Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2014/01/27

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Subject: [Leica] Monochrom high iso test
From: leica at jayburleson.com (Jay Burleson)
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 20:52:23 -0800

I am more apt to follow Ted's advice and just go out and shoot, but 
enough interest has been raised here and on other forums for me to 
undertake this absolutely non-scientific test.
There has been some chatter about deliberately underexposing the M9 at a 
lower iso and then pushing the exposure in post to get better noise 
results, and questions have been asked, since the Monochrom shares the 
same base sensor as the M9, if that would work with it.

The answer is yes and no.
It is doable, but (to my eye), there is no appreciable reason to do it. 
There is a slight (approx. 1/4 stop) gain in the highlight side of the 
histogram, but the overall noise is the same, and when fully processed, 
no real differences.
It does demonstrate how much detail is available in the Monochrom 
shadows; a 5 stop push on the underexposed image was just fine.

#2171: iso 10000, -.3 stop exposure compensation, no other Lightroom 
adjustments.

#2172: iso 1250, -.3 stop exposure compensation, + 3 stops exposure 
added in Lightroom.

#2171A: Additional post processing in Lightroom to look correct (in my 
opinion).

#2172A: Additional post processing in Lightroom to look correct (in my 
opinion).

The images are here:

http://jayburleson.com/leica/misc_images/mm_iso_test/
-- 
Jay,

Jay Burleson Gallery <http://jayburleson.com/leica/gallery/index.php/>
"Being a Leica customer is like dating the most beautiful girl in the 
world...
who cares more about herself than you... but, you keep calling her back 
anyway...
because the sex is so good... most of the time." (RickLeica on LUF)


Replies: Reply from richard at richardmanphoto.com (Richard Man) ([Leica] Monochrom high iso test)