N.delaRua
Well-known
Wow, what a spectacular weekend I had. Went to my gf's brothers wedding in Gloucester, MA on the coast of the Atlantic. Spectacular place...
While there I was given a 5DmII with a 28-70 L and a 50 f/1.4 to help shoot the wedding. I actually left the M6 at home, but as both of these camera are or have been workhorses for wedding photographers, I thought it might be interesting to share some of my thoughts.
First, a 5DmII with a 24-70 L is freaking heavy especially with a flash. Its uncomfortably heavy and large, and I found it distracting. The viewfinder is not that bright with this lens either. I switched to the 50 because that's all I shoot on the Leica and was instantly more comfortable with the camera. A 5d with a 50 is a nice combo, really nice. I didn't find the 50 tack sharp wide open (seemed like it suffered from some spherical aberrations), but it is quite nice because it "softness" is perfect for women in natural light (dreamy in the imperfect sort of way). I shot it stopped down at 2.0 or 2.2 most of the time with great results (also because I think my summicron has proven to me that 2.0 with a 50 is the perfect amount of DOF for portraits).
The major setback for me was the UI. The meter was over exposing every once in a while because the subjects were in the shadows, but the background was not. I switched to manual, and could change shutter speeds but not aperture. This drove me nuts... I turned and pressed everything and still could not figure it out. Next I tried aperture priority and attempted to set a -1 EV. To do this it takes two hands and taking your eye from the viewfinder, but even after doing so the exposure did not change (I checked by metering on the same thing, no shutter speed change, the histogram looked the same too... maybe it was I could not tell). Most buttons have two functions dependent on what command wheel is turned while the button is pressed. A nice way to lessen the button count, but I was stumped a couple of times with this camera. In thirty minutes I was comfortable in aperture priority mode, but never figured out manual mode.
Other than the UI, I had no problems jumping head first with this camera. Its easy to see how someone could carve out a career with this camera along with a few lenses and a flash. The autofocus was awesome with the flash indoors and no light. Blew me away because I could barely see through the viewfinder and had to guess a lot with respect to composition because it was so hard to see.
Some other observations, the RAW files are huge (like 28 mb a piece!), I don't like the shutter button (its just too vague and I thought the stroke was pretty long), and the skin tones did not always look great on the LCD (sure this could be fixed in post).
It seems like a camera more setup to shoot in nearly total automated mode i.e. evaluative metering, autofocus, and program. Those are the settings where it got out of the way most of all.
When I was taking portraits, I wish I had the M6. Its so much more compact and easier to lock in exposure and just focus on compositions. There is nothing like an OVF with a red dot that says shoot away! DSLR viewfinders are cluttered.
The M6 is so much less intimidating than a 5d with a 24-70 L (which I ditched right away)... Its just too big. For group shots and action, it would be humanely impossible to compete with the 5D unless I had a wide angle,scale focused, and a big honking flash.
Fun experience... In summary, great camera, tough as nails, too heavy, needs a more intuitive UI, and with smaller lenses very balanced. If I was working with a camera to put food on my table, I would not hesitate to get one, but for my life the M6 does what I need.
I will share some photos when I get the files...
What I really took away from this experience, is that I could shoot digital like my film camera if I really tried i.e. one lens and a body. Makes my lust for a X100s increase even more because I was constantly looking for a shutter speed and aperture dial.
While there I was given a 5DmII with a 28-70 L and a 50 f/1.4 to help shoot the wedding. I actually left the M6 at home, but as both of these camera are or have been workhorses for wedding photographers, I thought it might be interesting to share some of my thoughts.
First, a 5DmII with a 24-70 L is freaking heavy especially with a flash. Its uncomfortably heavy and large, and I found it distracting. The viewfinder is not that bright with this lens either. I switched to the 50 because that's all I shoot on the Leica and was instantly more comfortable with the camera. A 5d with a 50 is a nice combo, really nice. I didn't find the 50 tack sharp wide open (seemed like it suffered from some spherical aberrations), but it is quite nice because it "softness" is perfect for women in natural light (dreamy in the imperfect sort of way). I shot it stopped down at 2.0 or 2.2 most of the time with great results (also because I think my summicron has proven to me that 2.0 with a 50 is the perfect amount of DOF for portraits).
The major setback for me was the UI. The meter was over exposing every once in a while because the subjects were in the shadows, but the background was not. I switched to manual, and could change shutter speeds but not aperture. This drove me nuts... I turned and pressed everything and still could not figure it out. Next I tried aperture priority and attempted to set a -1 EV. To do this it takes two hands and taking your eye from the viewfinder, but even after doing so the exposure did not change (I checked by metering on the same thing, no shutter speed change, the histogram looked the same too... maybe it was I could not tell). Most buttons have two functions dependent on what command wheel is turned while the button is pressed. A nice way to lessen the button count, but I was stumped a couple of times with this camera. In thirty minutes I was comfortable in aperture priority mode, but never figured out manual mode.
Other than the UI, I had no problems jumping head first with this camera. Its easy to see how someone could carve out a career with this camera along with a few lenses and a flash. The autofocus was awesome with the flash indoors and no light. Blew me away because I could barely see through the viewfinder and had to guess a lot with respect to composition because it was so hard to see.
Some other observations, the RAW files are huge (like 28 mb a piece!), I don't like the shutter button (its just too vague and I thought the stroke was pretty long), and the skin tones did not always look great on the LCD (sure this could be fixed in post).
It seems like a camera more setup to shoot in nearly total automated mode i.e. evaluative metering, autofocus, and program. Those are the settings where it got out of the way most of all.
When I was taking portraits, I wish I had the M6. Its so much more compact and easier to lock in exposure and just focus on compositions. There is nothing like an OVF with a red dot that says shoot away! DSLR viewfinders are cluttered.
The M6 is so much less intimidating than a 5d with a 24-70 L (which I ditched right away)... Its just too big. For group shots and action, it would be humanely impossible to compete with the 5D unless I had a wide angle,scale focused, and a big honking flash.
Fun experience... In summary, great camera, tough as nails, too heavy, needs a more intuitive UI, and with smaller lenses very balanced. If I was working with a camera to put food on my table, I would not hesitate to get one, but for my life the M6 does what I need.
I will share some photos when I get the files...
What I really took away from this experience, is that I could shoot digital like my film camera if I really tried i.e. one lens and a body. Makes my lust for a X100s increase even more because I was constantly looking for a shutter speed and aperture dial.
