Considering Upgrade from M10 to M11: Looking for Advice & Color Comparisons

[pedaes]

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21 hours ago, pgh said:

nd yea, if you like the color in the m10, it won't be the sam in the m11.

There is so much nonsense written about this, often by people like yourself who don't  have any experience with a M11 . In your case I would stick with what you have and let someone else enjoy the much superior sensor in the M11.

PS. Set to DNG and you can have any colours you desire.

Edited May 7 by pedaes

[pgh]

55 minutes ago, pedaes said:

There is so much nonsense written about this, often by people like yourself who don't  have any experience with a M11 . In your case I would stick with what you have and let someone else enjoy the much superior sensor in the M11.

PS. Set to DNG and you can have any colours you desire.

The nonsense is in assuming I don't have any experience with it. The M11 sensor is superior by technical standards, I'll give you that. Much superior is a stretch though. 

At any rate, I still don't prefer it, and setting it to DNG, even with a great profile, it's more work. I'd rather be behind the camera for it. Of course I'm sticking with what I have, for my purposes it's better all around. That was the point of my original comment. 

[lct]

We have all different tastes and techniques i guess. To me, the M11 is the digital M needing the least tweakings in post, to the point that i tend to use jpegs more and more with it. But i have no problem setting white balance and colors are a subjective matter anyway 😎

[costa43]

There is no right and wrong here. I own both the M11-P and M10-R and they are both superb rangefinders. They feel pretty much the same in daily use bar a few small differences. If you can’t get the photo with one, you will not get it with the other. We are micro nerds on this subject. 

[Massimo-BdG]

10 hours ago, lct said:

We have all different tastes and techniques i guess. To me, the M11 is the digital M needing the least tweakings in post, to the point that i tend to use jpegs more and more with it. But i have no problem setting white balance and colors are a subjective matter anyway 😎

This is an important matter to me, even if I shoot almost exclusively in RAW since the time of my first DSRL in 2004 and fluently gone through several converters (COP since Ver 1 to 5, Apple Aperture… Lightroom since day one…) and then no issue using them deeply, I still appreciate a camera with out-of-the-box colors of my pleasure.

Now I’ve downloaded DNG of M11 from dPreview, I find them great and very malleable, in terms of colors I’ve noticed a WB that works slightly different than M10, even if a direct comparison on same scene would be the right way to understand. M10 more towards green and then little bit nostalgic look to me, M11 more magenta yes, then little bit more “clinic” .. I’m still studying, I also still have the Q2 and I had the original Q, in terms of WB it looks a change closer to that step Q>Q2.

Edited May 8 by Massimo-BdG

[Kiwimac]

If you like the M10 the main differences between it and the 11 are quality of life issues like battery life, metering, internal memory etc etc. 

 

But if the 10 suits, see if you can locate a good 10R. Stays on the same platform but bumps the resolution. I personally thought it had very nice colours too. 

[Jeff S]

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17 hours ago, Kiwimac said:

But if the 10 suits, see if you can locate a good 10R. Stays on the same platform but bumps the resolution. I personally thought it had very nice colours too. 

Not just higher MP… post #17.

[mikeamosau]

Not sure why you would bother. Very little worth “upgrading” between the m10 to m11. Plus it will old soon… all the left over bits are being used up on special editions right now, the m12 will be just around the corner! 

[brickftl]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the electronic shutter of the M11 that the M10 doesn't have - allowing for example shooting a fast lens like f1.4 wide open in bright sunlight without the need for ND filters.

Regarding the charger - I find it more convenient charging my M11M via USB-C cable rather than the charger.

Edited May 11 by brickftl

[Massimo-BdG]

Thank you all for the advice! Very useful and always interesting. Especially also the last one from @brickftl about an indeed very important observation.

I finally made the switch, the offer was really tempting...I took the first test day yesterday and the impact is as follows:

- quieter shot

- much longer battery life

- Visioflex comfortable with the Elmarit 90 although I was also using it well with rangefinder

- convenient electronic shutter to use the Summilux 50 at full aperture even in daytime...and without putting ND on and off (besides the basic iso 64.. also helpful)

About the files and the sensor and ... colors:

- 60mp ask to switch from 1/2f to 1/4f security time to be really serene

- the good old Summilux 50 v2 that I love no longer allows you to off-center the subject beyond a certain limit...otherwise satisfaction drops...

- colors: actually it's all about WB, manageable in shooting or in post.. and overall rendering given by the sharp microcontrast of the 60mp. I noticed that with -5 in Texture and -5 Clarity the rendition immediately becomes that little bit softer/organic that it reminds one of the M10 (maybe also a slight adjustment in the s-curve to lower contrast, a preset would make things easy). I was afraid this would be a problem but it is not.

It still remains valid to remember that if 60 is too much (micro blur, “vintage” optics rendering...) you can reduce it to 36 or 18 in very easy way

At the moment, however, I am still studying....

In the meantime, thank you all again!

[jaapv]

On 5/7/2025 at 7:33 PM, pedaes said:

There is so much nonsense written about this, often by people like yourself who don't  have any experience with a M11 . In your case I would stick with what you have and let someone else enjoy the much superior sensor in the M11.

PS. Set to DNG and you can have any colours you desire.

Although this is true for 95% and the practical approach- I have often advocated this as well, there remains the fact that the specification of the transmission spectrum of the Bayer filterlets will produce subtle colour variations that cannot be postprocessed away. 
The only way to handle this would be to shift into L*A*B* and modify the basic parameters of the A* and B* channel.. I doubt that anybody, even those of us that possess the expertise, will ever go to that length. 
 

[jaapv]

1 hour ago, Massimo-BdG said:

 

Thank you all for the advice! Very useful and always interesting. Especially also the last one from @brickftl about an indeed very important observation.

I finally made the switch, the offer was really tempting...I took the first test day yesterday and the impact is as follows:

- quieter shot

- much longer battery life

- Visioflex comfortable with the Elmarit 90 although I was also using it well with rangefinder

- convenient electronic shutter to use the Summilux 50 at full aperture even in daytime...and without putting ND on and off (besides the basic iso 64.. also helpful)

About the files and the sensor and ... colors:

- 60mp ask to switch from 1/2f to 1/4f security time to be really serene

- the good old Summilux 50 v2 that I love no longer allows you to off-center the subject beyond a certain limit...otherwise satisfaction drops...

- colors: actually it's all about WB, manageable in shooting or in post.. and overall rendering given by the sharp microcontrast of the 60mp. I noticed that with -5 in Texture and -5 Clarity the rendition immediately becomes that little bit softer/organic that it reminds one of the M10 (maybe also a slight adjustment in the s-curve to lower contrast, a preset would make things easy). I was afraid this would be a problem but it is not.

It still remains valid to remember that if 60 is too much (micro blur, “vintage” optics rendering...) you can reduce it to 36 or 18 in very easy way

At the moment, however, I am still studying....

In the meantime, thank you all again!

Interesting question: does shifting Texture and Clarity on an M10 file into positive values bring it close to the rendering of the M11? I have grave doubts about the impact of high MP files on the final quality of the image in everyday photography. 

[rocheung]

If yours is the general M10 with red logo, may still worth to move forward. Don’t miss the touch screen ability and the more silent shutter.

[evikne]

The example shown earlier in the thread is very similar to what I can get by switching between the Adobe Standard profile and the Leica M10 embedded profile (look at the sky). The M10 profile is clearly more magenta. Have you tried switching between different profiles?

Adobe Standard:

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!

 

Leica M10 embedded:

M10, 35mm Summilux pre-ASPH v2 @ f/8

Edited May 11 by evikne

[pedaes]

3 hours ago, jaapv said:

I doubt that anybody,

I think that is an over-estimate!😉

Edited May 11 by pedaes

[jaapv]

I used to do that for the M240 as I never liked the colour output. But I think Leica specifies their Bayer filters better now. Very good,,to be precise. 

[jaapv]

1 hour ago, evikne said:

The example shown earlier in the thread is very similar to what I can get by switching between the Adobe Standard profile and the Leica M10 embedded profile (look at the sky). The M10 profile is clearly more magenta. Have you tried switching between different profiles?

Adobe Standard:

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!

 

Leica M10 embedded:

M10, 35mm Summilux pre-ASPH v2 @ f/8

The embedded one is much to my taste. 

[evikne]

31 minutes ago, jaapv said:

The embedded one is much to my taste. 

Yes, outdoors I often prefer the embedded colors. Indoors, in artificial lighting, it's quite different.

[Massimo-BdG]

On 5/11/2025 at 10:30 AM, jaapv said:

Interesting question: does shifting Texture and Clarity on an M10 file into positive values bring it close to the rendering of the M11? I have grave doubts about the impact of high MP files on the final quality of the image in everyday photography. 

Actually I don’t feel this right. Reduce something existing it’s a matter.. “creating” out of nothing is another.

maybe I’m wrong…

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Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[jaapv]

It is increasing and decreasing an existing value. Not throwing away or adding stuff. See it as volume controls.