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M9 report from Salt Lake City


adan

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I expect I will get a 35 of some kind eventually, but for right now I am getting rid of most of my lenses between (not including) 21 and 135, and could happily shoot just 21 and 75 for years, for RF work (with the 135 @ f/8 for daylight scenics

 

- and yes, the 135s do need to be stopped down to below f/5.6 for reliable focus with the M9 .68x finder - tried both my Tele-Elmar and the reps' APO-Telyt. Both are lovely - when they are focused. Nice to see them in the manual lens code list - they do show a subtle amount of corner darkening that the camera corrections remove. See below.

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sps: No, I had one briefly with the Epson R-D1 and preferred the 15 - but I expect Sean Reid is likely to test it - he preferred it on the R-D1 so likely still has one (sorry, sean - hope I'm not putting you on the spot!)

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I don't own the 15, but have used the 12 extensively on the M8. When I can get my greedy hands on an M9 I'll snap some shots. Glad I kept my 135 Apo also!

 

That's one of the best things about the M9. My favorite M7 lenses are finally going to get the use they deserve.

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Another point that I just remembered: there was no gray M9 to see, but the black paint version was substantially less glossy than the black-paint M8.2 - about halfway between Leica's usual black paint and black chrome.

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The Leica rep having dinner on the patio was f/2.8 - the train station brick wall and shopping plaza were probably 5.6-8ish.

 

Looks like - you mean cosmetically? About like it did on the M8 here - except without the whitewash or the IR filter (Sorry left out the link - doh!): http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/1007236-post1.html

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The Leica rep having dinner on the patio was f/2.8 - the train station brick wall and shoppig plaza were probably 5.6-8ish.

 

Looks like - you mean cosmetically? About like it did on the M8 here - except without the whitewash or the IR filter

 

 

No--I meant f stop and sharpness, so thanks! I was impressed by your brick wall shot and edge detail, but that must have been stopped down a piece. Just checking :)

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They show what the M9 does, not what PhotoShop can do. Surely that is more informative? Download them and sharpen to your heart's content, if you want. Personally, the ones showing 100% crops of details look plenty sharp to me (on a 99ppi monitor).

 

A lot of them illustrate broader things than image sharpness - vignetting, reflections, green blobs (or lack thereof).

 

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I will note that some of these were uploaded at 200K each, and then "reprocessed" by the Forum's upload engine to 70-90K. Nothing I can do about that.

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Well, for me, the main advantage of the M9 over the M8 is that my "21mm" lens is suddenly 2 stops faster - 21 f/2.8 vs. 15 f/4.5. With the option of f/1.4 if I want to get the 21 Summilux. Which means 2 (4) stops less noise in any given lighting (or 2(4) stops less subject blur - or a combination). Right off the bat that is a fair improvement in image quality.

 

For prints of the same size at the same ISO, any noise speckles will be 1.33x smaller in an M9 shot - even if the actual noise looks the same when pixel-peeping. That's another improvement.

 

I've been pretty happy with M8 image quality overall, so in and of itself, that is not the reason I'm excited by the M9. The gain in low-light with a wideangle lens is pretty big, though. Especially since I can get it with my 28-year-old $1000 21, instead of a new $4500 Leica or Zeiss fix-it 15/16mm lens. Multiply that by a couple of wides, and the M9 is almost free.

 

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So if you never need wider than 28mm, yes, I'd agree with Dave.

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Adan, ok, I guessed wrong on what you thought would become the lens that would become scarce. I was thinking about the 50/lux. But, of course this lens is still in production. It is just a great lens. It won't become scarce until they stop production of it.

 

I picked up a 75 lux about a year ago and I agree that it is fantastic. I got a great late copy of that lens in perfect condition and I liked it so much that a sold my 75 cron. Which was a mistake because the cron was like the 50 lux I love. The 75 cron is sharp with great contrast and color just like the 50 lux. That is another story.

 

The 75 lux, is just one of those great and classic lenses that make great images that have a character of their own. On the M9 it should be everything the 50mm is to the M8. (By the way, I would love to see what Mitch would do with a 75 Lux on an M9 in Hong Kong if he could open his mind up to it).

 

The only problem with the 75 Lux is that it is really prone to flare and doesn't have the contrast that the 75 cron asph has. That is why I am sorry I sold my 75 cron. The contrast and the color of that lens was 50-asph-lux-like. Anyway, the 75 Lux is fanclassic and I can't wait to get my M9 and try it out. Oh, I forgot to mention... f1.4 !

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Rick - yeah the 75 'lux has lower contrast, but I find that a plus for digital. Note, on the previous page, how much detail is visible inside the stores of the shopping plaza shot, even exposed for pale exteriors in hard sunlight. Free dynamic range.

 

It's funny - I tried the 75 'lux several times on film, and it just didn't deliver for me the way it did on the M9 for some reason. I think the low contrast just couldn't carve an image into film the way the 'cron can, and of course if one is messing with an f/1.4 lens, one is often also shooting Tri-X pushed two stops in available darkness, hand-held - which won't show off the lens to best effect.

 

Plus it was a whole lot more expensive then - relatively. It's different buying a lens that costs three times as much as your camera than it is buying one that costs less than half as much. And between the 75 'cron on film and the 50 on the M8, I've developed a taste for a FoV that seemed too short 5-6 years ago.

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For a given sized print, an M9 image is enlarged 1.33x LESS than an M8 image - or put another way, on the M9 the 35 is a wideangle, with eveything smaller in the frame, instead of a near-normal lens as it is on the M8.

 

Smaller details mean small differences in sharpness will also be smaller, thus less noticeable, thus less significant.

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