Portrait.

Inspiration, Leica M Type 240, Portrait, Q&A, Teaching point, Voigtländer 40mm f/1.4 Nokton

This is an image, of course, but it’s also a test shot.  I’m trying to tackle and tame the shortcomings of the CMOS sensor.

My brief experience with the D800E confirmed for me that “CMOS is CMOS” when it comes to trying to pull out shadow detail (or getting micro-contrast, or getting good skin tones)… i.e., as of April 2014, it’s not as good as CCD, whether we’re talking Nikon or Leica.

Surprisingly, the D800E also made me appreciate the M240 more.

However, going forward I’m going to give the technical stuff a rest and start concentrating on photography again.

And as I go along I hopefully will be able to reduce the time it took to get this image to where I wanted it to be.

—Peter.

Portrait

↑Leica M240 and Voigtländer Nokton 40mm @ f/1.4.

14 thoughts on “Portrait.”

  1. Leonardo's avatar

    I’m glad to know you are back to the red dot brand. D800E + Otus is a very intrusive setup that does not match with your style.
    I hope you can find your “confort zone” with the M240.

    1. Peter | Prosophos's avatar

      With regards to not being intrusive, the quiet whisper of the M240 shutter is something to behold. That much I remembered, and looked forward to, after moving away from the D800E.

      Thanks for the encouraging comment Leonardo.

  3. Duane Pandorf's avatar

    Morning Peter, I’ve refrained from commenting on your recent hardware escapades and as I know its a very personal matter. Now that you’re back to the M have you ever used or considered using the Passport Colorchecker to make profiles for your camera?

    I’ve thought of buying one to help with my M-E. The quiet shutter and ISO are the only two improvements I would consider for reasons to upgrade in my situation. I can only imagine what the D800’s shutter noise sounds like.

    1. Peter | Prosophos's avatar

      As I recall, you did comment Duane, and do not worry, it’s not a personal matter or else I wouldn’t be discussing it on the site.

      I’ve never considered the Passport product because, if you look carefully at my images, I’ve never fretted about “correct” colour, just “pleasing” colour. For that, I rely on my own eye.

      So far, I haven’t been able to get a CMOS sensor to produce something with respect to colour that I 100% like, even though in theory it should be possible.

  4. thomasveyre92's avatar

    So you had kept the M240! I thought you sold it… I must say that, if can find the money, I am very tempted by the M240 : it does not have a CCD sensor, but the shutter is so much quieter than the M9, and this is very important to me – actually, it is supposed ti be the signature of a Leica camera, isn’t?. Apart from what you said about image quality, what is your feeling in terms of pleasantness of use of the M240?

    http://www.thomasveyre.wordpress.com

    1. Chris D's avatar

      I’d like to reply to Thomas if I may. I have both the M9 & M. M9 has the look that I have not been able to completely replicate with the M. For some reason, I find the ability of the M to pull out shadow detail much easier than the M9, contradicting Peter’s assertion. I’ve been slightly overexposing my files and bringing back highlight detail in post. The first time I processed an M9 raw file and tried to open up my shadows, I was met with banding and lots of noise, and I only tried to open the shadows maybe 1/2 stop, if that much. I find the M files, to be more forgiving than the M9 raws in that regard. The M screen is much much more refined, which puts my mind at-ease when a client needs to view an image while shooting. It’s quieter in operation and much faster if need be. Much better battery life. I use the live view a lot when shooting a commercial project. I also feel that I have less focus-misses with the M. Don’t know if the rangefinder is different, but I have noticed this. Other posters have also commented on the accurate-focus issue with the M. I have the multi-function grip, and use tethering quite a bit, and the “grip” portion on the right-side of the mf-grip helps my large hands grasp the M more securely. Also use at-times, the EVF. For static subjects I find the EVF to be extremely accurate, especially focusing a portrait close-in with the lens wide-open. The EVF slows down the camera quite a bit, and I feel that I can focus moving subjects quickly using just the rangefinder. In spite of what some have said on-line, having the grip and the EVF doesn’t make the camera unwieldy large. To me it still feels like an M. I like the GPS function only in-that when I synchronize my M, with M9 and my Canon files, I use the M as my time-standard because of the accurate GPS time-stamp. A small issue until you try to merge files from 3 or 4 different cameras. I greatly enjoy shooting with both cameras and when I need to use any of my Canon bodies, I much prefer to return to either the M9 and especially the M. If you really need to decide for yourself, (if in the US.) rent an M body from Lensrentasl.com http://www.lensrentals.com/rent/leica/cameras/leica-m-typ-240 Hope this input helps.

      1. Marlon Richardson's avatar

        I re-read what I wrote. It sounded colder than I intended. In short, I just wanted to recommend the above technique to help with dealing with these new sensors. It’s really hard to go from CCD to CMOS or vice versa. Going from a Phase One back to a DSLR is losing me hair right now.

  6. samchoo's avatar

    Looks like the Otus + D800E – “Homework By The Fading Light, Part 2.” seems more pleasing, to my eye. I mean both the color and shadow details.

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