Help: Leica CL vs Micro 43, color and B&W

[ramarren]

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2 hours ago, oldwino said:

On 11/7/2021 at 6:52 AM, jaapv said:

I find it hard to describe, but MFT appears to be more "gritty" 

2 hours ago, oldwino said:

For me, when I had my MFT system, the word was “brittle”. 

What I've found with most FT and mFT (except the Olympus E-1) is that the default raw conversion sharpening setting in LR is about 2x stronger than it ought to be for best sharpness and smooth transitions. The results of this error are exactly that slightly gritty, brittle look even at low ISO settings. So I created a custom setting such that import sharpening is held quite low, around 8-12 on the LR scale, and increased only gently for certain situations. 

With this mod to the image processing settings, things look almost as smooth and clean as APS-C or FF results most of the time, modulo the specific camera/sensor in use. 

The E-1 is different from most other FourThirds cameras/sensors in that it has both much lower resolution (5Mpixel) and a very heavy AA filter. It has benefitted enormously from more recent raw conversion algorithms with respect to noise control (ISO 800 is now perfectly usable, ISO 1600 as well most of the time) and it's unique characteristics allow much smoother, cleaner transitions. It's quite a remarkable camera for a 2003 digital camera ... I've made bunches of rather large prints with it (using upscaled, rendered output to obtain enough pixel density for good printing) that are virtually indistinguishable from the CL or SL or M262. 

Of course, there are always limits ..

G

[jaapv]

Umm, my ACR sharpening is set to 0 by default. It doesn't change my comment.

[pascal_meheut]

1 hour ago, jaapv said:

Umm, my ACR sharpening is set to 0 by default. It doesn't change my comment.

Same here. I've played with all the parameters over the years. I can get something better and even very good prints but sometimes, I can see on some pictures the limits of the sensor.

[LocalHero1953]

Same here, and I set noise reduction to zero.

Edited November 9, 2021 by LocalHero1953

[oldwino]

On 11/9/2021 at 8:29 AM, ramarren said:

What I've found with most FT and mFT (except the Olympus E-1) is that the default raw conversion sharpening setting in LR is about 2x stronger than it ought to be for best sharpness and smooth transitions. The results of this error are exactly that slightly gritty, brittle look even at low ISO settings. So I created a custom setting such that import sharpening is held quite low, around 8-12 on the LR scale, and increased only gently for certain situations. 

With this mod to the image processing settings, things look almost as smooth and clean as APS-C or FF results most of the time, modulo the specific camera/sensor in use. 

The E-1 is different from most other FourThirds cameras/sensors in that it has both much lower resolution (5Mpixel) and a very heavy AA filter. It has benefitted enormously from more recent raw conversion algorithms with respect to noise control (ISO 800 is now perfectly usable, ISO 1600 as well most of the time) and it's unique characteristics allow much smoother, cleaner transitions. It's quite a remarkable camera for a 2003 digital camera ... I've made bunches of rather large prints with it (using upscaled, rendered output to obtain enough pixel density for good printing) that are virtually indistinguishable from the CL or SL or M262. 

Of course, there are always limits ..

G

A big part of the "brittleness" I see in MFT is tonal, not just sharpening. 

[ramarren]

1 hour ago, oldwino said:

A big part of the "brittleness" I see in MFT is tonal, not just sharpening. 

Sharpening effects a modification to the tonal curve, particularly at transitions, so it is a part of that brittle feel. Of course, the smaller sensor is more sensitive to getting the exposure just right due to its smaller dynamic range, and is easier to go out of bounds with in processing for the same reason. 

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G

Edited November 10, 2021 by ramarren