Finally I love the M8

[Lax Jought]

Setting the iso on your metered camera to something other than box speed to "trick" the meter to over or underexpose.

The ISO used to be the domain of film speed you put into your camera back in the film days, wasn't it?

 

[Voe]

I shoot RAW only and I don't use negative exposure compensation for three reasons:

1. Leica M8 has a pretty good highlight latitude. I can often extract up to 2 stops of detail.
2. Underxposing brings more noise when trying to recover shadows.
3. Metering is pretty much spot on 95% of the time.

 

[user237428934]

haha thanks. So in other words though, it does affect the overall tone of the RAW file.

If you have an exposure that delivers a balanced histogram and then you underexpose, you shift your histogram to the left. The result is that everything gets a little grey and colors look a bit muddy.

I think compensation is useful, when you think you meter might get fooled by the lighting condition.

 

[Phil_F_NM]

What was the equivalent of the exposure compensation function back before digital cameras existed?

It was exposure compensation.
The +- EV dials have existed on cameras since the early 1970's and became commonplace in the late 70's, early 80's.

Phil Forrest

 

[Pickett Wilson]

Here's the problem with histograms. 🙂

Your camera is using the camera's internally generated jpeg to provide that histogram on the back of the camera, whether you are shooting RAW or not. "Shoot to the right" viewing the histogram with that default jpeg setting and you are going to get bad exposures.

 

[Nikon Bob]

Interesting thread with regard to exposure compensation. I guess different sensors behave differently and you have to find what works best for you. I have -1/3 comp set on my DSLR and have not had a problem with dull colours. Good to see you are happy with your M8.

Bob

 

[Mcary]

Here's the problem with histograms. 🙂

Your camera is using the camera's internally generated jpeg to provide that histogram on the back of the camera, whether you are shooting RAW or not. "Shoot to the right" viewing the histogram with that default jpeg setting and you are going to get bad exposures.

Guess it depends on the equipment one uses as I followed "Shoot to the right" for shooting with a number of different Canon DSLRs including the 5D and got excellent exposures, most of which required little or any exposure adjustments in post.

 

[Lax Jought]

If you have an exposure that delivers a balanced histogram and then you underexpose, you shift your histogram to the left. The result is that everything gets a little grey and colors look a bit muddy.

I think compensation is useful, when you think you meter might get fooled by the lighting condition.

ah I understand that, thanks. I think I've previously left exp comp on auto, I should start paying more attention to it.

It was exposure compensation.
The +- EV dials have existed on cameras since the early 1970's and became commonplace in the late 70's, early 80's.

Phil Forrest

d'oh.. I was born in the 70s but have just gotten into photography now. 😀

 

[carlosecpf]

After one year without M8 i'm back and now I really love it. Colors and high-iso performance were the main reasons for selling it (of course I used a filter). The need for rangefinder feeling + digital and lack of money for M9 were the reasons to come back.

As a new M8 owner, I really appreciate your suggestions to get accurate colors, even though I am happy with the colors so far.

However, I would love to hear more about you post processing method to get better high-iso performance in Aperture 3. Coming from a R-D1s, I really got somewhat disappointed with the M8's performance at ISO 640 and above.

thanks in advance!

 

[ZlatkoBatistich]

The main reason for bad colors before was the constant dialed in exposure compensation of -2/3. I once read this in a forum (maybe here) that this is a must to prevent from blown highlights.

Constant exposure compensation sounds like a really bad idea. A constant should only be used if a meter is known to be off by a certain amount. Otherwise, exposure compensation should be applied individually for each image, or based on the specific lighting and background.

 

[ZlatkoBatistich]

However, I would love to hear more about you post processing method to get better high-iso performance in Aperture 3. Coming from a R-D1s, I really got somewhat disappointed with the M8's performance at ISO 640 and above.

thanks in advance!

Are you using the noise reduction in the latest version of Adobe Lightroom? It is really good. In the Develop module, set the color noise reduction very high, between 50 and 100. And set the luminance noise reduction to your taste (maybe in the 10 to 30 range) based on the noisiness of the particular image. If you like the result, make it your default setting.

 

[MCTuomey]

As a new M8 owner, I really appreciate your suggestions to get accurate colors, even though I am happy with the colors so far.

However, I would love to hear more about you post processing method to get better high-iso performance in Aperture 3. Coming from a R-D1s, I really got somewhat disappointed with the M8's performance at ISO 640 and above.

thanks in advance!

Carlos, Jaap's post is a good one in this regard:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99729