[Leica] M8 update and a few observations

[heninger at adobe.com (Wade Heninger)]

When update 1.92 came out a few weeks ago, I was very happy with the
improvements in the camera's color files.  Previous to that update, I'd
really not liked the color coming directly from the camera, and it required
a lot of tweaking to get it right.  This was independent of the, ahem,
somewhat erratic AWB options.

I do think mostly in B/W, but I have a color streak there in my head at
times and I wasn't happy with the M8 in that one regard.

Well, the 1.92 firmware really made a huge difference to my eye. The images
were much better and LR handled them as it did the B/W conversions - quick
and easy.  A recent color set I posted was my first major oeuvre working in
that style with the M8 and happily it won't be the last.

Well last week I quickly updated to 1.102 when it came out - the last update
had been great for me and the promised stuff in this was also attractive.  I
loaded it quickly and shot a few happy snaps.  Didn't get around to really
look at the files to see what I'd gotten.

Yesterday I got back into the ballet studio where I'm doing a project and
opted for a higher ISO than normal.  Usually I stick it on 640 as I have
found that a great compromise for speed/noise - especially in this setting.

So I set it on 1250, where my results in the past have been mostly
unattractive to my eye - previously I saw lots of banding.  The noise never
bothers me in B/W but that banding really made it an unworkable ISO for me.

Well post 1.102, that has changed as well.  I had heard that higher ISOs had
been improved, but was stunned to see that the 1250 stuff I was getting
rivaled the previous work at 640.

Nice.  I'm very happy with the work Leica is doing to improve the camera.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
w a d e  h e n i n g e r
u s e r  e x p e r i e n c e
a d o b e  s y s t e m s ,  i n c