Leica M11 + Cobalt profiles. Any experience?

[jhonzatkl]

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Hello everyone!
Even after a year of using the M11-P, I am not completely satisfied with the colors the M11 produces. I'm considering buying the Basic Pack from Cobalt profiles, but I can't find any references or experience with the M11.
Does anyone use these profiles, please? Do you find them useful or are they a waste of money?
Thank you all for your experience!

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[Guest]

I have the Cobalt Fuji Digital profiles for my M11-P.

You need to buy the basic pack and an "emulation" pack (e.g Fuji profiles) to take full advantage of the system. The Basic pack is camera specific and  just applies a common starting point. So, for example, you buy the Basic pack for each camera you have and then an emulation pack, (e.g Fuji) which will then work for all your cameras. It's described on this page https://www.cobalt-image.com/basic-pack/

The profiles are pretty good and seem well regarded, but they are rather expensive and whether you like them or not is subjective. To be honest I haven't really used them much and just tend to use the standard Adobe profiles then tweak them to look as I want. You can then save the settings as your own preset for further use.

I think the real benefit is if you're shooting different camera bodies at an event and want an easy way to get a common look across all bodies.

[jhonzatkl]

Thanks so much for your experience! I know I need the basic package first, but I expected that even this basic package can produce better colors than the Adobe profiles. Honestly, I don't like the default profile for the Leica M11 because I find it too saturated and contrasty. On the other hand, the Adobe profiles are little bit colorless from my point of view. If you're leaning towards using Adobe profiles even though you've already purchased the Cobalt Basic Pack, I take it that it's not such a great buy after all? 

[bokehhoe]

I have way too many, but I will swear up and down by cobalt. I have the base pack for almost every camera I have. I get to ask my self questions like :

 

"What if Ricoh made a Medium Format Camera" (GFX 100II -> Ricoh GR Profile)

"How would this M11 Picture look if I used a M8 or M9" (M11-> CCD Profiles)

"How do I make my Sony pics not have horrible colors?" (Sony -> M10R or Fuji or Ricoh) 

 

Send me any RAWs of your and I can show you what it would look like if you are interested! 

 

Also GFX Provia and Cobalt Provia is an almost exact match which tells me these profiles are pretty accurate

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Edited September 17, 2024 by bokehhoe

[bcaslis]

On 9/13/2024 at 11:41 AM, jhonzatkl said:

Thanks so much for your experience! I know I need the basic package first, but I expected that even this basic package can produce better colors than the Adobe profiles. Honestly, I don't like the default profile for the Leica M11 because I find it too saturated and contrasty. On the other hand, the Adobe profiles are little bit colorless from my point of view. If you're leaning towards using Adobe profiles even though you've already purchased the Cobalt Basic Pack, I take it that it's not such a great buy after all? 

I have a bunch of their profiles. If you are not happy with the Adobe profiles, you probably won't like the basic pack, it is less colorful than Adobe Color for example.

[Smogg]

6 hours ago, bokehhoe said:

I have way too many, but I will swear up and down by cobalt. I have the base pack for almost every camera I have. I get to ask my self questions like :

 

"What if Ricoh made a Medium Format Camera" (GFX 100II -> Ricoh GR Profile)

"How would this M11 Picture look if I used a M8 or M9" (M11-> CCD Profiles)

"How do I make my Sony pics not have horrible colors?" (Sony -> M10R or Fuji or Ricoh) 

 

Send me any RAWs of your and I can show you what it would look like if you are interested! 

 

Also GFX Provia and Cobalt Provia is an almost exact match which tells me these profiles are pretty accurate

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Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Unfortunately, they don't have Hasselblad among their digital profiles.

[lldd]

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Has anyone used this approach to make M11 images look like M10-R images?  If so, how well did it work?

[lldd]

Ha!  So did I.  But it now lives at Leica repair in NJ for what appears to be a multi-month effort to fix something simple, so looking for a back-up (or new primary) camera.

[bokehhoe]

On 9/17/2024 at 9:06 PM, Smogg said:

Unfortunately, they don't have Hasselblad among their digital profiles.

Yeah its fueling my gas to get an x2d as well

 

I actually asked cobalt about this and they said the following

 

Quote

Emulating Hasselblad colors is one of our ongoing projects.
Unfortunately, it is a very complex technical challenge because
Hasselblad's profiling is completely different from both Adobe's and
PhaseOne's.

It is their closed standard, with no available technical documentation.
Reverse engineering is the only way, but it presents significant
difficulties; however, we will do our best.

 

[hunglephotography]

after many purchases of profiles and presets, i come to realize that the less i edit the color the less i mess up the photos. the only edit i would do on my m11p colors are lowering the exposure to bring out the color, drag the tint bar to around 10 to minimize the magenta cast of m11 profile. i usually find adobe color profile is nice to my taste rather than m11 profile. and that's all, the photos just look pop and pure with the leicalook. 

that's my need for my documentary style, it's maybe different for your needs