Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/01/28

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Subject: [Leica] First M8 experience
From: firkin at ncable.net.au (Alastair Firkin)
Date: Sun Jan 28 00:20:18 2007
References: <1270AE4C-2F0B-4798-ACC7-D813C25D1890@spectare.com> <0AED6ED3-3133-4980-ABF2-A19353B9FCA5@comcast.net> <8F4B9D9A-96A9-4E1F-B3F4-7763C9C714FE@spectare.com> <A41910F0-643B-48EA-83CC-7D9551162202@comcast.net> <98E87B9B-ACC6-4B62-920D-F61C60416D00@spectare.com>

Well the Leica looks sharper: the colours are not easy to judge: to  
be honest, I like the look of the Leica colours, but it they are not  
the real thing, that may be an issue. The canons are good, but their  
rendition of colour is not necessarily correct. Send the M8 back, and  
have it checked as Ted suggested. If you want to do more daylight  
tests, you will have to include some standard colour charts etc and  
make definitive colour readings to be certain. Remember our eyes are  
tricked sometimes as well.

Cheers
On 28/01/2007, at 17:25, Jim Laurel wrote:

> Len,
> Thanks for taking a look.  It's not a white balance issue.  I  
> played around with the M8 raw image quite a bit today and just  
> could not get it to look right.  The color on the house and  
> foreground plants is definitely shifted.
>
> To view originals on Twango, while  you are looking at the photo on  
> the media page, click on the photo itself.  That will take you to a  
> page that allows you to see the various sizes, including the  
> original.  Here is the link for the M8 shot:
>
> http://www.twango.com/original.aspx? 
> channelname=jim.public&media=jim.12552&size=original
>
> Now look at the same scene, shot with the EOS 1Ds:
>
> http://www.twango.com/original.aspx? 
> channelname=jim.public&media=jim.12553&size=original
>
> Thanks again for your input.
>
> --Jim
>
>
> On Jan 27, 2007, at 7:22 PM, Leonard Taupier wrote:
>
>> Hi Jim,
>>
>> I can't click anything to make the image bigger. At that small  
>> size I can't see the magenta plants or the fringing. What I did  
>> though was copy the picture and looked at it in PS2 to see what I  
>> could. I bumped the image size up a little to get a better look.  
>> It appears the WB is warmer on the leica shot. I clicked auto  
>> color and it then looked pretty close to the Canon image. That's  
>> as far as I can take it. The auto WB isn't the greatest and I've  
>> seen consecutive shots of the same thing change WB. Pretty strange  
>> and not what I get from my Nikon or Canon DSLR. I'm generally  
>> happy with the camera but hope firmware improvements are  
>> forthcoming. If you want to send me a test file directly via e- 
>> mail I'll be happy to look at it. I'm certainly not an expert at  
>> this, just trying to help out.  My e-mail is len-1@comcast.net
>>
>> Len
>>
>>
>> On Jan 27, 2007, at 9:38 PM, Jim Laurel wrote:
>>
>>> So here's a dumb test shot, taken this morning right outside my  
>>> front door.
>>>
>>> Here's the shot from the Canon EOS1DS.  Natural color, as I have  
>>> come to expect from this camera.  No problems here.
>>> http://www.twango.com/media/jim.public/jim.12553?sort=5
>>>
>>> Here's the shot from the leica.  Wow!  Disneyland!  Notice how  
>>> many of the plants in the foreground have gone magenta.  And if  
>>> you click through to the larger image, notice all the color  
>>> fringing in the high contrast areas:
>>> http://www.twango.com/media/jim.public/jim.12552?sort=5
>>>
>>> Some people are emailing me and saying that they have not had any  
>>> trouble like this in several weeks of using the camera, even with  
>>> no IR filters.  Have I got a bad one?  Because it is completely  
>>> unusable as it is.
>>>
>>> --Jim
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jan 27, 2007, at 11:43 AM, Leonard Taupier wrote:
>>>
>>>> Jim,
>>>>
>>>> You need the IR filter, big time. Every condition you mention is  
>>>> the absolute worst case for IR interference. I don't believe  
>>>> lens coding corrects anything and will continue to believe so  
>>>> until someone can prove different. I was lucky. I already had a  
>>>> hot mirror IR filter and a couple step up rings before I bought  
>>>> my M8. The without filter results are as you describe. I would  
>>>> suggest getting one filter from somewhere and redo the test  
>>>> before you give up the ship. Don't wait for Leica to send you  
>>>> one but buy one filter (if you can find your size in stock) and  
>>>> run the same test. If after you do that and you're still not  
>>>> happy then the M8 isn't for you.  (BTW, none of my posted M8  
>>>> pictures used a filter).
>>>>
>>>> Good luck with whatever you decide.
>>>> Len
>>>>
>>>> On Jan 27, 2007, at 1:43 PM, Jim Laurel wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Well, despite my better judgement and the sage advice of some  
>>>>> here, B.D. not least, I decided to purchase an M8.
>>>>>
>>>>> My experience so far has not been encouraging.  I seem to be  
>>>>> experiencing every M8 foible in the book in tests with my  
>>>>> Summicron 28 ASPH mounted.  Shooting last night under tungsten  
>>>>> light, people with navy blue shirts came out MAGENTA.  Color  
>>>>> balance is unpredictable, rendering the jpg mode essentially  
>>>>> useless.  Test shots outdoors in high contrast scenes exhibit  
>>>>> the most unbelievable chromatic fringing.
>>>>>
>>>>> Perhaps I should reserve my opinion until I get my lenses coded  
>>>>> and the IR filters in place (I don't have either yet), but side  
>>>>> by side comparisons with my Canon 1Ds are no comparison.  The  
>>>>> M8 photos are indeed show better resolution, but who cares when  
>>>>> high contrast areas have such overwhelming purple fringing?   
>>>>> The 1Ds photos aren't as crisp, but you can sharpen them up and  
>>>>> at least the colors look natural and your photo doesn't look  
>>>>> like someone drew all over it with a red marker.
>>>>>
>>>>> For those of you who are using the IR filters and have your  
>>>>> lenses coded, please tell me that this camera is actually  
>>>>> usable with those things in place.  Otherwise, it looks like  
>>>>> eBay time...
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers - Jim Laurel
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> 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
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
> _______________________________________________
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In reply to: Message from jplaurel at spectare.com (Jim Laurel) ([Leica] First M8 experience)
Message from len-1 at comcast.net (Leonard Taupier) ([Leica] First M8 experience)
Message from jplaurel at spectare.com (Jim Laurel) ([Leica] First M8 experience)
Message from len-1 at comcast.net (Leonard Taupier) ([Leica] First M8 experience)
Message from jplaurel at spectare.com (Jim Laurel) ([Leica] First M8 experience)