mrmeadows
Established
I recently broke down and purchased a Leica M(240). As others have related, I justified the considerable expense by telling myself that my (well used) cameras are my only extravagance and that life is short, so go for it. I have found that this camera is so vastly better than the M8 that I have used for these past six years that I don't regret my decision ... not a even for a minute. None-the-less, new issues or questions have arisen regarding some new features, and I'd like to know, in particular, how one of those features of the M(240) compares with the similar feature in other camera systems.
I recently started using a 135mm Tele-Elmar that I've had for some years but which I did not find to be useful on the M8 and so didn't use since I purchased it. When I put it on the M(240), I sometimes use the live view on the LCD monitor of the M(240) to nail the focus. I quickly learned that hand-holding (I dislike using tripods, and my kind of photography rarely needs one) the 135 often involved so much unsteadiness that the image was moving too much for the red-line focusing aid that appears at high contrast edges to work effectively. Instead, the red-line edges often never appear at any focus setting. In the best of times, they flash on and then off again so fast that they are an unreliable guide. Since the M(240) can't utilize image stabilizatioin in any 3rd party lenses that are used via adapters, it is therefore not possible to reliably use the red-line focus aid with them either. Thus the M(240) seems to be at a disadvantage in the hand-held use of any long focal lengths, despite being able to mount them.
So my question is the following: Do other camera systems which have red-line focusing in the monitor or EVF (or white-line or whatever color) and which systems also have image stabilization, do they exhibit this same problem? I could imagine the result with such camera systems could go either way. The operative variables would seem to be the comparison between 1) the EVF update rate, 2) the speed of the contrast detect auto-focus, 3) the response speed of the image stabilization and 4) the amount of instability of pointing due to body motion/sway/shaking. Given these variables, the answer may well be very different for different systems, as the result will likely be determined by each system's detailed design, and every system will presumably fail to work adequately at some combination of long focal length and hand-held instability. Note, too, that this problem is independent of the shutter speed for the ultimate exposure, so that a fast shutter speed that will suppress image blurring will still be susceptible to this focusing problem.
What sytem(s) have you used? Have you experienced this problem with the system(s), or does it seem immune to it? What focal lengths have you used that lead to your experience?
--- Mike
I recently started using a 135mm Tele-Elmar that I've had for some years but which I did not find to be useful on the M8 and so didn't use since I purchased it. When I put it on the M(240), I sometimes use the live view on the LCD monitor of the M(240) to nail the focus. I quickly learned that hand-holding (I dislike using tripods, and my kind of photography rarely needs one) the 135 often involved so much unsteadiness that the image was moving too much for the red-line focusing aid that appears at high contrast edges to work effectively. Instead, the red-line edges often never appear at any focus setting. In the best of times, they flash on and then off again so fast that they are an unreliable guide. Since the M(240) can't utilize image stabilizatioin in any 3rd party lenses that are used via adapters, it is therefore not possible to reliably use the red-line focus aid with them either. Thus the M(240) seems to be at a disadvantage in the hand-held use of any long focal lengths, despite being able to mount them.
So my question is the following: Do other camera systems which have red-line focusing in the monitor or EVF (or white-line or whatever color) and which systems also have image stabilization, do they exhibit this same problem? I could imagine the result with such camera systems could go either way. The operative variables would seem to be the comparison between 1) the EVF update rate, 2) the speed of the contrast detect auto-focus, 3) the response speed of the image stabilization and 4) the amount of instability of pointing due to body motion/sway/shaking. Given these variables, the answer may well be very different for different systems, as the result will likely be determined by each system's detailed design, and every system will presumably fail to work adequately at some combination of long focal length and hand-held instability. Note, too, that this problem is independent of the shutter speed for the ultimate exposure, so that a fast shutter speed that will suppress image blurring will still be susceptible to this focusing problem.
What sytem(s) have you used? Have you experienced this problem with the system(s), or does it seem immune to it? What focal lengths have you used that lead to your experience?
--- Mike
