M9 LCD review for wider than 50mm

[Richard G]

Like many I was very disoriented by the image quality of the M9's LCD, finding it impossible to reliably check focus. It seemed like a woeful shortcoming, a major demerit for the camera. After a year or so I couldn't quite work out what the fuss was about. It seemed to be fine enough. But that was because I was mostly using 50mm lenses. Recently I spent a day and an evening with my version 4 35 Summicron. I was in a panic. Every shot when I zoomed in on a detail looked blurred. Had I bumped the camera or was the mount of the lens unscrewing again, or was this finally the dreaded front section separation of version 4 legend? None of the above. It's just the wider field of view of the 35 I suspect. All the shots once imported were fine. Maybe the testing of the LCD was with a 50 and seemed adequate. For 35 it does not do as good a job in my hands. That was the first lens I was using on this camera. For wider lenses than 35 checking focus is almost not relevant. I'm interested to know if others have found this 50mm/35mm focal length difference in M9 image review LCD image quality.

 

[robbeiflex]

Same here, but I switched to using the DNG + B&W jpeg mode, as the LCD then shows you the B&W as preview. The B&W preview, in my opinion, makes it much easier to judge focus accuracy.

 

[jaapv]

The camera interpolates the highest resolution of the LCD resulting in blurred details. The best focus checking (or least bad, rather) is when you pull back one step in zooming in.

 

[robbeiflex]

^Good point Jaap. I had a feeling the second closest zoom setting was more accurate than full zoomed in, and now I know why.

 

[Richard G]

I agree that the final zoom is no use. My point is whether users only find difficulty checking focus with a 35, and find the second zoom, say, works well enough with a 50. I do remember having trouble with my son's rowing crew at a distance with the 90, come to think of it. It's small detail focus I can't check. Maybe the M9 LCD is a Capa-goad, forcing me to get close enough and I've cracked it only with the 50, so far.