David's M9 review is up now

[Riccis]

http://dfarkas.blogspot.com/2009/09/...n-wetzlar.html

Thanks for getting this up, bud... I know you are sick like a dog

Get better!

[dfarkas]

Originally Posted by Riccis

http://dfarkas.blogspot.com/2009/09/...n-wetzlar.html

Thanks for getting this up, bud... I know you are sick like a dog

Get better!

Thanks, Riccis.

Such is the joy of having a 2 1/2 year old in school.... she brings home so many wonderful things.... like cold viruses.

David

[bender]

That's are real secret weapon a brigade of toddlers; scampering biological weapons impatiently repeating uppy uppy. Then once you pick them up, bingo your infected... all thats left to do is to set them back down and say go see mommy.... (hahaha)


Nice review David, what are the queues looking like for the M9 and S2?? How long of a wait should one anticipate?

Thanks!!

[stephengilbert]

Haven't read it, but let me guess: David likes it.

[dfarkas]

Originally Posted by stephengilbert

Haven't read it, but let me guess: David likes it.

Well....

I do like the M9. It is more evolutionary than revolutionary, but really, the M9 is everything that everyone asked for. Leica listened to its customers and delivered a great camera.

David

[bender]

On brightlines:

"Close-up was perfect, medium distance was very close and infinity gave just a bit more than I saw."

This is a much welcomed feature and great observation!!

On the shutter release:

"When you combine the Soft option with Discrete advance, you get the ultimate stealth machine - a hair trigger and a separate advance."

David, so you hold at the second point of resistance after the shutter fires and it won't re-cock. What happens if while holding the camera you press down to the third (normal shutter) release point? will it still wait until you complete release it before re-cocking? Also will this work in continuous or do you have to be in single shot mode for that to work?

thanks for all of the insights!

[etrigan63]

When I tried it over at Dale, the combo behaved as follows:

Shutter fires with a half-press and nothing happens going down the rest of the way. Re-cock is on hold till the button is released. Did not try it in continuous mode, but I imagine it would disable continuous mode (kinda defeats the purpose.)

[bender]

Thanks Carlos.

I was worried that if you had set it on continuous and half press the shutter release the camera would start rapid firing doing it's best attempt at being a D3!

Originally Posted by etrigan63

When I tried it over at Dale, the combo behaved as follows:

Shutter fires with a half-press and nothing happens going down the rest of the way. Re-cock is on hold till the button is released. Did not try it in continuous mode, but I imagine it would disable continuous mode (kinda defeats the purpose.)

[fultonpics]

are you saying that up to 20 X 30 printed image (with proper light) they will not look significantly different if from an M8 and M9?

[dfarkas]

Originally Posted by fultonpics

are you saying that up to 20 X 30 printed image (with proper light) they will not look significantly different if from an M8 and M9?

The overall look and feel of the prints do look the same, but there is a bit more detail and sharpness in the M9 print. Carlos might want to chime in as well... he was at our event yesterday. I had the sample 20x30 M9 prints on display.

David

[Oxide Blu]

David - in your blog, this image:



You described it as a "35mm Summicron". The data embedded in the image says Focal Length: 16*mm*(equiv. 16*mm).

Can we split the diff and say it was shot with a super secret 25.5mm lens?


Thanks for posting the stuff about the M9.

[TEBnewyork]

Originally Posted by Oxide Blu

David - in your blog, this image:



You described it as a "35mm Summicron". The data embedded in the image says Focal Length: 16*mm*(equiv. 16*mm).

Can we split the diff and say it was shot with a super secret 25.5mm lens?


Thanks for posting the stuff about the M9.

He said in the blog that he forgot to switch the lens selection table back to auto and it messed up the exif.

[etrigan63]

If you pixel peep, you cannot tell the difference between an M8 file and an M9 file on a per-pixel basis on a computer display, however, the extra stop of DR and the 8 extra megapixels allows for much sharper images (if such a concept is possible) on big prints favoring the M9.

And, yes, he had manually set a lens and forgot to switch back to auto so the EXIF data is all messed up. Say what you will about the lens selection method on the CV Bessas, if you messed it up, you realized it the moment you put your eye to the viewfinder and realized the framelines were all wrong. The Leica method requires that you train yourself to check the Info button.

One of my students asked me why Leicas were so expensive compared to what KR refers to as "Oriental Cameras" and I told her that if camera makers made cars, top end CaNikoSonTax cameras would be equivalent to sporty luxury cars. Leica makes Formula 1 racers.

Pass the Kool-Aid, David.

[dfarkas]

Originally Posted by Oxide Blu

David - in your blog, this image:



You described it as a "35mm Summicron". The data embedded in the image says Focal Length: 16*mm*(equiv. 16*mm).

Can we split the diff and say it was shot with a super secret 25.5mm lens?


Thanks for posting the stuff about the M9.

Terry and Carlos are correct. I just checked LR. I set my lens manually to 16mm for the vertical cathedral shot at 3:38PM. The Eisenmarkt picture in question was taken less than half an hour later at 4:03PM. I didn't discover my mistake until 4:32PM. Kind of creepy that we have this kind of information with our picutres today....

Either way, I thought I had totally screwed up an hour's worth of pictures. The actual result is I just have screwed-up EXIF taht tells me every shot is from a 16mm lens. The pictures look fine, though.

David

[TEBnewyork]

Well actually the road looks pretty red/magenta but the sky doesn't so not sure what the bad lens info did...

[dfarkas]

Originally Posted by TEBnewyork

Well actually the road looks pretty red/magenta but the sky doesn't so not sure what the bad lens info did...

True. The immediate foreground does look a bit red-casted. Could just be the shadow tint though.

Just tried applying a -12 shadow tint under Camera Calibration in LR...much nicer.

Nothing quite like a fresh set of eyes (or several thousand ) to find your little slip-ups.

Thanks,

David

[cam]

David,

thank you for your review! i have 3 questions.

1) to clarify the question about using the Soft Mode or Discreet when in Continuous -- some people had issues (especially with the Classic M8) of the camera freezing.... not that you would ever purposefully set it to Continuous, but sometimes the hand slips when turning it on. in my case, turning the camera off and slipping out the battery always revived it, but some people had to send their cameras to Solms. as i'm always in Discreet, i lost more than a few shots with this slip.

is this an issue with the M9 or does it simply override Continuous if you make this mistake?

2) after losing a few DNGs (and because i like seeing B/W on the screen) has the writing of JPEGs caught up to merely shooting RAW? and/or is the option there to see B/W on the screen whilst shooting only RAW?

3) last, but not least, have they changed the Auto-ISO function to work better for all conditions? by this i mean, the fastest shutter setting of 1/125 is not quick enough when you're on the street. even 1/250th would be an improvement, though i'd prefer the option to go as fast as 1/500 or 1/1000.

this may sound lazy of me, especially with the new ISO button and the improved high ISO, but it is still an issue for me. i frequently shoot in rapidly changing conditions, i.e. on a bright sunny day but see something intriguing down a very dark alley. i love the idea of Auto ISO, but this limitation of speed has made it all but worthless....

TIA