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So far, after 125 votes, I’m surprised to see the overwhelming majority of you do want a CCD sensor in a future Leica M.

(By the way, you may still vote.)

Most of the internet fora discussions would have you believe that opinion is evenly split, or perhaps favours the new Leica M(240) and its CMOS sensor.

I know that the sample size of this poll is extremely small, and there may be selection bias at play (i.e., those who follow this blog may be biased towards favouring CCD sensors) — which makes the results tenuous at best — but the results are intriguing.

Perhaps things will equalize as more votes are cast.

—Peter.

As most of you know, I’ve been very vocal about my preference for CCD vs. CMOS sensors…

• Leica M9 vs. M240
• M240: More Thoughts
• Leica M240: Final Verdict
• Leica M9 sharpness vs. Sony RX1R, Nikon D800E, Fuji X100s

…but it looks like the Leica M9/M-E and Monochrom are the end-of-the-line models for 36 x 24mm CCD sensor technology.

Nonetheless, I thought it would be fun to conduct a poll about this, here on Prosophos.com.

Essentially, I’d like to know whether YOU would like to see Leica bring back a new CCD sensor in a future M camera, optimized with whatever current technology exists.

Please vote and voice your opinion, but remember this is just for fun.

—Peter.

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I was surprised to see that above is still the most popular post on Prosophos.com, given I posted it three months ago.

Leica M9 vs. M240

Yes my friends, I guess the CCD vs. CMOS sensor debate rages on… for many.

Not for me though.

—Peter.

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Related posts:

M240: More Thoughts

Leica M240: Final Verdict

Leica M9 sharpness vs. Sony RX1R, Nikon D800E, Fuji X100s

Recently, I asked the question:  How large a print can you make from a Leica M9 file?

For my purposes (portraiture and simple element scenes), the answer turns out to be 36 x 24 inches:

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I thought about this some more, and realized that it would be interesting to see how much of a magnification over the Leica M9 sensor those prints above represent.  If you want to skip the math below, the answer turns out to be 645!

Here’s the math:

The Leica contains a so-called “full frame” sensor that is exactly 36 x 24 mm in size (that’s where the 36 x 24 comes from).

The area of this sensor

= 36 x 24 mm

= 864 mm²

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The prints I made were 36 x 24 inches.

In the equivalent (metric) mm, this translates to

= 914 x 609.6 mm

=557, 174.4 mm²

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The magnification of print-over-sensor area, therefore

= 557,174.4/864

= 645

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This is remarkable when you think about it.  The digital sensor (about the size of a stamp — remember those?) produces an image which is then magnified 645 times to produce the prints you see above.

Proportionally, this is what is going on:

All of the above underscores the importance of technique, lens quality, etc., when photographing with the aim of producing large prints: any “error” will be magnified 645 times!

Of course, you always have the option of turning to the much larger and more forgiving medium format sensors, but that’s another story…

—Peter.

The website Dpreview, the “original” internet hangout for camera geeks and enthusiasts, has a useful studio scene comparison tool that allows one to pit camera against camera.   I was using it today to compare Sony‘s new RX1R (the new AA filter-less version of the RX1) vs. the old trusty Leica M9.  For fun, I also included two current cameras that have generated much enthusiast interest: the Fuji X100s and the Nikon D800E (admittedly, the Fuji X100s is the only camera of the bunch that doesn’t use a full frame sensor, so it’s sort of the oddball in this sensor grouping but, to me, it’s relevant as a portable and formidable photographic tool).

Here is the overall studio scene, as seen on Dpreview:

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And here are the (left) side 100% crops of the above scene, from each camera, focusing on the label of the Martini bottle (see the red arrow above):

(please click on this image to view at MAXIMUM size and sharpness)

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(Note: the crops above vary in size, depending on the megapixel count of each sensor.)

See anything, possibly unexpected here, regarding sharpness?

Finally, here are the centre 100% crops , focusing on the Queen of Hearts card in the original scene:

(please click on this image to view at MAXIMUM size and sharpness)

Using the Dpreview comparison tool, one can obviously pick and choose other portions of the scene to make comparisons about sharpness, texture rendering, etc.  I’ve chosen two areas that I believe are representative of lens sharpness performance (corner vs. central) with respect to these cameras (the feathers in the far right of the scene are also worth checking out).

—Peter.

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If you haven’t already done so, please consider signing my open letter to Leica.

___

Related posts:

• About the M240… the image quality is a step down.
• The M9 and CCD sensor.
• Leica M9 vs. M240
• M240: More Thoughts
• Leica M240: Final Verdict
• My camera of the year for 2013

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Something happened this week that compelled me to write this.

A well-known Leica guru and ambassador published a review of the Leica M240 and — unsurprisingly — praised most things about it: the new features, the new CMOS sensor, and (gasp!) even the EVF add-on.

The thing is, as I was looking at his sample images, my honest reaction was:  his previous Leica M9 photographs looked better.

My visitor statistics on Prosophos.com tell me one of my more popular posts this year is:  M240: More Thoughts.   Moreover, if I type the search “Leica M240 vs CCD” on Google, that same post and my Leica M240: Final Verdict post are currently the top two search results.   In fact, any combination of the search terms “Leica M240/CMOS vs. M9/CCD” on Google will yield one of my posts on either page 1 or 2.

I realized all this today, and wondered:  Why?

My best guess is that many of you see what I see, that the Leica M9 beats the M240 in the only thing that counts: image quality.

And no amount of cheer-leading for the latest and greatest will change that.

So I’ll keep photographing with my antiquated M9 until the successor to the M240 arrives.  And when that happens, if Leica sticks with a CMOS sensor (which they most certainly will), hopefully they’ll have enough sense to strike a deal with Sony.

—Peter.

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If you haven’t already done so, please consider signing my open letter to Leica.

___

Related posts:

• About the M240… the image quality is a step down.
• The M9 and CCD sensor.
• Leica M9 vs. M240
• M240: More Thoughts
• Leica M240: Final Verdict
• Leica M9 sharpness vs. Sony RX1R, Nikon D800E, Fuji X100s
• My camera of the year for 2013

I photograph to remember

I photograph to forget

I photograph to see

I photograph to disappear

I photograph to celebrate

I photograph to mourn

I photograph to share

I photograph to be selfish

I photograph to be

Me

—Peter.