Leica Pre-loved MM

[Peter Klein]

A friend of mine is selling his MM (original version Monochrom) to upgrade to the M246. Good price, a bit less than what they go for on the well-known auction site. I think we're both happy not to have to deal with shipping and an unknown person on the other end. I'm going to check it out tonight. Unless I see evidence of sensor delamination, I'm going to happily join the cult. I'm sure Brian will approve.

I'm an M8 shooter since 2007, and shot film Leicas for several (ahem) decades before that, so I mostly know the drill. Is there anything special I should look out for re. the MM?

Any first-time tips for the MM newbie? In particular, what do people set the exposure compensation to to avoid hitting the blown highlight "ceiling" inadvertently? As a reference, I usually keep my M8 on -0.3, and may go down to -0.7 or lower with bright sunny reflections.

As the villain says in the bad spy movie: "I've waited a long time for this."

--Peter

 

[Brian]

Treat it like a film camera loaded with Black and White for filters, I use the Y52 Nikon filter on the 10.5cm F2.5, Orange filter on the Sonnars, and Red- when i want dramatic skies. Red filters: I dial in a +2/3 ev as the "electric eye" (exposure meter) sees things a bit differently than the CCD.

I like Lightroom.

I also like the Sandisk 8GByte, 4x SD cards for a clean image. I get very good results at ISO10000 and ISO5000. "My other camera is a Df"- just for comparison.

And whatever you do: Do not point your friend to the Erwin Puts review of the M246. In all fairness- Erwin Puts uses lighting for all of his tests that are going to favor a CCD with a 14-bit image.

 

[Peter Klein]

Thanks, Brian! When you say 4x, is that the same thing as Class 4, or 4 MB/sec?, or is 4x using a different scale? Right now I have:

- Several old 2 GB Sandisk Extreme III cards, speed unmarked, that I suspect are Class 6 (plain SD)
- An old Sandisk Ultra II that is Class 4, and distinctly slower than the above (plain SD)
- A couple of Sandisk Extreme 4 GB cards marked Class 10 / 30 MB/sec (SDHC). Thse are what I've been using in my M8 recently.
- A Transcend 4GB Class 10 (SDHC).

A class 10 / UHS 3 32GB Transcend card is dedicated to my Olympus OM-D E-M5, which would I'm sure be overkill on the MM. It downloads to the computer *very* fast.

So what's best to use that I now have? And if you could point me to the cards you currently use, I'm sure I can pick them up somewhere. Is this what you use?
SanDisk 8GB Class 4 SD Card - Walmart.com

Thanks!
--Peter

 

[Brian]

Yes- "Class 4"- I would try the Ultra II first.

The Sandisk "SDHC" 8GByte "Class 4" (little circle with a 4 in it) cards that I use were ~$8. I do not trust Transcend: one "fried" in my M9. I will double check and post the type.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FM5E1EY/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Found them- and bought some more. I also learned that putting way too many pictures on a huge SD card is like "all your eggs in one basket".