Leica M Monochrom: best pics

softly_waiting.jpg
 
M_Driscoll said:
M-M; 50mm f/1.4; 1/125s; ISO 320
M-M; 50mm f/1.4; 1/60s; ISO 1000
Cheers, Matt
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Hello Matt,

thanks for sharing. I looked at your zenfolio page. You have some great work there. I flipped through a lot of your work, esp. the 70's is special.
From the new ones, I particularly like this one :
http://mdriscoll.zenfolio.com/p497141925/h40db5054#h41627d30
bw at 6400 in this quality, just amazing.
I understand that people being used to see grain for the last 100 years and see this as a "must have", might object this example as clinical and whatever. If you look at a scene live (not "live view" 😉) there is no grain. So for me these shots look stunning.
 
icebear said:
Hello Matt,

thanks for sharing. I looked at your zenfolio page. You have some great work there. I flipped through a lot of your work, esp. the 70's is special.
From the new ones, I particularly like this one :
http://mdriscoll.zenfolio.com/p497141925/h40db5054#h41627d30
bw at 6400 in this quality, just amazing.
I understand that people being used to see grain for the last 100 years and see this as a "must have", might object this example as clinical and whatever. If you look at a scene live (not "live view" 😉) there is no grain. So for me these shots look stunning.
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Klaus: Thanks for looking! It's interesting to view those 70's shots (Nikkormat FTN, 50mm, Tri-x, developed at school, or in the bathroom sink) in comparison to what the M-M can do. I'm not interested in it's ability to look like 'film' (not that there's anything wrong with that!). It's unique in the range of expression that it allows. That's what I like.

Ps. That's my wife and she doesn't like me to photograph her. ISO 6400 makes me pretty stealthy.

Cheers, Matt
 
Great pics, everyone...

Great pics, everyone...

Fantastic captures everyone. I don't frequent these parts as often as I should, as some of the work I have seen here is quite inspirational. Here are a few of my images with the MM:

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TennesseJones said:
These are terrific. I enjoyed the processing and its good to see how people work in different ways.
But most of all I like where you stood when you pressed the button!
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The last shot* demonstrates the 'ugly part' of the MM or the pp or.....:

* with the half blind ? man, sorry...

it's the OOF part at the left side of the pic - the lady with the plastic bag in her left hand.
There is some 'aura' around her which looks very nasty, but why?

The same in the pic of the man in the railway station:

In the untouched pic the right hand outer rail of the bench looks ok but in the pp-version this wooden piece becomes indifferent nasty in my eyes....

For me it seems that the MM needs a lot of partial corrections in different areas of the pic. Then it would be possible to get lost.....

For me personally there is the 7.000 € question whether the MM would be ok after 6 months when the honeymoon has ended.....

PS: from the contend the most pics are really good but some of them would look much better on film because film will be moe gentle even in harsh conditions....

Cheers
Bernd
 
M_Driscoll said:
Klaus: Thanks for looking! It's interesting to view those 70's shots (Nikkormat FTN, 50mm, Tri-x, developed at school, or in the bathroom sink) in comparison to what the M-M can do. I'm not interested in it's ability to look like 'film' (not that there's anything wrong with that!). It's unique in the range of expression that it allows. That's what I like.

Ps. That's my wife and she doesn't like me to photograph her. ISO 6400 makes me pretty stealthy.

Cheers, Matt
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Hi Matt,

Just looking at all the wonderful M-M images which also brought me to your zenfolio site. The 70's images are absolutely wonderful and exactly the type of photography I enjoy. It is a fascinating look back in time that you have documented for all generations to see. Photography like this is what makes me want to go out and take more images which will be a moment in 'this' time for the future to view. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers - John
 
leicashot said:
Goes to show, a camera is only as good as the operator. Pictures sell cameras....wonder when manufacturers will realise this
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Hi Kristian,

the Leica instructor quoted a photographer who was giving a Lecture the evening before the event (I didn't attend that and I forgot the name) but it was along the lines " .. sorry I can talk too much about the gear but the Monochrom got me excited about B&W photography again".
The Leica guy also explicitly mentioned that is not about the gear but all about your vision.

I felt, I was the youngest guy of the group of participants in the workshop and a lot of others were obviously "babying" their gear with full leather case etc. Most of them were also renting lenses, I brought my own. They didn't blink when I put the Planar on the MM 😉.

I am pretty positive that the perception of many users that because of the price they paid for the Leica stuff, they expect it will give them almost automatically better pictures. That misconception is not anything Leica is not aware of.

Many talented photographers are using Leica M and Leica is showcasing that. But it has nothing inheritly to do with what anyone else can do but it sure creates a halo effect. What some race care driver can to in a certain car is different from Joe Average on the highway, same thing.
 
Richard G said:
Having shot so well with the M9 and now trying the MM, what do you think?
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Hi Richard,
thanks "for the flowers". I'm just doing it for fun and trying to learn. I have the M9 just 5 month and it is terrific (for me) as I have at least somewhat the feeling that I am more in control of the end result than when dropping a film off at some lab and getting some prints back a week later. Ok the software is doing so much that I do not control but in my book going digital is much more satisfying and does give me a higher yield of great shots. To be able to adjust ISO as needed and not be stuck with one roll of 100 ISO film when I'm suddenly in the subway, that is such a great advantage. And as I am only using Leica M there was just no alternative (again in my book).

Getting to the Monochrom now 😉 ... the final kick was looking at these files at home. After just 2 hrs shooting and definately not being able to nail the exposure - these files are looking just terrific.
All the stuff that was shown at the Leica workshop (with laptop hooked to a projector) M9 vs MM was showing some differences in roof edges of a house and less grain in shadow details with the MM. But to me that wasn't so convincing at all. A quote from the instructor ["most likely you will not see a difference in a 11x14" print"].

I also now understand their claim the MM is 100% better than the M9. You can view the M9 files at 100%, after that they become pixelated. However the MM files at 200% still look perfect. I am not sure if until now just me was not getting the point of this claim but obviously this is confusing also to many others.

The high ISO capability is great but I am not sure how difficult it will be to shoot wide open at the lowest (non pull) ISO of 320. I assume any ND filter you might have to use will degrade the quality somewhat. I have no experience with ND filter yet. If you nail the exposure ISO 6400 will still give you amazing results when you comepare it e.g. to pushed TMY at 800. I did not use ISO 10,000 as was already more into using the Monochrom then testing it...

When I was using my M3 loaded with bw film I was looking for different subjects, "seeing differently" than with the MP loaded with Provia. The Monochrom gives you exactely that difference. And shooting the M9 and converting some files to bw occasionally will not get you there, if you want this "seeing in black and white" feeling, maybe you can relate to that.

Using color filters on the Monochrom will per intructor give you similar effects as shooting bw film.
Post production use of software filters makes only sense in color file. How could the software possibly detect green shades in a grey scale picture (all 3 RGB channels of the pixel have the same value) This would not make any sense to me.
But I did not play around with any filters during the 2hrs shooting the MM and I also did not shoot the same scene with the M9 in parallel.

Bottom line: I put an order in.
 
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