M9?

OMG, just got my new M9 and took a few test shots. I'm in heaven.

Unpacking is turbo apple in presentation.

A real manual!!!

Menus simple and easy.

Shutter? Soft and discreet is awesome.

Hit my focus with RF and my glasses. (diopter coming).

Maybe in the end I will curse it, but for now it's teenage love/lust 🙂

Hmmm, was this instead of the A7 or together with the A7?
 
OMG, just got my new M9 and took a few test shots. I'm in heaven.

Unpacking is turbo apple in presentation.

A real manual!!!

Menus simple and easy.

Shutter? Soft and discreet is awesome.

Hit my focus with RF and my glasses. (diopter coming).

Maybe in the end I will curse it, but for now it's teenage love/lust 🙂


I told you so!
The M9 rules.
 
Hmmm, was this instead of the A7 or together with the A7?
LOL well without A7 I would not have got the M9, because it got me used to a bigger camera. And course M9 was benchmark to compare lens performance with---I have a decent RF selection I was using in backcountry with 5n.

I will use both A7 and M9, I think they are very good, complimentary pair. The A7r I found very impractical, since it is crazy picky with glass--but excellent with native stuff. I sent that one back.

A7 is totally different camera as far as images are concerned, and very lens friendly compared to R. But I love 18-21-28-35 FOVs and I came to conclusion M9 just rules in that range. Since I already had the glass, I just bit the bullet.

Here are my first real shots with it:

L1000078 by unoh7, on Flickr


L1000072 by unoh7, on Flickr


L1000056-2 by unoh7, on Flickr


L1000063 by unoh7, on Flickr
all with 28 cron, as you can see it's overcast.

What I learned today: when the shutter light is flashing, you forgot to take off lens cap, and framing 28mm is not easy with glasses.

anyway, I'm not in the league of most of the regular M9 shooters, obviously, but so far I love the camera.
 
LOL well without A7 I would not have got the M9, because it got me used to a bigger camera. And course M9 was benchmark to compare lens performance with---I have a decent RF selection I was using in backcountry with 5n.

I will use both A7 and M9, I think they are very good, complimentary pair. The A7r I found very impractical, since it is crazy picky with glass--but excellent with native stuff. I sent that one back.

A7 is totally different camera as far as images are concerned, and very lens friendly compared to R. But I love 18-21-28-35 FOVs and I came to conclusion M9 just rules in that range. Since I already had the glass, I just bit the bullet.

.......

What I learned today: when the shutter light is flashing, you forgot to take off lens cap, and framing 28mm is not easy with glasses.

anyway, I'm not in the league of most of the regular M9 shooters, obviously, but so far I love the camera.

You have quite a bit of leeway in both the right and left side of the histogram to bring out more in all three of these photographs. I don't know what application you're using to process your files and I assume you've shot these in DNG Uncompressed RAW?

DNG Compressed is lossy and works out to around an 18mb file compared to the DNG Uncompressed file around 36mb.

The last three photographs I've posted on my blog may give you an idea on how much the shadows and highlights can be pushed and pulled.

I manage and edit with the latest version of Lightroom.
 
You have quite a bit of leeway in both the right and left side of the histogram to bring out more in all three of these photographs. I don't know what application you're using to process your files and I assume you've shot these in DNG Uncompressed RAW?

DNG Compressed is lossy and works out to around an 18mb file compared to the DNG Uncompressed file around 36mb.

The last three photographs I've posted on my blog may give you an idea on how much the shadows and highlights can be pushed and pulled.

I manage and edit with the latest version of Lightroom.

TY Duane

I very much appreciate the input.

These are uncompressed, latest version of LR, with the blacks pulled up a bit on some but not all the shots.

It was a dark day, and I was kind of taken by the darkness of the bridge. 🙂

Here I pushed everything:

L1000063-3 by unoh7, on Flickr

Here an indoor shot an hour before:

L1000043 by unoh7, on Flickr

and my own black dog:

L1000068 by unoh7, on Flickr
 
Broke Down

Broke Down

Well, after months (perhaps years) of heming and hawing I broke down today and ordered a M9 from Ken Hansen. I traded a mint M6 leaving me a 1958 M2 and a much more recent Leica R6.2 for 35mm film.

I finally made the plunge and the deciding factor was my five M mount lenses. Guess I know what will accompany me RTW this summer.
 
congrats on the decision! being invested in M lenses tends to drive me to stay in M bodies, whether digi or film. may you enjoy the M9 as much as I do!
 
Well, after months (perhaps years) of heming and hawing I broke down today and ordered a M9 from Ken Hansen. I traded a mint M6 leaving me a 1958 M2 and a much more recent Leica R6.2 for 35mm film.

I finally made the plunge and the deciding factor was my five M mount lenses. Guess I know what will accompany me RTW this summer.

And, based on Mike Johnston's theory espoused on The Online Photographer in his very entertaining 'Letter to George', you have now immediately saved yourself the expense of an X-Pro 1 and three lenses, an A7, just for M mount, but soon a couple of lenses there too, and trying any number of ultimately not up to the mark machines, after which you would still have bought the M9 anyway. Well done.
 
And, based on Mike Johnston's theory espoused on The Online Photographer in his very entertaining 'Letter to George', you have now immediately saved yourself the expense of an X-Pro 1 and three lenses, an A7, just for M mount, but soon a couple of lenses there too, and trying any number of ultimately not up to the mark machines, after which you would still have bought the M9 anyway. Well done.
The M9 rules the day, but the A7 rules the night 🙂

M9 28 Cron:

L1000490 by unoh7, on Flickr

A7 35/1.2

DSC06572 by unoh7, on Flickr

🙂 Really a dream pair of cameras.
 
Actually, the M9 gives wonderful color at night and makes a good high-ISO camera if you use the technique of Shooting at ISO 640 and pushing in Lightroom 4/5. You shoot try it.

—Mitch/Chiang Mai
Tristes Tropiques [Direct download link for 46 MB PDF file]

I've been shooting it at night quite a bit:

L1000475 by unoh7, on Flickr


L1000471 by unoh7, on Flickr

CV 50/1.1 on M9
In the hands of a master it can do some good things I'm sure, but compared to shooting the Sony A7 with the fast CV glass, it's not close in handling, focusing or image results---that's my opinion only, but not given without trying pretty hard.

I do love the M9 at night because it is so distinctive, and it can produce really spectacular stuff. But you have to give the devil it's due, the Sony Plain A7 with superspeed MF glass is a new benchmark for lowlight work.

With lots of light the M9 is way better. I think they are really great mates.

as to pushing from lower Iso I've tried it, and maybe it's better than starting at high iso, but you don't what a big push means till you've seen a sony raw from the A7. You can move them in all sorts of ways just not remotely possible with the older M9 files.
 
Should have the camera tomorrow. Ken Hansen is great to deal with (as are Tamarkin and Classic Connection). Funny, after 40 years I finally developed my first roll of TriX at home and bought an enlarger so then I go and buy an M9. Believe it or not, my computer is acting weird and got dropped off yesterday for repair.

And, I just got a blad back from consignment. As I have said before there are just too many choices. I think my favorite rig is still a M2 from 1958 with 35mm lens.

As others have said "It is all good."
 
Just Got It

Just Got It

I just opened the box from Ken Hansen. The camera is gorgeous and looks brand new. It had just come back from Leica so every thing is to new factory spec.

Ken was a delight to deal with. Now, I need to get my pc out of the shop.:bang:
 
M9 Question

M9 Question

So, I go into the menu on the M9 to set the lens manually. I see 50f2 11817 and 50f2 11831 11825 and11816. I have the latest version of the 50 cron(built in hood) and cannot find the five digit number anywhere on the lens. What setting do I use and what do the numbers mean?
 
The number is only on the latest lenses, e.g. 11606 for the 28 2.8 ASPH. It's at 6 o'clock beneath the lens and not painted but just engraved. It might be there on yours if it's the latest Summicron. Anyway, for your Summicron, pick the one with the multiple number codes as the last three Summicrons are all optically the same.
 
It's all a bit arbitrary. I just code for the nearest thing and often when I forget it doesn't matter. They don't seem to have a separate code for the 50 Elmar M, but an f2.8 50 it hardly matters the difference between the new and the old. Here's my coding. The only one I've done any sort of test for is the ZM C Sonnar where the ASPH Summilux is what I've chosen, although any Summilux is pretty similar.

ZM 18 21 2.8 Elmarit
ZM 21 4.5. 21 2.8 Elmarit
ZM 25 2.8 24 Elmar
VC 25 the same (problematic if I don't remember which lens I used)
ZM 35 2.8 35 Summicron ASPH (seems to suit and then differentiated from my Summicron)

I used to set up my Zeiss lenses as profiles, especially when I always wanted ISO 160 and DNG + JPEG with the 21 for instance. Last sensor clean they put the latest firmware on and I haven't been bothered to set up the profiles again. Also since I got the Monochrom I am mainly using my Leica lenses, two coded, 28 and 90, and two 50s.

The most important coding for me is for the slow 21 and for the Zeiss C Sonnar, maybe.
 
Those of you that are using older Leica lenses or third party lenses that require using a lens code that doesn't match your lens and you use Lightroom to catalog your images I found the Lenstagger plugin essential. It allows you to change your lens info in the metadata so you can really keep track of lens was really used.
 
Back
Top Bottom