My honest review about Leica M-E / M9

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iammine

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Hey RFF mates!

I just published yesterday my honest - i mean i'm not just saying "WOWWW" - review of the Leica M-E i bought this november.
All the pics are shot with a Voigtlander 35mm 2.5 screw mount first version. Still i'm not sure if this M-E will take the role of my beloved Ricoh GR. :confused:

Here is the link if you want to have a look:

https://itsalwaysluck.wordpress.com/2017/01/12/streetcamera-review-leica-m-e-or-m9/

Peace,

Giorgio
 
Great review, great pics. They make me want to go out and shoot with whatever camera I have at hand. Thanks.
 
faberryman said:
Maxes out at ISO 800? Good grief.
Click to expand...

I own M-E just slightly longer and I'm totally agree with OP opinion in review. For pictures like his. He likes saturated colours and I'm totally agree, best color pictures are upto 800 and 1000 is already too high if it is in color and picture needs to be sharp and noise free. To me ISO 640 is the maximin.
BW is diffrent, to me street is bw only, and M-E just gives me what I like in bw at 1600-2500. :)
 
I sold my Ricoh GR and bought a new M-E. I ended up selling the M-E to buy a Ricoh GR. The M-E/M9 takes great photos, but there is something about it that is not right.
 
A very good review and lovely photographs. My suspicion is you will stick with it. Marvellous light you have there. That one of the four people in dappled shade and many of the beach shots are terrific.
 
Landberg said:
I sold my Ricoh GR and bought a new M-E. I ended up selling the M-E to buy a Ricoh GR. The M-E/M9 takes great photos, but there is something about it that is not right.
Click to expand...

That's why there's all the choices we have. I'm certain for others, there'd be something about a Ricoh GR that would be not right.
 
Somewhere data is published that shows the ME/M9 raw files' analog signal-to-noise ratios are significantly lower above ISO 640. At higher ISOs these cameras switch to a DC signal amplifier with higher gain. This increases the read noise level.

This does not necessarily mean all images at higher ISOs are unusable.

It means raw files at ISO 640 pushed to increase global brightness will have better shadow region IQ compared to raw files recorded at higher ISOs that don't require a global increase in 'exposure' during post production. The shadow region IQ in pushed ISO 640 images will be better because the signal-to-noise ratio is better.
 
Great review.
Leica digital are not even close to Film "M"'s!
Continually new models but as yet not able to do simple JPEG.
Digital is about speed of delivery!
RAW is stupid to one like me, who did News and PJ work.
Dev. and printing at high speed, while a major newspaper,
HELD the presses as my pix were sent via Landline(before Internet).
Raw film to dried image under 5-mins.
Prints on Stabilizer paper, at 1" (2.5cm.) per second.
Time for a set of prints under 35mins.
I shoot JPEG and go straight to a monitor in Lab.
Prints in minutes..
 
Enjoyed the review and your pics, especially your pragmatic "in use" perspective.

+1 lovely light - you use it well!

Have you considered the Q?
 
Giorgio - I like the colors that you get with the M-E. Congratulations. However, I don't agree with the implication that the M-S/M9 cameras are not good for low-light or night photography, which is implicit in your statement that you'd better not go above ISO 800 at night.

There is a technique whereby you shoot at ISO 640 and expose at the slowest shutter speed and largest aperture that you want use, and then "push" the Exposure slider in Lightroom. Jim Kasson has tested the M9 starting at ISO and compared the image at each successive ISO to the same scene shot at ISO 160 that was pushed to each successive ISO in Lightroom. The result was that up to ISO 640 the image shot in these two ways looked the same — but after ISO 640 the image pushed in Lightroom looked substantially better. The are numerous threads on this method on the web, including Jim Kasson's blog, which shows graphs of the results.

Using this "shoot at ISO 640 and push in Lightroom method", you'll see nothing useful on the camera LCD but it works well and you don't have to worry about getting the "right exposure" in difficult metering situations. It's worth trying. Also, one reason this works in Lightroom is the way it renders using "Process 2012"; other processing software could work differently.

Below are some examples of using this method and pushing 2.4 and 2.5 stops. Pushing ISO 640 2.5 stops is equivalent to shooting at ISO 3840. I've used this method successfully pushing up to 3 stops to an effective ISO of 5,120, as well pushing as much as 4 stops a few times.


Leica M9P | Elmarit-21 ASPH | ISO 640 pushed 2.4 stops | f/2.8 | 1/60 sec

Bangkok



Leica M9P | Summilux-50 pre- ASPH | ISO 640 pushed 2.5 stops | f/2.8 | 1/160 sec

Bangkok



Leica M9P | Summicron-28 | ISO 640 pushed 2.4 stops | f/2.8 | 1/60 sec

Bangkok

_______________
Alone in Bangkok essay on BURN Magazine
 
Hey RFF's mates, first of all thank you for all the positive vibes about my review. I'm really glad that most of you appreciated it.

@Landberg: I can understand your choice. Maybe i will do the same. Who knows! GR is unbeatable if you do real street ph.

@Willie_901: Thank you mate for your insight. I noticed that shooting above 800 (eg 1000) was worse than shooting 800 and then pulling exposure in lightroom. You are now saying me that 640 is the "best" iso value to stop at. Thank you, i will try this definetely.

@leicapixie: I agree that JPEGs from M9 are not ok. There are lot of cameras capable of very good OOC's JPEG. Which one are you using nowadays?

@MCTuomey: I've tried the Q, and considered it. I'd like to give a try when i will catch a good second hand...

@nowhereman: Thank you mate for your precious info. BTW, if i have to be totally honest talking about this iso-pull, i don't like the rendition of the pics you show, especially from the third (look all that red on the lateral parts of the frame). Maybe it would work well for b&w, but colors rendition loose a lot. Just my 2 cents.
 
Nowerman, your pictures are lovely, but for me the noise in the shadows is too strong. It just goes to show that we all have very difference tollerance tresholds for this kind of stuff.


Giorgio- BEAUTIFUL pictures!
 
@ray*j*gun: Ricoh GR and GR II are the same cameras except for wi-fi capability. Lens and sensor are the same ;)

@froyd:Thank you. I agree, Nowerman pics are beautiful, and probably tollerance is a very subjective stuff. BTW essay "Alone in Bangkok" looks beautiful in BW ;)
 
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