What would you say would be the maximum usable ISO of an M240?

[Luke_Miller]

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This past weekend I did some museum shots with my M240.  I was using my 35mm Voigtlander Color-Skopar so was limited to f2.5. 1/30 sec at ISO 3200 gave proper exposure, but I went to 6400 and 1/60 for some shots.  I did not find the added noise at 6400 to be an issue, but others may have a lower tolerance.

The new Lightroom Ai noise reduction feature and Topaz DeNoise Ai are extremely effective at removing noise without image quality penalty.  They have given new life to some of my older gear and allow me to use ISO settings I would have never considered previously.

[lct]

6 minutes ago, Luke_Miller said:

The new Lightroom Ai noise reduction feature and Topaz DeNoise Ai are extremely effective at removing noise without image quality penalty.

May i ask if you find a significant difference IQ wise between Topaz and Topaz AI? Just curious as i did not like the plastic look given by Topaz the last time i tried it.

[Luke_Miller]

Generally, I don't like the look from either at the default settings.  With Lightroom 35% works well on most of my images.  With Topaz Ai I let it automatically do its thing and then manually cycle though the various Noise Processing options until I find the results I like best and then play with the sliders to optimize.  I like the Topaz results a bit better, but Lightroom is so much faster and nearly as good.  I am not a fan of the Topaz Photo Ai which can really give plastic results at defaults with its face optimization.

Edited August 10, 2023 by Luke_Miller

[tom.w.bn]

Am 9.8.2023 um 06:03 schrieb scott kirkpatrick:

Here's ISO 12000 (with an M11):

 

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Wrong thread.

[tom.w.bn]

Am 7.8.2023 um 14:43 schrieb tedd:

Sometimes ugly banding is preferable to extremely shallow DOF or motion blur. If the camera you have on you is an M and you want the shot you're better off to take it and deal with any potential banding after - I've often found that at 3200 you can hide banding fairly well just by treating the camera like it is loaded with slide film and metering for the highlights/letting the shadows fall where they may (I tend to dislike super open shadows in my images anyway though).

Which noise reduction software have you tried?  

I have an M240 sincd 2015 and changed software quite a bit. Currently I use the most recent DXO software. I dislike excessive noise reduction that kills a lot of sharpness. Most presented examples here are simply not accpetable for me. And evenly lit bookshelfes are something different than a real world scene a night.

[Borna]

I have shot easily iso 3200 for color and even BW. Issue is that when we look at the photos in on our large screens with 4k monitors, we start to pixel peep too much. To be honest, when printing to 10x15, the issue is gone. Even when you print larger, lets say 21x30. It is all more than just fine

[Life By Stills]

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On 8/9/2023 at 5:03 AM, scott kirkpatrick said:

Here's ISO 12000 (with an M11):

 

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Thanks for chipping in @scott kirkpatrick, but I was asking about the M240 series, and not the M11 lol. Thanks though. 😃

[Life By Stills]

Hi all,

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and samples! I haven't had much time since I created the topic as I've had a few things which I needed to cover - who'd have thought graffiti in London's Brick Lane would be such a massive topic!

I ended up getting a 240 series camera, but went with the M-P Typ 240 since it matched more the style of the M3 I already have. So now I have 2 nice silver M cameras, one analogue and one digital, and both with the Leica script on the top plate.

I did have a play around and I found 3200 to be okay. Not clean by any means, but certainly usable, especially if you're scaling down. I think I'll probably limit it to 1600 though, and pair it constantly with a lens which is f1.4 or brighter. Having said that, it works really great with the Light Lens Lab eight-element repro! I love how that set up renders: for example https://www.instagram.com/p/Cv0h4UOoxl8/.

But really grateful for all your opinions on the 240 series camera. Really happy with my M-P Typ 240!!!

[tedd]

On 8/11/2023 at 9:00 AM, tom.w.bn said:

I have an M240 sincd 2015 and changed software quite a bit. Currently I use the most recent DXO software. I dislike excessive noise reduction that kills a lot of sharpness. Most presented examples here are simply not accpetable for me. And evenly lit bookshelfes are something different than a real world scene a night.

It all comes down to what the intent is for the final product I guess. I could live with any of these for social media or family snaps, for larger prints less so. 

PS the bookshelf example that I used was not evenly lit. It was night time, lights were off in the house but the curtains were open allowing a streetlight to bleed in. It was a 200% crop though so I can see how that could appear even, since you're seeing so little of it.

[lct]

On 8/10/2023 at 11:00 PM, tom.w.bn said:

[...] I dislike excessive noise reduction that kills a lot of sharpness. Most presented examples here are simply not accpetable for me. And evenly lit bookshelfes are something different than a real world scene a night.

One more try. M240, 90/4, f/4, 1/20s, 6400 iso, no noise reduction.

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[jto555]

25,000 ISO with Adobes new Denoise. Before Adobe dropped Denoise I would only use 6400ISO in an emergency. Topaz denoise is great as well. I prefer to have a noisy photo than a soft photo from camera shake.