Leica M11 Magenta shift or Not (with firmware 2.1.1)

[Jamie Roberts]

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On 7/8/2024 at 11:14 AM, SrMi said:

After reviewing the images from my recent European trip, all taken with Auto WB, I must say that almost every image needs WB adjustment. Oh well.

If you’re shooting raw, then the answer to this is easy: just set a manual color temp —one for outside (like 5600k) and one for inside (depends on the light, but say 3k ish). 
 

When you process the raw files all the white balance will be consistent, which means you only process for the location light, which typically doesn’t change much—and not for every shot.

FWIW, most of the time outdoors, daylight is a good consistent place to start. 

I do this with all my cameras from any company. None of the AWB is very good imo  and is way too variable shot to shot. 
 

 

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[M11 for me]

For me that ever lasting Magenta discussion is about so little and as we repeatedly can read most people even like it (me included). If I could advise Leica wether they should change the Auto WB in the M11 I would strongly advise against doing so. Over the last 2 ½ years we learned how to deal with M11 DNGs so that any change made by Leica would be counterproductive to me.

And did we not see so many "corrected" images that looked much worse than their original DNGs with their Magenta cast? 

I have a Q3 and an M11. I use then Lightroom Classic. My wife and myself we have much less "problems" to get "pleasing" colors with the M11. But there is never a discussion about the green cast of the Q3 that is much more difficult to fix that the pretended Magenta cast of an M11. That is for fact.

[Alvin Greis]

Just as an addition. When I started to calibrate my monitors, I noticed I'm used to have 'magenta shift' on my MacBook before that. To my untrained eyes, greys were more greyish if they had a bit of magenta. But after I started to print my works I had to reduce magenta color first. Now I see the slight shift in camera, and I prefer it to 'oranges' form Canon and greens from Hasselblad, but there is nothing in my prints. So in my case monitor calibration helps me to see colours more correct. But anyway it's very subjective.

[ELAN]

37 minutes ago, M11 for me said:

For me that ever lasting Magenta discussion is about so little and as we repeatedly can read most people even like it (me included).

For me the magenta cast is one of two reasons why my M11 sits unused on a shelf and why for the first time I didn't upgrade to the -P model.  I just got tired of tweaking Tint/WB on most of my M11 images.  With the M10-R I rarely touch the colors.

[Smogg]

1 hour ago, ELAN said:

For me the magenta cast is one of two reasons why my M11 sits unused on a shelf and why for the first time I didn't upgrade to the -P model.  I just got tired of tweaking Tint/WB on most of my M11 images.  With the M10-R I rarely touch the colors.

After transferring files to LR, change the white balance in all files to LR daylight, if the frames were taken outdoors in the daytime, in other cases leave As Shot (the auto WB setting in the camera copes well with artificial light)

[brickftl]

I just got my M11-P and honestly don't see why this magenta cast is an issue. I shoot everything RAW, process in ACR, and if the cast doesn't look right, a white balance adjustment takes seconds.

[Josh Rainey]

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I noticed, in general, that the shadows are more purple on the out of camera raw image (just looking at the previews). I set the WB to daylight mostly, but the tint is pushed to 23 (magenta side). This looks fine in the mid tones, and the purple shadows do look cool.

I process my photos in Davinci Resolve and debayer in Davinci Colors/Gamma, then process from there. So the end result is different, but I would say with WB and the Tint slider you can get things in the general direction. I do think the colors and tones coming straight off the camera are quite nice though.

[la1402]

The tint is a fact and I think it’s ok if people object to it, even if others have a different taste. Of course it can quickly be changed in post. And it’s not just in Lightroom. For me it’s annoying when my family picks up the camera after a shoot, review pictures on the screen and complain that they look sick. So yeah, maybe no huge deal but I would also prefer Leica to get the colors more correct in camera already.

[Photoworks]

3 hours ago, Josh Rainey said:

I process my photos in Davinci Resolve

WHY? 🙈

[sdk]

I profile all my cameras with CaliBrite (formerly X-rite) Color Checker Passport or SG targets and the plugin for Adobe LR. This matches different cameras quite well for a starting pint but then I tweak to my tastes. It really is so much better than printing color negatives in a color darkroom, even with a nice enlarger and print processor.

Edited August 2, 2024 by sdk

[jaapv]

Printing colour negatives = permanent headache. 

[mauipilot]

I have the latest firmware. Magenta is everywhere and I am quite upset. 

[Smogg]

22 minutes ago, mauipilot said:

I have the latest firmware. Magenta is everywhere and I am quite upset. 

Set WB in Lightroom to Daylight, don’t use bugged in-camera WB

[lct]

Just a matter of white balance. Suffice it to avoid auto WB if you don't know how to adjust it in PP. It is not a big deal though. A simple click with the eye dropper is often enough actually.