Voigtlander vs Leica 35 mm

[Chris W]

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Also, people tend to look after their Leica lenses. Camera shops are very pinickety when accepting a second hand lens as a trade in, so you generally get a perfect lens when you buy second hand unless the dealer states an issue. I rarely buy anything new.

Red Dot Cameras near Old Street in London has a massive collection of lenses by Zeiss, Voigtlander and Leica (new and used). If you have the chance, go there and chat to the guys. Everyone is friendly and no doubt they'd let you try each lens before buying.

[pippy]

On 6/21/2025 at 8:35 PM, Howling Dick said:

Basically, I love my Q2 mono but acquired the M11 to hopefully get even more striking images...any tips?

On 6/21/2025 at 8:32 PM, Howling Dick said:

...I’ve tried the Ultron but was expecting deeper blacks - maybe it’s all in the post processing?...

I'm late to this thread but FWIW and in my opinion?

Yes; a great deal of the finer aspects of the final image quality is to do with post-processing skills (and especially where M Monochrom cameras are concerned). Of course there is nothing new here; Ansel Adams would spend a great many hours - sometimes days - in the darkroom when striving to get the finest print possible from a negative.

The techniques used when working with a DNG (Digital Negative file) on a computer are not very different from working with a film negative in the darkroom. The methods used to reach the desired goals, clearly, vary when finessing a Wet Print in comparison to a digi-file but the goals are, essentially, the same.

All artistic and aesthetic merits put aside for the moment the most important aspects to refine - and it sounds to me like you might already doing these - would be to hone your understanding of the way in which you capture the image at the shooting stage in terms of exposure. Shooting in full Manual Mode will help here no-end and your appreciation of how even small alterations in the aperture / shutter-speed relationship-equation could have more of a marked effect on the end-result than might be expected will be heightened.

First-off, though, acquire as great an understanding of exposure-assessment as you can. Learn what the Monochrom sensor can and can't do; where the limits are in terms of highlights becoming irrecoverable and shadows blacking-out completely. If you get this bit correct before tripping the shutter it will make your life in post-prod much more rewarding (and more straightforward!).

Secondly spend a lot of time experimenting with the tools at your disposal in post-prod. An understanding of what can be brought out from the information contained within the DNG starts at the very beginning of the DNG to TIFF (or JPEG) conversion stage. Fine-tuning of the file-info before it is saved as a workable file will (IMX) provide one with a starting-point which has greater latitude for the work which will be carried-out subsequently.

A little-mentioned part of the process is to do with making prints if such is your intention. The quality of the paper-stock chosen is of paramount importance where fine-prints are concerned. The 'Usual Suspects' found on High Street shops - such as Photo Papers from Kodak, Canon and the like - are perfectly OK for most uses / users but were you to wish for a truly beautiful print I would suggest some papers from lesser-known (but very highly regarded) manufacturers such as Canson or Hahnemühle. Both of these companies have been making fine-art papers serving the needs of Artists for over 440 years(!) so they do know their stuff; they really are specialists in their chosen field.

If you do wish to produce high-quality prints then I'm sure, were you to ask, the membership here would be more than happy to offer up suggestions.

Lastly I'd say simply Have Fun with your camera & lenses and enjoy your Photography.

Best of good fortune.

Philip.

Edited July 23 by pippy

[Howling Dick]

Thanks Philip

never too late!

Im discovering so much about the M11m having used it for a few weeks. Started to get some great results in post processing.

Richard

[jaapv]

One tip: ALWAYS set a black point as your first postprocessing action.

[Howling Dick]

Thank you - great tip

[jaapv]

3 hours ago, Chris W said:

I think that's too general a comment.

I bought a Leica 35mm f2 in 1990 and it remains my favourite lens. I have owned many camera systems and many lenses and the images this 35 creates are just gorgeous to my eyes. So what I'm saying is that buying one expensive lens can lead to lifetime of happy shooting.

There are some excellent Voigtlander lenses and various different Leica 35's, so more info is needed to advise the OP.

Don't forget Zeiss ZM lenses - they are often somewhat more contrasty than their Leica and Voigtlander counterparts. And of impeccable IQ. 

[Howling Dick]

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Interesting

[Chris W]

22 hours ago, Chris W said:

 

Red Dot Cameras near Old Street in London has a massive collection of lenses by Zeiss, Voigtlander and Leica (new and used). If you have the chance, go there and chat to the guys. Everyone is friendly and no doubt they'd let you try each lens before buying.

^^ I didn't 'forget' Zeiss lenses ^^

[sinjun]

On 7/23/2025 at 9:10 AM, Chris W said:

I think that's too general a comment.

That's literally why I said "generally". I do, however, agree with your other points. 

[ramarren]

I've read several comments about the Leica monochromes that seem to run '... not "straight out of camera", post processing a must", etc. 

Well, when I fit whatever lens I'm using on my M10 Monochrom with a yellow-green (1.5 stop) to deep-green (2.5 stop) B&W filter, 90%+ of the time I can roll the raw files into Lightroom Classic and output as JPEGs with no further editing if I've gotten the exposure right on the mark. The same goes for setting the camera to include JPEG output and just looking at the JPEG files ... 90%+ are just right. 

One key is getting the exposure right on the mark. That's what takes a little time to learn and practice to develop. The in-camera meter is quite good, very accurate, and even if I don't always believe what it says, I usually make one exposure with its recommendation and then another with what I think should be right .. and most of the time, the in-camera meter guess better than I did. 🙃 The key there is selecting what to meter on as the central portion of the FoV is the meter's most significant zone. 

The other key: the green filtering, with this camera, seems to do just the right thing for most subject matter I shoot in terms of producing the right set of gray tones in a colorful world, separating gray tones that in many cases would fall too close to one another across the spectrum of my subjects. 

Here's my map of the M10 Monochrom response using Green and Orange filters against the No Filter situation: 

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2okXR9E][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52734451362_c48f2cddae_h.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2okXR9E]M10-M_grayscale_curves[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/gdgphoto/]Godfrey DiGiorgi[/url], on Flickr

Hope that helps!

enjoy, G

 

[Howling Dick]

49 minutes ago, ramarren said:

I've read several comments about the Leica monochromes that seem to run '... not "straight out of camera", post processing a must", etc. 

Well, when I fit whatever lens I'm using on my M10 Monochrom with a yellow-green (1.5 stop) to deep-green (2.5 stop) B&W filter, 90%+ of the time I can roll the raw files into Lightroom Classic and output as JPEGs with no further editing if I've gotten the exposure right on the mark. The same goes for setting the camera to include JPEG output and just looking at the JPEG files ... 90%+ are just right. 

One key is getting the exposure right on the mark. That's what takes a little time to learn and practice to develop. The in-camera meter is quite good, very accurate, and even if I don't always believe what it says, I usually make one exposure with its recommendation and then another with what I think should be right .. and most of the time, the in-camera meter guess better than I did. 🙃 The key there is selecting what to meter on as the central portion of the FoV is the meter's most significant zone. 

The other key: the green filtering, with this camera, seems to do just the right thing for most subject matter I shoot in terms of producing the right set of gray tones in a colorful world, separating gray tones that in many cases would fall too close to one another across the spectrum of my subjects. 

Here's my map of the M10 Monochrom response using Green and Orange filters against the No Filter situation: 

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2okXR9E][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52734451362_c48f2cddae_h.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2okXR9E]M10-M_grayscale_curves[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/gdgphoto/]Godfrey DiGiorgi[/url], on Flickr

Hope that helps!

enjoy, G

 

Good advice 

Amazing all the different views

ThanksR