a good article and is very, very nice to offer his preset FOC

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!

 

 

 

 

Never really got it o work for me TBH, of course OMMV...

(images are 240 and M9, both WB'd to the same spot, exactly the same lens and exposure settings used, and taken as far apart as it took to swap lenses. 240 Images have WB and the Farkas preset applied, M9 ones just the WB.)

The last one is a little bit close I guess

I mean sure side by side like this, I could make exposure and HSL adjustments to get them closer... but that's not really applying a setting to make camera A look like camera B

That would mean having to take two cameras out every time !!

I think it's not really just CMOS v CCD...

it's DR, pixel size. tonality, CFA density, cover glass and sensor stack.... these things are harder to match in post 🙂 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I understand what you are saying. Best IQ I had was from Canon 5D and 50L. Small density sensor before high ISO became priority, lens with great colors. But size, weight and age. So, I switched to same era, yet, newer M-E 220 from 2015.

But I'm puzzled with what you were showing. One type of images are OK, kind of SOOC on sorta dull day images.

Another type is with dropped exposures or/and heavily recovered highlights, heavy vignetting and over saturated colors with boosted contrast. Never of them represents what M9 sensor could do. Except over saturation of red. :)    

 

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1 hour ago, Ko.Fe. said:

But I'm puzzled with what you were showing

I wrote exactly what I did

One image is the M9, sooc dng + WB.

The other image is M240 sooc dng + WB + the Farkas Preset y'know the one that everybody brings up when CCD v CMOS gets mentioned?

I then draw my own conclusion that personally speaking I don't think that the Farkas preset (as he offers it for download) makes M240 files look especially like M9 ones... 

 

1 hour ago, Ko.Fe. said:

Never of them represents what M9 sensor could do

 

Absolutely. But this is the rub when presenting something like this.... do you show each file 'as is' or do you edit it as you normally would?

 

always go for as is, because here I'm showing what the Farkas preset does, I'm not trying to show 'you' how I edit files.

 

and if I only edit the M9 set of files (to "show what the M9 sensor can do") then that's a little like doing the Pepsi challenge, only the coke has rum in it :) 

 

RE this whole oh no the M240 doesn't make images that look like the M9 now my photography is ruined forever thing, well firstly as someone said above (I think it was you actually) a look is not a photograph

and

One is either happy with the look a camera makes or it isn't.

I do find the sooc dng files of the M9 a far more charming place to start working and I do a little bit begrudge how much work the 240 files can need*

Solution?

I complied and wrote a custom DCP file for LR that automates much of the stuff I found my self doing over and over again. I'd have just made a preset but it was an 8 week lockdown and I needed something to do!

 

*I mean jokey worst case scenario but with the 240 sometimes you start in LR, then go to the plug in that fixes the green shadows, then to define for the banding then back to LR to finish editing, meanwhile IME an M9 file more often than not either flies with a couple of tweaks or it's no good.

As ever OMMV

Edited by Adam Bonn
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  • 1 month later...
On 3/14/2021 at 8:54 PM, tobey bilek said:

Took three photos in 15 minutes last week.  Last one had a fuzzy black spot on right edge.   

Glob of something appeared to create it.  Tried all forms of cleaning, none worked.  I have not cleaned the sensor in three or more years, not even a blow off.  Before that maybe one time.  Sent it to Leica store Miami and they confirmed corrosion start.   A/c home and packing in plastic bag with desiccant in summer did not save it.

Leica will replace it with M10P at a cost naturally.  M10 is a much better camera anyway.

Good that you got an upgrade from the faulty M9. It was unfortunately bound to happen sooner or later.

Better luck with your great new M10P! :)

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