Leica M9 Lens Detection

The Leica M9 can recognize lenses and apply in-camera adjustments to the photo. For this to work, you need lenses with the proper encoding. This encoding is a set of black and white 'dots' on the lens that the camera can detect (basically a binary system). Older lenses don't have this system, so you can set the lens type manually in the camera menu.

If you're using non-Leica lenses (e.g. Zeiss), you can set the lens detection by hand in the menu system. Unfortunately, Leica only implemented a list with Leica lenses. No third party lenses are available, so you need to be creative.

Needed a Telelens

This morning I went for a little walk around town. Just a bit too late for a nice sunrise, but that didn't spoil the 'fun'. Took some nice photos in my 'backyard' @ Groot Heidestein.

On the way back, I heard and saw some woodpeckers in the trees (about 30-40 ft away), and it was the first time I missed a serious big-ass telelens for my M9..... Thankfully, I only have that 'urge' once or twice every year or so. So no need to invest big money in something I almost never use. I could drag my D300 with 70-200 f/2.8 with a 1.7TC and a tripod along for the ride, but I'm afraid that my back might start to complain.

I guess that life is all about priorities.

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Willem and filed under Leica M9, Photography.

The Leica M, and Will I Get One?

Leica MLeica announced the new Leica M rangefinder camera earlier this week. It wasn't named the M10, but just M. The new rangefinder will have:

24Mpix CMOS sensor
Better ISO performance
Live-view with focus peaking
Movie-mode (max. 1080p@25fps)
Better dynamic range
Bigger and better LCD screen
Leica R Lens compatible (with optional adapter)
Optional Electronic Viewfinder
Optional Grip with extra features (external flash, power, usb, etc.)

The price will be around the original M9 pricing (€6800), and available in the beginning of 2013. The price is a steep figure compared to other (dSLR) camera's, but that shouldn't be a surprise. In hindsight, the price is lower what the rumors predicted (around €8000).

Will I want one? Sure, but not before the camera is on the market for at least a year, so that the firmware has matured, and all the annoyances/bugs are fully documented.

With the purchase of a new Leica M, I fear that I have to sell my Nikon gear (along with the current M9 off-course). This is more of a sentimental issue, since I hardly use the Nikon anyway. I use my M9 >95% of the time.

So keep an eye on this blog, to see if I'm really gonna get me a Leica M within the next two years (or so).

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Willem and filed under Leica M, Photography and tagged M M10.

Leica M9 @ Night

Last Tuesday was initially the first time I took my M9 out at night. I've no idea why this didn't happen any sooner..... As you all know, the M9 isn't famous for its high-ISO performance. Basically anything over ISO 800 is really grainy (I prefer the term grainy over noise, since I convert most of my photos into black and white).

I went out with the M9, the 50mm Summilux, Carl Zeiss 28mm f/2.8, and my tripod and below are some of the results.

Carl Zeiss and Leica 50mm Lens Comparisson

When I got the Leica M9, the Leica Summilux 50mm was nowhere to found. So, at the time, I 'settled' for the Carl Zeiss (CZ) C Sonnar 1.5/50mm ZM lens instead, and entered the world of the Leica waiting-list.

A couple of weeks back I got the call that the latest version of the Summilux was available, and so I bought it. Up till now, I have both the Leica and the CZ 50mm version. The CZ version hasn't been used since (and has been put up for sale this weekend).

Two weeks ago, I decided to put the CZ and Leica lens next to each other in a small (non scientific) comparison. The settings were the following:

ISO 160
Auto white balance
Aperture priority
All photos taken with a cable release

The following samples first show the entire (smaller) image. You can click the image to see the full size JPEG (clean export from Adobe Lightroom with default settings). After that, there's a 100% (left-top-ccorner) crop and a 100% center crop.

Samples are given for the following apertures: 1.4/1.5, 2, 2.8, and 4 (the ZIP files at the end contain all the files till f/16). The Carl Zeiss lens first, followed by the Leica lens, and so on.....