Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2013/03/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I use fast cards in all the cameras; at the moment class 10 cards seem to be the optimum as far as price/cost goes. I tried faster cards, but the difference was miniscule. Class 6 cards are now no less expensive than Class 10, but are definitely slower in various cameras. I should also mention that I agree with much of what Steve Huff said. I'm hardly a fan of his and his style, but he has got most things right. To counter some of his over the top enthusiasm, I should mention a couple of gripes I have with the new camera. 1. It's too big. It has gotten heavier and a millimeter thicker. Not much, but bigger again than the film M's. The general excuse is that the sensor/LCD/control pack needs the additional thickness. Yes it does, but all that means is that the distance from the lens flange to the LCD has to be greater than the distance of the lens flange to the back of the film cameras. Why not have the lens flange more exposed? Have it stick forward a couple of millimeters and have the camera body the same size as an M2-6(pre-TTL)? Obviously the larger battery has to go somewhere, but it is packaged back to back with the SD card, so if it's just the battery, it could fit in the thickness of an M4. I know it's probably stuffed full, but let's work a little on miniaturization. Take a look at an RX-1; that has a body that's a lot smaller than an M2. After all that I have to say that using it for 30 minutes makes it disappear into your hands, and you notice neither the thickness nor the weight particularly. 2. Exposure compensation doesn't work well. Now you have to hold in the button on the front where the rewind lever was on film Leicas, and turn the thumb wheel, all while holding the camera to your eye. Contortionists in the crowd? The M9 could do this with just the rear wheel; much easier. For those that say they never used exposure compensation and they often accidentally moved the M9 dial, I say why not make this an option. Also make the use of the movie button an option. I'm not going to use this for movies, so repurpose it. This should be fixable via firmware. 3. The new shutter release threads, about which I've written before. 4. The electronic viewfinder (I got hold of a used Olympus one) while quite sharp and with decent colour, is _really_ laggy. A lot different than essentially the same viewfinder in the Olympus OM-D. It's useable, but certainly not state of the art. That they should have gotten right, as that is technology that has been available for a while. I doubt this is fixable via firmware. However, there is a slight upside to this. It means that for longer lenses, using magnified view doesn't cause as bad jitters due to lack of stabilization as with a faster refresh. Of course, that also means that the refresh for focussing isn't any faster than 30fps. Regarding image quality, I'm with Steve Huff also. It has amazing quality, and while different than that of the M9, I would definitely say that the new M is better. I profile all my cameras with a Colorchecker Passport, so I get consistent output from all cameras, and I'm not dependent on Adobe's profiles. The new M handles a much bigger dynamic range, and doesn't produce nastiness in blown highlights. In fact, highlights seem to roll off as well as on the Olympus OM-D, and that is high praise. In other respects of course the M image quality is a lot higher than that of the OM-D. Wide angle lenses behave better than on the M9, and even the 12mm Cosina is useable again. Henning On 2013-03-13, at 10:05 AM, "Jim Nichols" <jhnichols at lighttube.net> wrote: > Hi Henning, > > Owning neither the M8 nor M9, I'm just a casual observer. However, from > what I have read, wait times can be card dependent. Are you using the > fastest cards available for the M9? > > Jim Nichols > Tullahoma, TN USA > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Henning Wulff" <henningw at > archiphoto.com> > To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org> > Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2013 11:59 AM > Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica M240 > > >> I sometimes shoot 7 shots in 15 seconds, all single shot. Then I get to >> wait, and if the next good moment comes up 5 seconds after the last >> shot??? It's just a slow camera. >> >> Henning >> >> >> On 2013-03-12, at 1:59 PM, John McMaster <john at mcmaster.co.nz> wrote: >> >>> That does not sound right, as (what I call) single shots I have never >>> hit the buffer. If you mean 'many' (about 7 or 8) shots in 4 secsonds on >>> single shot mode that is different... >>> >>> john >>> ________________________________________ >>> on behalf of Henning Wulff [henningw at archiphoto.com] >>> >>> >>> I would say that that major improvement in the new M is the speed. I >>> never have to wait for the camera, as I do with the M9. If I do single >>> shots, which is 99% of the time, I really can't outshoot it, whereas the >>> M9 often required me to wait 30 seconds until the buffer cleared, which >>> is a long time. Reviewing shots is also much faster. >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Leica Users Group. >>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>> >> >> >> Henning Wulff >> henningw at archiphoto.com >> >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > Henning Wulff henningw at archiphoto.com