Leica Showcase Leica M Monochrom

How did we ever survive by pushing Tri-X to just 1600? Sometimes I wonder about Digital.

ISO 5000 with the M Monochrom.

by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

ISO 10000 with the M Monochrom.

by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

On the name- as long as the M Monochrom name is stored in the DNG files as the camera type, I will continue to call it that. The M246 stores the 246 in the DNG file, I'll take another look at it with the HEX edirot so I get it exact.

"reading in between the lines" on the lead time for the KAF-18500 sensor at On Semi- I think they are revising it. The lead time is longer than normal, "could be" a rev level change coming.
 
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Got out for a while earlier today
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Love the second photo of the woman walking past the sign.
 
Asia thanks and Duane I have no desire to upgrade from the original MM to the new one. I shoot at 1600 and 3200 all the time. If you can swing it and i've seen some good deals on ebay on the original MM and if you shoot a lot of B&W and need low light capabilities then the MM. Brian posted some sample of how clean the MM is at high ISO.
 
Me, not too worried of the high iso capabilities of the (ol') MM, the noise signature I like and can live with 3200 and 5000. The M-E and (ol') MM is a solid combo. Of course if got the chance to get the new ones, why not. :blush:
 
ISO 5000 on the old MM is noisy, but like many others have said, its a noise signature that I like. I usually shoot at either ISO 320 or 2500+, depends on whether I'm in a Pan F or a Tri-X mood.
 
Asia thanks and Duane I have no desire to upgrade from the original MM to the new one. I shoot at 1600 and 3200 all the time. If you can swing it and i've seen some good deals on ebay on the original MM and if you shoot a lot of B&W and need low light capabilities then the MM. Brian posted some sample of how clean the MM is at high ISO.

Thanks for the comments. I've been following all of you on the different forums and of have been observing your work with the MM am quite sure it would fill my requirements. I just have to figure out what to do.

I'm sure I'll get an offer from Leica to upgrade my M-E to the M240 for $3,500. But the lowest I've seen the MM on the used market is over $4k. Not ready to make the big decision yet but I have plenty of hotel time while I travel to contemplate.
 
Just got the monochrom and getting the hang of it... feels so familiar (M9, M8) yet produces results so different. Not exactly the sports camera but hey.. its one time to try it out until I actually get some "me" time.

All shot with 90mm Summarit.

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Add a 135/3.5 Nikkor or Canon to the lineup, with a 1.25x finder...

Thanks, I'll have to try one of those out. I used to have the Leica bug-eye 135mm Elmarit and couldn't really get a sharp image out of it. Could be that it needed calibration. It didn't pack very well, so I never really used it.
 
I recently started messing around with red filters on both my MP and MM, so far I really like the effect it has on clouds (particularly in comparison to the orange and yellow filters). The only down side to the red filters is having to adjust exposure by 2-3 stops to compensate. I read somewhere that a red filter helps smooth out skin tones on men (vs. yellow filters smoothing out skin tones on women) but I haven't tried that yet. Just this week I received a 77mm red filter for my 18mm SEM, now I have red filters for all of my lenses.
 
Aren't there focus shifts with red filters as well? I own one in 39mm, but honestly haven't tried it yet. I tend to shoot with orange outdoors in daylight, and yellow anywhere and anytime else unless I desperately need the extra stop of light in available darkness, in which case I'll go filterless. The effects rarely matter much in a low key image anyway.
 
I also got a red filter, still sealed though, haven't had the chance to break it in, the MM is still not with me. I put a yellow on my 90mm Summarit as a default instead of a clear UV. In the meantime, I am enjoying the thread. :crying:
 
I need to do some tests to see if the red filter causes some sort of focus shift. I can see how it would with optics that have a lot of CA that spreads the focus across a range- using the red filter would tighten things up. But- people report shifts on APO lenses. This would mean the filter acts as a lens, has a weak diopter factor. I have a full-spectrum camera and an Ultra-Achromatic lens that is corrected from UV through to IR. Will try a test, there should be no focus shift with any of the filters.
 
Usually when I'm shooting something with a red filter it is for a specific effect and the scene usually has a lot of sky and I am usually shooting at f/8 or even smaller aperture so a very larger DoF.

Anything like a filter that you put on the front of a lens is going to effect focus in some I would imagine.
 
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