I have guilt, and an M9, and questions.

[Sanders McNew]

So, my wife whispered in my ear that I really should try a digital
camera. So I visited Ken Hansen and walked away with an M9.
Now my Rolleiflexes throw baleful glances every time I walk by.
This is my first foray into digital photography. I have guilt.

I mounted an early 5cm Tokyo Nikkor SC and shot it wide open
(ISO 1000) -- focus was a guess because the M9's rangefinder
doesn't seem to couple to the Nikkor at close distances. This is
the first image I made with the camera:


Been away so long I hardly knew the place. by sandersnyc, on Flickr

I have a lot to learn.

First questions:

1. Is there a way to couple the M9 RF to the Nikkor so that it
can be focused at distances under 1m?

2. What are people doing for printing digital B+W files these
days? The last time I tried inkjet printing (10 years ago) it was
a constant struggle with clogged jets and color shifts in the inks.
What works best these days?

Sanders

 

[Black]

Re: #2 - If Chris Crawford were still here, he'd link you to http://chriscrawfordphoto.com/technical/printing.php

Re: #1 - I have it on good authority that your lens will focus down to 90cm. If you send your M9 with the lens to Leica, advising they won't focus at minimum focus distance, they will calibrate both for you for free.

 

[Phil_F_NM]

There are a few folks here on the forum that can either talk you through the lens mod or do it themselves. Basically, the lens mount needs to be filed down a bit to allow the cam follower on the Leica M to travel a little more. You're not going to get the full range of the 5cm Nikkor's close focus, but you'll get the better part of a foot closer.

I don't think that Leica will operate on your 5cm Nikon lens but there are Leica technicians out there who will. DAG, Sherry K, Youxin Ye, Kindermann, and a few others.

Phil Forrest

 

[Ansel]

I have yet to see a digital print that captures the magic of a fine analogue print... M9 should be very capable for web jpgs though, which seems to be how most images a viewed nowadays.

p.s. The guit you feel is probably buyers remorse. That's a lot of cash you just dropped on a camera!

 

[Richard G]

Great photo. I hope it's not of your wife when you told her what this cost. I was allowed to buy mine, M9-P. My teenage son was with me. Even he approved. Buyer's remorse, if there was any, did not survive the walk to the door of Van Bar with the box.

 

[Vince Lupo]

I have yet to see a digital print that captures the magic of a fine analogue print... M9 should be very capable for web jpgs though, which seems to be how most images a viewed nowadays.

Maybe you should come to Baltimore to see some very fine digital prints:

Aloft1 by Vince.Lupo, on Flickr
Go ahead - stick your nose against them.

The M9 is VERY capable of producing quite fine prints - perhaps you haven't looked enough, or the prints you've seen are due to 'operator error'?

If I could recommend a digital printer, the Epson 3880 does a nice job. Things have definitely changed in the last 10 years.

 

[__jc]

Please don't sell the Rolleiflexes just yet. As wonderful as digital technology is, if you do a lot of portraiture, I think you'll find that human skin is not generally handled as well by digital as it is with film - it tends to look a bit smeary at times.

Also Vince, those look like really beautiful prints, and I hope to get a 3880 sometime. My son recently had to sell his 9900 and that made very lovely prints too. But I must agree with Ansel that there is an altogether different look to fine prints output from inkjet printers compared with fine prints from the darkroom. Even from the same negative.

 

[Vince Lupo]

The look can be different - depends on the file you're printing from - but oftentimes no less 'magical' or 'fine'.

 

[__jc]

The magic or otherwise is of course in the eye of the beholder. And a fine print is a fine print whether it is on inkjet paper or comes out of a darkroom. But I'm glad we agree that the look can be different, and I think that most times one will be as acceptable as the other.

 

[Nigel Meaby]

I think this is more shocking news than Ralph Gibson....Sanders goes Digital! 😀

 

[Vince Lupo]

The magic or otherwise is of course in the eye of the beholder. And a fine print is a fine print whether it is on inkjet paper or comes out of a darkroom. But I'm glad we agree that the look can be different, and I think that most times one will be as acceptable as the other.

Definitely can be different - however there have been times in which I've placed one of my darkroom prints alongside one of my digital prints, and darned if they don't look pretty close to each other. Admittedly it doesn't always happen, but sometimes it can be quite surprising.

I'm in the process of converting to the Piezography inks on my 3880, so I'll be really interested to see how different the look can be even within the use of different inks.

I think you'll really like printing from the M9 files - best of luck!

 

[Chris101]

I dunno Sanders. Looking at the picture you posted, I'd say you've got it figured out already. Don't feel guilt - at least not a lot of it. Times change, energies change, and yes - cameras change. Roll with it, but I agree with posts above, keep yer film cams. The M9 will become obsolete before your Rolleiflex does.

 

[Chris101]

Re: #2 - If Chris Crawford were still here ...

Uh, yeah. I went looking for a post of his and it's nowhere to be found. What's up with that?

Has he been disappeared?

 

[Ansel]

Just sharing my experience folks. Have been to some of the top photo exhibitions over the past 5 years and the digital prints just don't look as good to me. Sorry.

 

[ChrisN]

Nice work, again, Sanders. And welcome to the world of the M9. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and I expect you'll be very satisfied with the flexibility of those M9 files. One suggestion - always capture in uncompressed RAW to maximize processing flexibility.

You might want to investigate the printing service that Leica offer to M Monochrom customers. I'm sure they would not refuse a file that originated as a M9 capture.

" Leica Monochrom prints - an exclusive service for M Monochrom customers

In collaboration with WhiteWall, the premium photo finishers, the Leica M Monochrom print service offers customers an opportunity to have exclusive black-and-white prints made from their images. With this service, digital images from the Leica M Monochrom can be printed on premium-quality baryte photographic papers. Thanks to development in the classical wet-chemical silver halide process, the prints are hardly distinguishable from their analogue counterparts printed from negatives." (from the bottom of this page)

Another option: I recently asked Peter Turnley about his prints from M9 and Monochrom files. His response explained that the images in the book that originated from digital capture were printed directly from digital files, but he also mentioned that his exhibition prints were printed from 4x5 internegs.

"Chris thanks so much for your interest in my book. The book represents 40 years of photographs. Approx.%60 were made with analog cameras and %40 with Leica M9 and then Monochrom. The book was printed using silver gelatin prints from analog, and directly from digital files from the M9 and Monochrom. The reproduction quality of the pages of the book is seamlessly homogenous-really outstanding. The book was printed by one of the best printing presses in the world, OGI in Hong Kong. I think you will find the quality of reproduction and the elegance of the book and slip case quite special. Exhibition prints and collector prints are another thing. My prints are made by Voya Mitrovic, one of the greatest printers in the history of photography. We took the digital files from the M9 and Monochrom, and had 4x5 internegatives made, so all of my exhibition and collector prints are traditional silver gelatin prints. I am having an exhibition of French Kiss at the Leica Gallery in Salzburg starting on Nov.21, and when I saw the silver gelatin prints from digital files, my breath was taken away-I have never seen a digital photograph on computer screen look like this-the tones are so rich and the blacks and highlights amazing. All very exciting and a real light of new hope and satisfaction for me for prints from digital photography!"

The reproduction in the book is very satisfying. I have not seen prints produced from the 4x5 inter-negatives, but I would expect they would be no less outstanding than other prints made by Voya. For those special images it might be worth looking into the process of having the interneg made, which you could of course print in your own darkroom.

 

[Sparrow]

No2 ... for printing, after wasting a fortune on paper and ink-jet ink I found a lab that would put my files through their Agfa c-type printers as long as I do all the sizing and pre-press ... this place, although not that convenient for you sadly

I've hardly bothered wet printing since, personally I got better output within a few months than I got wet printing

 

[Vince Lupo]

Only problem with the Whitewall prints is that they are VERY expensive!

 

[sanmich]

1. Is there a way to couple the M9 RF to the Nikkor so that it
can be focused at distances under 1m?


Sanders

I think you can get 0.7m focusing by filing the mount to allow the camera follower to keep contact with the cam a little further.

 

[raid]

Congratulatios on this bold move, Sanders.
Try things out and see if you like it or not.

 

[jippiejee]

I recently acquired the Canon Pixma Pro-1 for (A3+) printing, which contains 12 color LUCIA pigment inkset and includes 5 monochrome inks and a chroma optimizer. Five shades of black! I am very happy with the results, and reviewers told me that even after months of no use the machine shows no signs of clogging. It's a heavy beast though.

Pixma Pro-1 review

The beast: