[Leica] Leica technofoolery: 75mm Summicron for portrait; M8 ISO-1250 performance with Lightroom 2 versus 3-beta raw processing

[jbm at jbm.org (Jeff Moore)]

Recently there've been discussions of the 75mm APO-Summicron-M ASPH,
discussions of Ms at high ISOs, and discussions of the new Lightroom-3 beta.

Here it all is together, for your pixel-peeping pleasure.

This is a picture I left out of the public gallery for this event because,
well, I wasn't sure the lady in it would be particularly glad to have it up
there.  So let's not tell her about this, shall we?  It makes an interesting
technical sample.  The two pictures begin here:

  
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jbm/scratch/jbm-20091025-m8b-016-proc1-capP-outS.jpg.html

Both versions received nominally-identical capture sharpening (the Lightroom
"Sharpen - Portraits" preset) and output sharpening (Lightroom "sharpen for
screen").  One (as noted in the caption and indicated in the filename) was
processed in Lightroom 3 Beta using its new (Lightroom-3/Process Version 2)
raw-image pipeline at its default noise-reduction settings (Color 25, Edge
Detail 50); the other was also done in the LR3 beta, but using the older
(Lightroom-2/Process Version 1, presumably the same as ACR-5.5 in Photoshop)
pipeline at its default setting.

I can put up versions with no capture or output sharpening if there's a 
clamor
for them, but they just looked fuzzy to me.

Oh, and if you notice those round blobs on the right side -- I think they're
the out-of-focus rendering of some schmutz on a glass door in the background.

See what you think.  Here are direct links to the 1:1-pixel crops:

  
http://gallery.leica-users.org/d/187880-1/jbm-20091025-m8b-016-proc1-capP-outS.jpg

  
http://gallery.leica-users.org/d/187883-1/jbm-20091025-m8b-016-proc2-capP-outS.jpg

I'm thinking:

  - The M8 can look damned good at ISO 1250 (which, remember, is the same
    actual sensitivity Canon calls ISO 1600 in the EOS-5D, per dpreview.com)

  - The new pipeline definitely reduces the appearance of noise in solid 
areas
    (are we getting a virtually-free extra half-stop of apparent
    noiselessness?), but I haven't quite made up my mind what the cost is in
    apparent sharpness.  And I haven't yet gotten near trying to get a feel
    for the new-pipeline noise reduction controls.

Enjoy.

 -Jeff