Leica M9... Legendary vs Nothing

Leica M9... Legendary vs Nothing

  • The M9 is a real revolutionary legendary leica M feeling camera

    Votes: 156 32.6%

  • The M9 just have the M, but it isn't a legendary M

    Votes: 109 22.8%

  • I just prefer to wait for another digital rangefinder camera M-Mount option without the red dot

    Votes: 96 20.1%

  • The M9 is the best digital M to date and I want it.

    Votes: 117 24.5%
  • Total voters
    478
leicashot said:
They have no time to be constantly correcting for auto exposure mistake, ie. 'your mistakes'....and they would know immediately that you're using auto-exposure no matter how good you may 'think' it is. .
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Do you really think that you can tell what means of metering was used to capture a given exposure?

What matters is getting the shot. You clearly have a method which I am guessing by your tone you have been using for a long time.

You continue to make generalisations about what pros use. There are far too many different branches of photography and I can not believe all professional photgraphers are as blinkered as you appear to be.

If something works for you that is great, but do not make the fundamental mistake of deriding something as 'lazy' which you clearly have know personal experience of.

Ultimately I am not expecting you to change your very rigid views but it would be nice if you could realise there are many ways to achieve the same thing. And different does not necessarily mean wrong.

best wishes

Richard
 
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Richard Marks said:
Agreed I am sure your metering with the M9 + experience will do a grand job. In fact on occasion I just shoot with my contax IIa and no metering at all and with print film it is surprisingly good. All I was saying is that we should not diss technology and just because one uses metering does not make one an amateur or inferior photographer. It is knowing how to use any tool properly that counts. Metering is one area of the M series which is becoming ncreasingly primative compared to the alternatives. It is less of a problem for film than it is for digital.

Well I am very jealous of your Africa trips. I have done quite a bit of Charity work in Africa and China and I have some very memorable pictures (all film stuff) but with 2 young children I am grounded for the forseable future. I look forward to seeing your M9 images though. Insurance is not going to be too cheap!!


I agree a D3 with a big zoom is intimidating. Id shove a 35 1.4 and 105 2.5 on a D700 (not at the same time) and it is really not that intrusive. Incidentally I think Steve McCurry is using D SLRs and also Hasselblad in the sticks!

best wishes

Richard
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Richard,
tell me please when is insurance ever cheap and adding the Leicas may mean I can only eat a couple of times a week but at least I won't get too 'Portly'.
I have a couple of grandchildren now so I am reasonably free to go wherever.
Steve McCurry is to me about as good as you can get his pictures are sublime
Thanks for your good wishes which I return
Best Regards
Peter.
BTW I did get a 'Highly Commended' in last years (2008/9 enviromental photographer of the year competition with a picture from inside the 'childrens wing' of Pollsmoor prison in Cape Town whilst working for a Charity based in the UK. It may still be on the CIWEM site should you care to look at it. I was unable to enter this year and I don't usualy enter these competitions anyway.
P
 
I think we should stop using the words "why", "leica", "canon", "compare" in the same sentence ever again. It's getting old with this whining. Simply most people use leica because they "can". Most people drive maserati cos they "can" although it cant do what you 20k suv can. So stop it please.

But I am repulsed by leica marketing claim knowing that m8 cant be upgraded to ff.
 
Richard Marks said:
Do you really think that you can tell what means of metering was used to capture a given exposure?

Yes, if the lighting hasn't changed but the exposures do the chances are that auto exposure was used.
What matters is getting the shot. You clearly have a method which I am guessing by your tone you have been using for a long time.

Yes I've shot in manual for the last 6 years and it has given me much better results, enabling me to read light, and therefore guess expsoures quite accurately....and should I be wrong I have the LCD to check and I can tell how far out I am and adjust the shutter/aperture accordingly. Very simple method.
You continue to make generalisations about what pros use. There are far too many different branches of photography and I can not believe all professional photgraphers are as blinkered as you appear to be.

Most professional photographers that work in sport or photojournalism (the most demanding in changing light) shoot in manual, especially the ones that work for large aagencies and expect first class results every time.

If something works for you that is great, but do not make the fundamental mistake of deriding something as 'lazy' which you clearly have know personal experience of.

I used to use aperture/shutter priority before I was instructed otherwise. I know it's downfalls. How can a camera evaluate a scene and know how 'you' would like to render it? Consistency as a good photographer is the 'key element' clients look for in a professional, and auto will NOT give consitent results. How can it when it can't rea ambient lighting. It changes metering based on reflectance of a scene, even if lighting hasn't changed. Anyone who has studied photography will tell you that measuring reflectance is not as reliable as ambient reading.

Ultimately I am not expecting you to change your very rigid views but it would be nice if you could realise there are many ways to achieve the same thing. And different does not necessarily mean wrong.

I do realise there are many ways of achieving a great photograph and I am sure some of the best images in recent history have been taken on auto and everything including compacts. But if one is to seek the highest level of photography and achieve truely consistent results, they will employ a manual method of shooting, and rely on themselves and their own skills, as oppossed to trusting a machine. A truely good photographer will make himself responsible for the end result, instead of blaming the camera when metering is off. A camera is unable to meter perfectly everytime, and it will NEVER be capable of doing so. But, I do respect your point of view, and not taking my comments to heart.

As you can tell I am very passionate about doing things right and truely endorse the manual approach to photography if one cares to seek improvement in their skills and results. I've said enough, and thanks for reading all. I do hope it may help some of you.

Kris

best wishes

Richard
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see italic bold reply
 
You will pump gas to eat or take pictures to eat. I have been eating reasonably well for 38 years now and don't pump gas.
The pictures come first....always...how you get them is up to the photographer how they are used is up to the editor. An editor couldn't give a fig about what camera or lens you use so long as there's a picture he can use.
If you know what you are doing you will eat well if you don't then...............
Giving a bells and singing auto every thing camera to someone does not make a photographer let alone a picture.
There are times when parading about with 3 dslrs will get you killed when a small Leica under your coat would not even if it is noticed.

Bugger the cameras, show some respect and humanity to those you are photographing
 
There is no method of 'metering' that will give you perfect tones in every wavelength on every picture. It is always a compromise between what medium you are using and the luminosity of your subject.

If all you have to worry about in your photography is 'perfect metering' then I wish you well.
 
Some 'Nikon speak' on their 3D Color matrix Metering System ... simple really! 😛

Matrix metering evaluates multiple segments of a scene to determine the best exposure by essentially splitting the scene into sections, evaluating either 420-segments or 1,005 segments, depending on the Nikon D-SLR in use.

The 3D Color Matrix Meter II takes into account the scene's contrast and brightness, the subject's distance (via a D- or G-type NIKKOR lens), the color of the subject within the scene and RGB color values in every section of the scene. 3D Color Matrix Metering II also uses special exposure-evaluation algorithms, optimized for digital imaging, that detect highlight areas. The meter then accesses a database of over 30,000 actual images to determine the best exposure for the scene. Once the camera receives the scene data, its powerful microcomputer and the database work together to provide the finest automatic exposure control available
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Damned near infalable on the one Nikon DSLR I've owned and I've read the F6 is almost impossible to fool also.

But anyway ... back to bashing Leica! 😀
 
JSU said:
Same is true for me, at least, with either my Minolta Auto Meter II or IV-F. I will trust an incident meter before I trust any TTL meter. But experience has allowed me to also trust the meters in my D3 & M8.2.

The TTL meters for the Nikon D3 and Leica M8.2 (& M6) are only a reference to the level of light in the scene, as is an incident meter. If a photographer doesn't analyze the meter reading, either prior to the shot on film or on the LCD histogram after the shot on digital then he is just rolling the dice and crossing his fingers.

There will always be the situations that allow but one, and only one, image as in the decisive moment that is gone the instant after the shutter is released. No histogram reading there will save an image poorly exposed due to strong back or sidelight.
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As with the Boy Scout motto ' Be prepared' if you are a pro and know you may encounter such situations.
As somebody on this forum asked " Which camera would you take into a conflict zone " and my experience says As many as as I think I'm going to need ( Most certainly more than one) and one more for 'just in case'.
 
for the record (again i believe), i worked on two m8's day in day out for almost two years. once the original "bump in the road" was cleared they both behaved without a single hiccup. -20? no problem. 40 plus desert? no problem. caught out in the open during a torrential downpour in jeans, t-shirt and m8? not a problem with the camera.
 
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