Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/05/17

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] Shocking: MM images do not look like film!
From: benedenia at gmail.com (Marty Deveney)
Date: Thu, 17 May 2012 19:42:56 +0930
References: <CAF8hL-HMQJAf+-BRWJST7YenJq5teiAJkRo5p=S-vFBYOSn97A@mail.gmail.com> <023701cd3361$0d25fc90$2771f5b0$@earthlink.net> <CABmfTOUweEbDXw7w_FrFg_nJ44hetoFcy0-+ODXZX6Y9HLgUpw@mail.gmail.com> <CAFuU78cH+dgDcXU21VBP93Z-fskeiOM7VsLun2c3hdKWGigj0g@mail.gmail.com> <CABmfTOU1=BFv9X23RJacgWNB2GN3gGK=pGSbROER1vdagQ9xpg@mail.gmail.com>

Here: 
7159638082_0e772d923c_z.jpg<http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7084/7159638082_0e772d923c_z.jpg>
is
the same sensor's spectral sensitivity curve without a colour filter array.

Marty


On Thu, May 17, 2012 at 7:40 PM, Marty Deveney <benedenia at gmail.com> 
wrote:

> On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 6:06 PM, Marty Deveney <benedenia at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > It does - the sensitivity curves of the CCD are very different to film
> (any
> > film).
>
> On Thu, May 17, 2012 at 1:12 PM, Lew Schwartz <lew1716 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Is there a graphic of this anywhere?
>
>
> I saw some graphs at my local dealer, but can't find them on the web.
>  There is a graph for another sensor in this post:
> 7159637852_f17f2f07df.jpg<http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7220/7159637852_f17f2f07df.jpg>
>  at
> RFF that looks generally similar.  Also note that the currently available
> cameras are all pre-production and Leica has told beta testers that
> spectral response and its interpretation by the firmware is one of the
> things that will be tweaked prior to full production.
>
>
>> I most obvious & consistent thing
>> I've noticed in my M9 -> BW conversions is that faces seem to fall a
>> zone or two lower than I'm accustomed to seeing from film.
>
>
> How are you converting?  Channel mixing or dumping the colour data?  If
> you do the latter the skin tones do end up too dark, but they did the same
> if you tried to print colour media onto B&W paper back in the day.  I find
> with proper channel mixing or an intelligent conversion program like SE Pro
> that my skin tones end up exactly where I want them.
>
>
>> There's an amazing amount of shadow detail to make up for this, so a
>> little
>> dodging looks terrific.
>
>
> One of the things I am reminded of every time I use B&W film is that
> getting enough shadow contrast (contrast, not detail) to keep me happy, and
> balancing that with sharpness and overall tonality, is hard.  One reason
> I've resisted using digital more widely is that I only shoot in monochrome
> and I've spent 2 decades (half my life) getting it right.  I am painfully
> aware that the problem with digital is still highlight rendition and
> gradation, and when converting a digital file to B&W I have always felt
> like I did when I first went into a darkroom - it works incredibly well
> sometimes, but I don't know why, and much of the rest of the time it ends
> up looking either only okay, or awful.
>
> It is now time; some of my last batches of film that I took overseas got
> damaged by x-rays, so it's time at least for travel to go to silicon, not
> silver capture.
>
> Marty
>


In reply to: Message from richard at richardmanphoto.com (Richard Man) ([Leica] Shocking: MM images do not look like film!)
Message from red735i at earthlink.net (Frank Filippone) ([Leica] Shocking: MM images do not look like film!)
Message from benedenia at gmail.com (Marty Deveney) ([Leica] Shocking: MM images do not look like film!)
Message from lew1716 at gmail.com (Lew Schwartz) ([Leica] Shocking: MM images do not look like film!)
Message from benedenia at gmail.com (Marty Deveney) ([Leica] Shocking: MM images do not look like film!)