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Pixii Max
- Thread starter Epstar83
- Start date
Epstar83
Member
Thanks,
This is my first Pixii and I have had very limited time with it, so probably wouldn't be fair to draw any final conclusions. In terms of image quality I'd say it is certainly a very capable camera, and for a 24MP sensor maybe better than the M240 / M10 but It's a niche camera and will only appeal to photographers who don't mind tinkering.
Cons so far:
1. My copy arrived with the rangefinder completely out of calibration. Pixii do have a document buried in their FAQ's about how to adjust the rangefinder. I am not generally one who likes to get into this nitty gritty sort of stuff but after several attempts I was able to calibrate it quite accurately.
2. Secondly, most lenses will need an LCC correction for colour work as the lenses project quite a strong blue cast on the sides of the frame. Leica corrects this with the lens profiles that are available in camera.
3. The Pixii has no screen, so in use it is similar to a Leica MD type camera. I found the 'centre weighted' and 'average' metering to be woefully inaccurate. Shooting with the exposure compensation at -1.5 for most of the images seems to do the trick.
4. You can look at your images as you're shooting in the app, but it is slow and sort of defeats the purpose of having a camera with no screen.
5. The shutter sound is quite soft and in noisy environments might be hard to tell if you actually took the picture.
6. Battery life is awful. I'd say a minimum of 2 spares need to be carried to get through a full day of shooting
7. The focus patch is a little dim compared to my Leica M cameras.
Pros so far:
1. The frame line selector system is much nicer than Leica. 35mm, 40mm & 50mm frame lines are all projected as single set of frame lines. To my knowledge the Pixii cameras are the only digital M's that have 40mm frame lines built in. Pixii says the entire view finder covers 28mm field of view, based on my experience I would tend to agree with them. Any focal length less than 35mm the frame lines are removed but focal lengths down to 12mm are selectable and this information is included in the EXIF data. I think this is a very nice touch. The 75 / 90mm frame lines are the only ones that are shared.
2. I like the concept of the Pixii, the body is upgradeable as and when upgrades become available. Leica offers this to a very limited degree, for instance the M10 can be upgraded to an M10P. But Pixii have pushed this a lot further... the original Pixii which had an APS-C sensor can be upgraded to a Max with a full frame sensor. I wonder if they will be able to fit a better battery into the existing body in future...
3. Internal storage up to 128 GB. Pixii were doing this from day one and it is a nice solution.
4. USB-C charging
5. The monochrome mode! Delivers true monochrome DNG files. I haven't tested this extensively yet, but I do think this offers a small resolution advantage over converting the colour files in post.
6. I like the colours once the files are corrected. This is obviously subjective and should be taken with a pinch of salt from a guy who predominantly shoots in B&W. My M digital bodies have all been Monochrom for the last 5 years.
Realistically I think most people who just want a reliable M camera to shoot with and a budget in the ballpark of a Pixii will be better off finding a nice second hand M10 / M10P from a good dealer that offers a warranty. The Pixii is a niche camera from a very small company that will appeal to people who like to tinker or want a camera with Pixii's unique features. Those are my thoughts so far. I will keep sharing my experiences with it here.
This is my first Pixii and I have had very limited time with it, so probably wouldn't be fair to draw any final conclusions. In terms of image quality I'd say it is certainly a very capable camera, and for a 24MP sensor maybe better than the M240 / M10 but It's a niche camera and will only appeal to photographers who don't mind tinkering.
Cons so far:
1. My copy arrived with the rangefinder completely out of calibration. Pixii do have a document buried in their FAQ's about how to adjust the rangefinder. I am not generally one who likes to get into this nitty gritty sort of stuff but after several attempts I was able to calibrate it quite accurately.
2. Secondly, most lenses will need an LCC correction for colour work as the lenses project quite a strong blue cast on the sides of the frame. Leica corrects this with the lens profiles that are available in camera.
3. The Pixii has no screen, so in use it is similar to a Leica MD type camera. I found the 'centre weighted' and 'average' metering to be woefully inaccurate. Shooting with the exposure compensation at -1.5 for most of the images seems to do the trick.
4. You can look at your images as you're shooting in the app, but it is slow and sort of defeats the purpose of having a camera with no screen.
5. The shutter sound is quite soft and in noisy environments might be hard to tell if you actually took the picture.
6. Battery life is awful. I'd say a minimum of 2 spares need to be carried to get through a full day of shooting
7. The focus patch is a little dim compared to my Leica M cameras.
Pros so far:
1. The frame line selector system is much nicer than Leica. 35mm, 40mm & 50mm frame lines are all projected as single set of frame lines. To my knowledge the Pixii cameras are the only digital M's that have 40mm frame lines built in. Pixii says the entire view finder covers 28mm field of view, based on my experience I would tend to agree with them. Any focal length less than 35mm the frame lines are removed but focal lengths down to 12mm are selectable and this information is included in the EXIF data. I think this is a very nice touch. The 75 / 90mm frame lines are the only ones that are shared.
2. I like the concept of the Pixii, the body is upgradeable as and when upgrades become available. Leica offers this to a very limited degree, for instance the M10 can be upgraded to an M10P. But Pixii have pushed this a lot further... the original Pixii which had an APS-C sensor can be upgraded to a Max with a full frame sensor. I wonder if they will be able to fit a better battery into the existing body in future...
3. Internal storage up to 128 GB. Pixii were doing this from day one and it is a nice solution.
4. USB-C charging
5. The monochrome mode! Delivers true monochrome DNG files. I haven't tested this extensively yet, but I do think this offers a small resolution advantage over converting the colour files in post.
6. I like the colours once the files are corrected. This is obviously subjective and should be taken with a pinch of salt from a guy who predominantly shoots in B&W. My M digital bodies have all been Monochrom for the last 5 years.
Realistically I think most people who just want a reliable M camera to shoot with and a budget in the ballpark of a Pixii will be better off finding a nice second hand M10 / M10P from a good dealer that offers a warranty. The Pixii is a niche camera from a very small company that will appeal to people who like to tinker or want a camera with Pixii's unique features. Those are my thoughts so far. I will keep sharing my experiences with it here.
Epstar83
Member
Photons to Photos have published the performance of the Pixii Max. At the moment the Pixii can only output 12-Bit files, however I do think they will bring out a firmware update in the future that supports 14-Bit output.
Godfrey
Well-known member
I tried a Pixii for a month back in Spring 2022. I ultimately found it to have too many issues (key of which was that I'd often need to carry 3 or 4 batteries for a single photo walk, and the shutter activation no matter how I configured sound or tactile notifications made it very difficult to know for sure when I'd actually made an exposure...) and returned it, but it convinced me that I really really wanted a monochrome camera. Once the Pixii was returned, I bought one of the last Leica M10 Monochrom cameras available new from my dealer.
By comparison, the M10-M just works and lasts for several of my shooting sessions on a single charge of its battery (typically 600-800 exposures per charge in normal use), and its haptics are just right. It has just a bit more dynamic range at the limit and just a bit more resolution at the limit, and of course it is full frame vs my Pixii's APS-C format which nets more DoF control with a less "exotic" range of focal lengths. I liked it so much that after four months, I hunted up a nice, clean M10-R and sold my Leica CL so that I'd have a color camera identical in all other respects to the M10-M to work with. These are now my primary shooting tools and displace my other digital cameras for most purposes, including the Hasselblad 907x/CFVII 50c (which I keep along with the rest of the V system for sentimental reasons mostly, and because there are certain situations where the larger sensor—and access to 6x6 format on film!—still has an advantage).
I hope that the Pixii Max and later developments of the Pixii firmware have overcome some of the more egregious annoyances of my 2022 Pixii. The folks at Pixii all seemed to be trying hard to produce a quality camera; the issues that I ran into point to how complex and difficult it can be to do that for a broad customer base. Very small and seemingly insignificant things can make or break an otherwise excellent design for a lot of individuals.
G
By comparison, the M10-M just works and lasts for several of my shooting sessions on a single charge of its battery (typically 600-800 exposures per charge in normal use), and its haptics are just right. It has just a bit more dynamic range at the limit and just a bit more resolution at the limit, and of course it is full frame vs my Pixii's APS-C format which nets more DoF control with a less "exotic" range of focal lengths. I liked it so much that after four months, I hunted up a nice, clean M10-R and sold my Leica CL so that I'd have a color camera identical in all other respects to the M10-M to work with. These are now my primary shooting tools and displace my other digital cameras for most purposes, including the Hasselblad 907x/CFVII 50c (which I keep along with the rest of the V system for sentimental reasons mostly, and because there are certain situations where the larger sensor—and access to 6x6 format on film!—still has an advantage).
I hope that the Pixii Max and later developments of the Pixii firmware have overcome some of the more egregious annoyances of my 2022 Pixii. The folks at Pixii all seemed to be trying hard to produce a quality camera; the issues that I ran into point to how complex and difficult it can be to do that for a broad customer base. Very small and seemingly insignificant things can make or break an otherwise excellent design for a lot of individuals.
G
Epstar83
Member
Hey Godfrey,
I think we have quite similar taste in cameras. Lol.
Unfortunately all the downsides you mentioned about the earlier APS-C version of the Pixii are still valid for the Max. In addition because the Max is relatively brand new and developed by such a small team it is still a little buggy, though credit to the Pixii team, they are indeed working on resolving these things. A couple other frustrations is my copy came with the rangefinder completely out of adjustment. Pixii do have a document available that explains how to calibrate the rangefinder, which I did manage to do after much frustration. After about 4 weeks of shooting though, I'm already noticing that the vertical alignment is starting to drift. Also the focus patch is nowhere near as bright or contrasty as the Leica. That being said it hasn't stopped me from achieving accurate focus. My other frustration is metering, I basically have to leave it set at -1.5 to -2.0 stops of exposure compensation. I know Pixii users have voiced their concerns about this in the past so I hope it will get resolved. Considering it is a camera without a screen I think an accurate highlight weighted system would be the way to go. This should be achievable in a firmware update.
I actually bought the Pixii Max for similar reasons to your M10-R purchase (I also currently own an M10M). I thought the Pixii was an interesting camera and I still do. Having one camera that can do both good colour and high quality monochrome is rather unique. The upgradeable hardware concept of the Pixii is also quite amazing, If you consider that current Pixii APS-C owners can have their existing camera body upgraded to a full frame camera!
Some of the other plus sides of the Pixii is their frame-lines selections. Much nicer than Leica. Having only 35, 40!! And 50mm and then combining 75/90mm. In addition if you select 28mm or wider it removes the frame-lines altogether. The full viewfinder is essentially 28mm equivalent field of view and for wider lenses most folks are going to use an accessory finder.
My plan is to hang on to mine for a little longer to see what else Pixii come up with. Long term though I do see myself replacing the Pixii with a colour M body.
Ultimately it begs the question, who is this camera for? I think anyone who revels in unique cameras, enjoys tinkering and doesn't mind waiting for Pixii to rollout the upgrades which will surely be coming over time will have a great deal of fun with the Pixii.
For anyone looking for a reliable rangefinder camera right out the box though, the Red Dot is still the best choice if it is within one's budget.