And he is the only one. Leica, Sean Reid and others state clearly that it is not the SL sensor but a newly developed one.
He's the only one, alright
😉
Erwin Puts is one of the last great independent voices, not in anyone's pocket. Not worried who will send him a camera. He has forgot more about Leica than Sean Reid will ever know. Compared to Puts' extensive work in testing optics, Reid and Lloyd are hobbyists. Based on his writing he knows far more about digital imaging than they do.
He might be wrong. Some day we will know. Meanwhile, going by track record, objectivity, and experience, there is a good chance he is fundamentally right, if impolitic. He is not prone to making things up. Or, refreshingly, regurgitating corporate marketing.
But on the actual performance he basically agrees with reports from the more tender, modern "reviews", and Leica: the M10 is a little better than the SL and a lot better than the 240 in ISO performance. M246 is better by far than both, but we know why.
New sensor or better implemented SL sensor, the M10 is a very solid step forward where it really counts. Low Light.
I did not think they would manage it, so hat's off. There seems to have been lots of work on the OOC image profile and the lens profiles as well. It's going to be fun to see the new M in the real world with all the great LTM/M glass
🙂
PS Puts on this very issue, again
"Before the basic substrate are located a number of layers: Bayer pattern, IR filter, optionally a low pass filter and coupled to the sensor are the CMOS read out and the A/D converter that integrates with the DSP processor, the Maestro-II in case of Leica. To improve the light gathering capacity of the pixel, an array of specifically shaped microlenses is used in every case. This is not specific for the Leica designed sensors, but common practice.....
The complicated and often highly integrated and also the many separated elements that make up the full architecture make it quite difficult to say that one specific sensor is is or is not different from another one.
The remark that the filter layer and the shape of the microlenses of the sensor in the M10 have been (again) optimized for the use of Leica M lenses has not much information value. Such an optimization has been the case for every Leica digital M since the M8 and DMR R8- module. It would be only informative when the differences are specified in detail. These changes (in whatever extent and magnitude) do not imply that the rest of the sensor architecture is or is not identical to another one...
Depending on how one person assesses the magnitude of the differences in architecture, one may say that (to be specific) the sensor in the M10 is or is not identical with the sensor in the SL. After all, the sensor in the Q and SL have been claimed as the same or as improved, whatever this means. The upshot is that it is the result that counts. "
My own understanding, which I would be happy to have corrected, is that Leica has never designed any sensor, or any part of any sensor. They have chosen sensors and parts which were already in existence. If somebody can show me a Leica sensor, microlens, or glass patent, I'd love to see it. The fundamental difference between a FF Leica today and a Sony or Canon sensor is simply the coverglass and filter stack which is chosen. Only Leica asks the IR cut to be directly glued to the sensor surface as a "cover glass". This is so the very steep ray angles of light from short register RF lenses are disrupted as little as possible. They choose the type of IR cut, i.e. Schott S8612 or BG 55 and its thickness. Everybody else places the IR cut and AA etc above a much harder clear coverglass, which is about .7mm thick, in a holder or holders, called a "filter stack". In the case of Sony A7 this amounts to an additional 1.9mm of IR and other types of glass, which is where the "smearing" comes from.
Of course, this does not mean Leica could not choose a fundamentally new design of sensor, as they did from M9 to M240, or a new CMOS configuration. These are commodities, however, and big changes are usually pretty obvious, like the Sony FF BSI 42 MP sensor. That is a huge change from A7r. Truly a whole new sensor--and well advanced from the M10 objectively, I would wager. Hence the A7rii can shoot 4K without overheating, as could the M10 with the Sony r2 sensor. With a thin IR coverglass the Sony would do just as well with RF wides, I would also wager.
What's the big secret? If M10 is really such a change, why not just tell us the basics, like Sony? Unless the mystery is more impressive, as Puts implies
😉
But all that is just corporate and human nature. Again the M10 is a great camera, and seems to have a very good sensor, and lots of other aspects superior to any Sony. Not many care it is less mp than Sony or cannot shoot video.
Let not the perfect be the enemy of the good.
🙂
Kai does M10:
https://youtu.be/wNqgivM7-7M