[Leica] IMG: My Leica is better than your cell phone

[pklein at threshinc.com (Peter Klein)]

A friend took some photos of me with his cellphone at a party I was 
shooting with my M8. The light was a combination of tungsten and 
cloudy-dull window light.
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/friends/Davidov30/IMG00028-20100619-2032.jpg.html>
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/friends/Davidov30/IMG00029-20100619-2035.jpg.html>

And I shot him as he shot me.
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/friends/Davidov30/L1006540-w-1.JPG.html>
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/friends/Davidov30/L1006542-w-1.JPG.html>

Sorry, folks, no contest.

Size does matter, up to a point, that point being determined by the size 
you want to print and display, the amount of light available, and 
whether all you care about is recognizable photos of your friends, or 
something more.

All the talk about "crop circles" has a point, but I think that decent 
1.5x (APS) and 1.33x (M8) crop sensors and a good, fast lens can give us 
plenty of quality in normal room light. So can Micro 4/3 if you don't 
crop. A cell phone or a small-sensor P&S really can't.

Put those cameras out in bright sunlight, and some of the differences go 
away, at 4x6 print or Web size.  But for much bigger display, and in 
anything but bright light, the P&S and cell phones don't cut it.  The 
gap between a cell phone or P&S and the M8 is huge. The gap between the 
M8 and M9 is small, but significant, and gets more significant as 
available dark gets darker. The gap between the M9 and say, a D700 is 
big--I'd say bigger than the one between the M8 and the M9, but only 
matters in the worst light.

--Peter