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Hello,

I use my M 240 with a UV/IR cut filter. I bought this filter when I was still shooting with the M8. After switching to the M 240, I simply left the filter on the lenses for protection.

My lay understanding is that the external filter was necessary for the M8, because the sensor lacked a corresponding filter—whether for design reasons or to improve image quality. The M 240 however does not require an external filter, as the sensor is equipped accordingly. Now I wondered whether the extra UV/IR cut filter could affect the image quality in any way. In simple tests, I noticed no difference with or without the filter. Nevertheless, the filter is somehow an additional, quasi-unnecessary layer through which the light must pass to reach the sensor.

Does anyone have any experience with this or knowledge about that issue?

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I used them with all my lenses without any difference from a standard protection filter or without a filter except when shooting into the sun.  The sun turns into a non circular blob, and will be more rounded without the filter.  The UV/IR will remove the excess IR that all M digital sensors are unable to filter due to the thin filtration in the filter stack of the sensor.  In practical terms it makes very little difference if any.  

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Exactly.

Leica ceased the firmware compensation and support for cyan stains/shift caused by IR filters, when the M9 replaced the M8.

Replaced it with the compensation for "Italian flag syndrome" - differential cyan and red shifts due to the slight asymmetry inherent in the Bayer RGGB color filter pattern, especially on full-sized sensors.

 

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Thank you very much for your helpful answers. I had actually expected that the answer to my question would be that the external filter plays no role at all. I am surprised that it can indeed have an impact, even if this is certainly rather marginal in practice. As recommended, I will experiment from time to time in different situations.

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However, when I still used the M240, I had various shoots at noon in the tropics which were totally spoilt by IR contamination and had a non-correctable yellow cast as a result; they had to be converted to B&W. After the M8 this camera is the most IR-sensitive M. In normal circumstances OK, but for instance portraits under IR-rich light will produce purple skin blotches. I would recommend to consider the use of IR cut filters under such conditions. 

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On 9/2/2025 at 12:05 AM, darylgo said:

The UV/IR will remove the excess IR that all M digital sensors are unable to filter due to the thin filtration in the filter stack of the sensor.

does it really? i have one on my 90APO and one on my 50lux [since the day i bought them], just for dust protection, and those 2 lenses perform exceptionally on my infrared 850nm converted cameras :)

 

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Which filter type do you have? If you have? We are talking about IR cut filters here, like B+W 486, not the black IR pass  ones like 093 or plain UV filters.

 

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Am 15.9.2025 um 11:05 schrieb jaapv:

Which filter type do you have? If you have? We are talking about IR cut filters here, like B+W 486, not the black IR pass  ones like 093 or plain UV filters.

 

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I use (or have used) the B+W 486 filter.

Thank you for the figure. What exactly can I see on these curves? Sorry, if the answer is obvious, but I have no idea how to interpret such a chart.

Edited by Tux4711
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You can see that all light outside the visible spectrum (300-700 nm) gets blocked 100%. IR converted cameras need an IR pass filter ( 092/093 for instance) to perform like IR cameras. Otherwise they will work perfectly as normal cameras when combined with a 486 filter. 

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M8 Hektor 135, 093 filter minimal processing. 

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