The reddish skin rendering may make you believe this was shot with a Leica M240, but she was in fact sitting in front of a large illuminated red sign.
So now I know how to achieve the M240 look, with respect to skin tones anyway.
However, I don’t know how to produce the muddy rendering of the CMOS-crippled Leica M240, as all I can get out of my Leica M9/M-E are those lovely CCD crisp files with superior tonality and colour reproduction, at base ISO.
For those of you who haven’t already done so, perhaps you may be interested in signing My Open Letter to Leica.
(over 280 signatures so far…)
—Peter.
Prosophos 
While I agree with your preference for the CCD sensor and have signed your open letter (I believe I even helped you with the idea to write one) I’m not sure about the need to return to the issue so often. It just seems such a waste to show beautiful personal pictures only to use them as a springboard to discuss your (our) views on the sensor issue. Your pictures deserve to be about better and more important things than the differences between two kinds of sensor technologies.
Hi Pieter, and thanks for the comments. By way of clarification, the first person to suggest I write an open letter to Leica did so via personal communication. He contacted me after the poll I was conducting was corrupted by a malicious individual.
My personal blog is where I express my images and my views. I realize I’ve been beating this topic for a while, but it’s one I feel strongly about, and I believe my images help convince others of my perspective.
—Peter.
Hi Pieter,
in many other issues I am of the same opinion- you can flog something to death!
But not in this case!
I was in a Leica store in germany last year and ready to buy a Leica M240 and give up my M9-but they offered me too less money for the M9. The salesman looked into my eyes and asked me: ” Why do you want to sell the M9 – the images are better and more natural than those of the M 240!” Wow-really? This was the beginning of a comparing and really I am so happy that I still have my M9! And here Peter with his blog opened my eyes more and I am also thankful to him!
Pieter, look at flickr and compare the photos shot with M9 and M 240: for me the M 240 looks more sterile, colder-ok ISO and some improvements like better battery etc. ..but for me in the end the result -nothing else matters!
With passion and love-and that is what Peter is doing, you can´t be quiet about the subjects they touch you deeply!
So I think you are not in this emotion-this is ok, but your criticism is de trop in my opinion and leads to nothing!
Peter shares with us a part of his family-life and with this, something of his heart and soul! The photos generate/create emotions and for me and a lot of other viewers the photos taken with M9/M-E evoke a more emotions and I am also thankful to Peter for the “eye-opener” of the MF like the M 67.
In the end: for me you can´t talk enough about this issue that CCD and with that warmer colours, more natural images and more happiness can survive!
Just my opinion!
Perhaps Peter can compare the same image section, taken with his M9/M-E and lend a M 240 and even his M 67! This will speak for itsself! If this would be reality, your criticism would have been profit!! 🙂
Andreas
Thanks Andreas.
well peter, i will have an m240 on the weekend of october 10th. going to do an extensive comparison with my m9 and the a7 with the same glas. i am looking forward to this, specially as my lightroom editing skill have progressed since i had my last m240 a year ago.
I sincerely wish you well… and look forward to your findings. I’ve owned two M240s, and just couldn’t tame the colour (skin tones).
Hey southern Man,
I am really looking forward to this! A fine thing would be at first a comparison with no manipulation( postprocessing) resp. out of the camera and than with best trial with pp! A lot of spare time and good luck! 🙂
Andreas
You know if you open up those M240 files in Capture One they are a lovely pinkish or yellowish tone. However, using Lightroom the M240 is not so nice.
Hi Marlon. I’ve yet to see a consistent set of M240 images where the colour signature, especially in relation to skin tones, isn’t “off”. Some photographers must indeed be using Capture One, but the results remain wonky. And let’s not even discuss tonality and micro contrast…
I have to agree, I borrowed a M240 and although I liked having an extra stop and video (perhaps I can understand no live view but fail to see why you can’t have video with a CCD (i’m sure my old compact was CCD and had video) real manual lenses are a must for video and as the Leica has those not sure why they should not be utilised. Not that I’m a big video guy, but sometimes it suits the situation. Anyhow back to the topic in hand, keep plugging, the 240 looked artificial where as the CCD looks natural. What do people think about 14 or 16 MP CCD to gather more light and improve by a stop.
I’ve been using the M8 alongside my M-E/M9 lately, with only 10MP, and it’s been suiting me just fine… so, I have no issues with a 14MP or 16MP CCD sensor. However, I would bet the newest CCD technology would allow for more pixels, and improved light gathering ability.
Probably true as original sensor dates back to 2006, the M8/9 has a 6.8um pixel size, Trusense talk about a newer 6um (same size as M240, so therefore 24MP) and a 30% increase in resolution, but do not really go into light gathering details, their other pixel size seems to be a 9um which compares to Sony A7S 8.44. It would be great to see what each of those options could produce.