Tips and Techniques
The Leica M10-R
Sep 3, 2020 By Jonathan Slack
The lifecycle of Leica M cameras has led us to expect a Monochrom at the end of the line, and we have had it, the surprising and wonderful M10 Monochrom which was released in January this year (www.slack.co.uk/leica-m10- monochrom.html). So, we’ve had the wonderful M10, the premium M10-P the minimalist M10-D, and the 40 megapixel M10 Monochrom, now we have to wait for the announctement of the M11 right?
Wrong!
It doesn’t require sixth sense to realise that if Leica can make a 40MP Monochrom sensor, then they can make a colour sensor at that resolution as well, and of course they have, so let’s welcome the M10-R, or should we welcome it? Let’s face it, the 24 mp of the Leica M10 is really quite enough for almost any photographic project, be it a brochure or a billboard.
I’m going to have a look at whether the extra resolution is worth it, and also at differences in character and performance between the existing M10 sensor (in all the other colour M10 variant cameras) and the new sensor, and there really are differences.
THE CAMERA
The camera itself looks like the original M10, it has none of the M10-P engravings and it has a normal red dot rather than the screw. Indeed it is only the sensor which has changed, However, the motherboard, buffer, processor, menus etc. are identical to the M10-P.
Leica has already maxed out the buffer size for the processor, so there isn’t a larger buffer, and of course the larger files mean that the camera is a little slower processing, and that the buffer is effectively smaller. Having said this, I never lost a shot, and I’m not seeing many complaints from M10 Monochrom users about the speed.
THE SHUTTER
The shutter is the quiet version from the M10-P, which has been extremely popular with many people.
In common with some fashion and portrait photographers, I prefer the slightly louder M10 shutter as I like my subjects to know when I’ve taken a picture, it makes a good way to control the flow of a shoot. The perfect situation would be a ‘normal’ shutter sound like the M10 with the option of a silent electronic shutter, but I understand that the read-out speed of the M10 sensor is too slow for this.
I’ve shot wedding ceremonies from close up with the original M10 and never disturbed anyone with the noise. Personally, I prefer the sound of the quieter shutter, but it imposes limitations on shooting which the original M10 did not.
THE RESOLUTION
So the exchange is that you get more resolution and a different sensor in return for a moderate decrease in shot to shot speed and buffer depth – is it worth it? Absolutely yes! That was certainly my first response, and after nearly a year with the camera, it still is.
Maybe a little explanation – I have been really happy with 24 megapixels. It seemed to me to be the sweet spot (and I know I’m not alone) – quite enough for a sensible amount of cropping, big enough for decent sized prints, fast processing and reasonable storage requirements.
Testing the Q2 slightly modified my opinion. It was great to get the higher resolution for the crop factors, but hey, I didn’t want an APS-C or Micro Four Thirds Leica. I like full frame! I think that this is why in the final analysis, I decided not to buy a Q or a Q2 – lovely to have a compact, full frame 28mm camera, but the crop factors were not so attractive and I often like to shoot at 50 and 75mm.
Using the SL2 and the M10-R has really convinced me of the value of extra resolution – it’s nice to have it for printing. It’s also nice to have it for cropping (if you need to), it also encourages you to default to a slightly wider angle lens, in the knowledge that if you really do need to you can crop it later on. I tend to carry one less lens in my bag as a result of it. It’s also wonderful for landscapes with lots of detail.
I have used the M10-R with the following lenses:
16/18/21 Tri-Elmar-M Asph
28mm Summaron-M f/5.6 (modern version)
28mm Summicron-M f/2
Asph 28mm Summilux M f/1.4
Asph 35mm Summilux-M f/1.4 Asph
50mm Summilux-M f/1.4
50mm Asph 50mm APO-Summicron-M f/2
50mm Noctilux-M f/1.2 (Thanks for the loan- you know who you are!)
60mm Macro-Elmarit-R f/2.8 75mm APO-Summicron-M f/2
All these lenses worked really well with the camera and I haven’t seen any evidence of them being challenged by the extra resolution.
VIGNETTING
Rather like the M10 Monochrom the M10-R shows more vignetting than previous digital M cameras. When shooting portraits (or still life or close up) wide open, this can be a positive advantage. If you’re shooting landscapes however, then you will probably want to stop down enough to make the vignetting insignificant. It seems to be more noticeable with wide angle lenses (as you would expect). If it’s undesirable, then it’s easy to fix in post processing, but with the risk of creating more noise in the corners.
Sean Reid (www.reidreviews.com) is going to look at this in more detail with specific lenses if it’s something likely to cause you concern.
Checking Out the Ocean. Leica M10-R + 50mm APO-Summicron-M at ISO 100
Busted! Leica M10-R + 50mm APO-Summicron-M at ISO 250.
Leica M10-R + 50mm Noctilux-M f/1.2 at ISO 100
Leica M10-R + 50mm APO-Summicron-M f/2 ASPH at ISO 100.
HIGH ISO
I’ve done a lot of ISO comparisons between the M10 and the M10-R. This is made more complicated by the difference in resolution, making it hard to do a proper comparison. My feeling is that looking at the M10-R files at 100% the noise is roughly equivalent to the M10 at 100%. Considering the difference in resolution, I think that probably works out at a one stop improvement. It’s also worth mentioning that the noise on the M10-R feels more organic and less regular.
Cretan dragonfly on a sea squill. Leica M10-R + 50mm APO-Summicron-M ASPH at ISO 100.
Asparagus. Leica M10-R + 75mm APO-Summicron-M ASPH at ISO 160
The high ISO on the M10 is pretty good, and you might expect that increasing the resolution would make the noise worse rather than better. So this is a real improvement for the new sensor. I’ve been quite happy to shoot at iso 12500.
DYNAMIC RANGE
The base ISO for the M10 was not iso 100, but something like iso 160. There is also an issue with ugly roll-off on overexposed areas. This is worse at iso 100 (pull), I wrote about this here:
https://www.slack.co.uk/m10- highlights.html
Leica changed the base ISO for Auto ISO to 200. This was rather a masterful move, as it meant that people wouldn’t accidentally get ‘blown’ highlights, whilst still allowing use of iso 100 where it was appropriate. My feeling is that however good this was, you still have to be very careful of losing information in highlights with the 24 megapixel M10 sensor at any ISO.
The base ISO for the M10-R actually is iso 100, but more to the point, for the M10-R, Leica has completely solved the problem with overexposed highlights. With the M10 even a quarter of a stop of overexposure would irredeemably blow highlights. In the same scene with the M10-R, I’ve managed to gain good detail from an image overexposed by two stops.
At first sight, the files from the M10-R may look a little flatter than those from the M10 straight out of the camera, but they are much nicer to work with in post processing, and there seems to be more scope for pulling detail out of the shadows as well as the headroom with the highlights.
Whether the M10-R actually has more dynamic range will probably be established in a DXO report. But from a practical photographic point of view, the files are a real step forward and much easier to post process.
Brother. Leica M10-R & 50mm APO-Summicron-M ASPH at ISO 100
Sister. Leica M10-R + Leica M10-R & 28mm Summilux-M ASPH at ISO 100
Shoes. Leica M10-R + Leica M10-R & 50mm APO-Summicron-M ASPH at ISO 16000
Diagonals in pink and blue. Leica M10-R & 50mm APO-Summicron-M ASPH at ISO 100
CONCLUSION
So, It’s an M10 with a higher resolution sensor, a quieter shutter and an effectively smaller buffer in a discreet ‘no frills’ body. Put like that doesn’t sound too exciting.
However, the sensor in the M10-R isn’t just higher resolution. It’s much better than the sensor in all the other colour M10 variants. It has better high ISO, more Dynamic Range, nicer noise characteristics and the raw files are much nicer to work with in post processing. In practice the slightly slower shot- to-shot times and smaller buffer didn’t cause me any problems (and experiences with the M10 Monochrom suggests that it doesn’t cause others problems either).
Generally speaking, I get the first iteration of each new M camera and miss out the Monchrom and ‘P’ variants, and so far that’s happened (although I still rather hanker after an M10-D). This time it’s different, and I’m saving up my pennies to grab myself an M10-R as soon as they start shipping.
This is a real photographer’s camera – in my opinion it has the best image quality of any M camera ever made, and it’s a pleasure to use. It’s hard to see how Leica can really improve on it without making radical changes in the M11.
We shall see!
Pixel Peeping in 2020
Jun 3, 2020 By David Knoble1
What to do with the extra megapixels?
First came the 4-6 megapixel cameras and everyone was happy that they had instant pictures without waiting for the 1 hour drug store negative development (The D-lux was created in 2003 with 3.6 effective megapixels). Then came the 9-12 megapixel cameras and pixel peeping was born. With the increased picture quality everyone wanted to know just how much detail they could capture (The D-lux 3 had 10.2 megapixels, the M8 had 10.3 megapixels). Finally, the 18-24 megapixel cameras arrived and everyone again wanted to know how much more detail their lens would capture in an image (Think M9, M240, M10).
Today, with 40 megapixels in the new M10 Monochrom, 47 megapixels in the SL2 and 64 megapixels in the upcoming S3, pixel peeping has changed to resolution limits. We have started to realize that we can capture more detail than we need. Discussions on various forums are beginning to surround two concepts: image noise, and lens resolution. I see questions about the image noise resulting from using 25,000 or 50,000 ISO. I also see questions about whether the image will be “sharp” enough from a classic lens.
M10M-Elmarit90-ISO160-2
M10M-Elmar50Collapsable-ISO160-1.15sec-Handheld-3
These are both interesting questions to consider, because the answers require looking at the pixel level, which is irrelevant for most images from these new cameras. Leica has adjusted the pixel pitch very slightly over the years. The pixel pitch, or distance between the center of two adjacent pixels, is 6.9 microns for the M8 and M9. The M240 and M10 both have 6 micron pixel pitches. However, the new generation of sensors from Leica are now using 4 micron pixel pitches, which translates to almost a 50% reduction in area per pixel.
Noise
Noise is part of every digital image. However, noise is created at the pixel level. Pixel size determines the size of the noise in the final output – digital and print – and smaller pixels are less visible given the same size output. Understand that noise is still present and except for technology advances, noise is essentially the same regardless of pixel size. The next question might be, if an image created with smaller sized pixels appears to have less noise, why not make 35m sensors with 100 megapixels? The answer lies in dynamic range.
M10M-Noctilux10v1-ISO12500-1
M10M-Noctilux10v1-ISO3200-1
Think about the grain size in black and white film. Grain of the Ilford FP4+ film shot at ISO 125 is not easy to see compared to Ilford 3200. Larger grain is more sensitive to light (ISO 3200) and smaller grain needs more light (ISO 125). In addition, negatives from the Ilford FP4+ have a wide range of tones and the Ilford 3200 has very high contrast with much fewer tones. The same is true for sensors, noise is still there, but it is represented in much smaller sized dots, much like silver halide grain. Yet, it takes advances in technology to maintain the same dynamic range between sensor sizes.
M10M-Noctilux10v1-ISO50000-3
M10M-Noctiulx10v1-ISO50000-1
Thus, at equivalent ISO’s, it appears like the noise is much lower at the same viewing size. Said another way, it may take twice as much noise to be visible in ways we are used to viewing images, so we can use higher ISO’s. Some of the images here were taken at ISO 50,000 and I considered very usable for enlargement with smooth tones throughout.
Side Note: At ISO 50,000 I recommend exposing for the mid- tones, letting some of the highlights blow in unimportant areas. The images come out with significant tonality and there is much less noise in fine details for enlarging the image later. The images at ISO 50,000 here were exposed in that manner.
Not accounted for yet are the advances in CMOS sensors which reduce the electronic noise compared to earlier sensors. An article published May 3, 2015 by Richard Butler at Digital Photography Review discusses sensor noise at a very deep level using some sophisticated math. Butler discusses read noise of different sized sensors, which is the noise generated by reading the data from the sensor. His conclusions show that most camera companies will not use sensors with higher pixel counts until they can control the read noise, which can produce a system with overall lower noise and hence, higher ISO’s. This seems to be exactly what Leica have done moving from 24 megapixels to the over 40 megapixel range and adding one to two stops of additional ISO capabilities.
M10M-Noctiulx10v1-ISO50000-4
M10M-Noctiulx10v1-ISO50000-2
Resolution
In terms of lens resolution, I have continued to indicate the M10 Monochrom produces film-like results on the classical M lenses, or lenses that do not contain aspherical elements. I call these lenses “classical” but there are others. In fact, the images included here are all labeled with the lens used and all were taken with the M10 Monochrom. The lenses used were a) version 1 of the Noctilux-M f/1.0 50mm, b) the German made Summilux-M f/1.4 75mm (as opposed to the Canadian version) and c) the chrome Elmarit-M f/2.8 90mm
– all non-aspherical lenses designed by Walter Mandler. One image was taken with the newer version of the Elmar-M f/2.8 50mm Collapsible (chrome) lens with only 4 elements, none aspherical.
I have found images shot at low ISO’s on the M10 Monchrom show much more shadow tonality than previous Monochrom models (Type 246 and CCD). The increased pixel count allows standard viewing sizes to show the appearance of much smoother graduations between tones even with some of the more classical lenses. The high resolution approaches the visible contrast levels of these older style lenses wide open. In different terms, as the limits of lines drawn by the older lenses approaches the size of lines drawn with the pixels, the maximum image recording has been reached.
I would argue that, stopped down, the classical lenses frequently have higher resolution capacity and clearly the newest APO ASPH lenses have even higher resolution, like the LHSA special edition APO Summicron 50. However, the classical lenses still have a place in producing quality images with these new high resolution sensors. I would also note, however, that in order to produce medium format prints, the classical lenses would typically require some cropping to remove aberrations at the image edge. The more modern APO lenses win here as well and typically produce fine details throughout the image and to the very edges.
M10M-Summilux75-F1.4-1.90sec-ISO6400-Handheld-1
M10M-Summilux75-F1.4-1.60sec-ISO6400-Handheld-2
As a comparison, think about images produced by 1949 Summicron Collapsable screw mount lenses from a 24 megapixel sensor on an M9 or M240. Wide open, even on film, the lens produces soft images. The contrast capability of these lenses is less than the sensor resolution making the image appear soft. We have clearly reached another plateau with the new 40+ megapixel sensors on non-ASPH lenses wide-open. At the same time, Leica have told us that the newest APO M lenses have yet higher resolution limits, so there may be room to grow!
What to do with the extra pixels?
The question remains, what to do with the extra pixel resolution in these digital files? Some have suggested they can crop plenty and still end up with a 24 megapixel image. They may use a 35mm lens and crop to a 50mm lens (think Leica Q2). I create 13 x 19 prints from 24 megapixels with great success. Personally, I like the ability to shoot on a tripod and create images that I can print at 17 x 22 inches in native resolution with a small sized camera body. Also, the increased dynamic ranges of the new generation of sensors starts to compete with dynamic ranges of my black and white films and the S3 should provide a whole new level of color creativity. I have never worried about grain in black and white film – my two favorites being Ilford FP4+ and Kodak Tri-X 400 and I loved the boost in dynamic range and detail from the M9M and the M246 compared to the color brethren. Now the M10 Monochrom is my favored grab because the upgraded CMOS and resolution effectively eliminate the noise for most applications and provide incredible tonal ranges, especially in the shadows.
Yet, all this talk about noise and resolution takes away from the primary purpose, which is to create images. Each of these new high resolution cameras has a place in taking photographs. Clearly given the choice, pressing the shutter is better than thinking about whether the image will be sharp enough and missing the shot. Interestingly, this discussion about whether the tool is sufficient technologically speaking, versus using the tool to create images has been around for over half a century.
A 1954 Perspective
I recently ran across a unique piece of history. I enjoy history and the uncovering of some important wisdom or new concept that remains relevant today always piques my interest. The June/July 1954 issue of LFI Fotographie contains one such relevant reminder on page 121 and its relevance here is startling.
Titled “The Exaggeration of Technique,” the editor points out to the readers the reliance on technique. To put the article in perspective, the Leica IIIF screw mount body was the forefront of technology. Made from the 1950 to 1957, the IIIF was the second to last design before the M series. Thank you to Bernd Luxa of LFI Photographie GmbH for granting me permission to share what the editor says in this article and for providing an image of the original article.
Miniaturists so often develop a complex about the sharpness of their pictures. The print is carefully examined all over with a magnifying glass because it appears that there is no better criterion for the quality of a picture than the proud declaration: ‘You can’t distinguish it from a plate negative!’
Today, such achievements are little cause for congratulation because we now have lenses and single-coated films of the highest resolving power. One seems to forget that technical quality is a necessary adjunct of every picture, but certainly not the be all and end all of the good photograph. Technical excellence is indispensable in many fields – architecture, aerial, commercial and copying, to name a few – but there are also other tasks where lack of the ultimate in technical quality does not detract one jot from the worth a picture: reportage, press photography, documentaries.
Think of the pictures of a Cartier-Bresson, of war photos from Korea or Indo-China, and one must admit that such pictures are looked at much longer than many others in order to re-live a situation. And why? Because their message is urgent, incisive. Who would quibble about technical quality when emotional content is high? Is not the latter much more significant?
It is unwise to build things up into a fetish. Technical quality is a good thing in the right place and wherever its presence is a sine qua non. It is well to be armed with the ability to produce it because it is a thing that is accepted as read. But it is equally important, often more so, to give credit to momentous pictures produced under circumstances which often preclude the possibility of a technical tour de force. More important than all technique are content, impact and the imaginative force that compel the attention of the observer. This is a plea — not a plenary indulgence for the inept!
How interesting that the same concept applies today. With the flat digital sensor and current digitally refined lenses, the pixel peeping reports of slight aberrations in the extreme edges of the image remain relevant in new camera evaluations. With the ease of stumbling on such information, I too fall prey. A more important aspect of photog- raphy would be long studies of iconic or important images made by very successful photographers – understanding the why behind the image. With these new sensor sizes, perhaps we can forgo the pixel peeping and make more images. The quality of the digital images is clearly present in these new sensors.
The next time you see an image that captures your attention, study the photographer’s message and try to discern how and why they took the image from the specific angle and with specific content or context. The next time you look at a camera review, try not to worry about the pixel level detail, but think about the possibilities and the images you can produce with the camera – even if you have to crop the image. And by all means, think about what you will do with all these extra pixels!
The Fab Four: My Favorite Current Leicas
Jul 14, 2020 By Jason Schneider
I cherish my classic Leicas. Nothing will ever replace the pristine single-stroke Leica M3 with 50mm f/2 Dual Range Summicron I use sparingly, the battle-scarred M4 with 4th-iteration 35mm f/2 Summicron I still shoot with quite frequently, or the near-mint IIIf red dial with self-timer and red scale 50mm f/3.5 Elmar I trot out occasionally for street shooting. I still kick myself for unloading the first Leica I ever acquired, a gorgeous “store display” Leica IIIg with its original 50nnn f/2.8 Elmar, more than 30 years ago—though I do take some consolation that it resides with a good friend who still uses it.
Perhaps the most astonishing aspect of the Leica legend is that it continues unabated; Leica is still creating magnificent cameras and lenses that are not only prized possessions but are also capable of capturing exceptional images with that ineffable “Leica look.” Herewith a quintessential quartet of my favorite current Leicas and why I think they’re so special.
Leica MP in silver
Sure, I’d love to own an original limited edition meter-less Leica MP press photographer’s camera from the ‘50s, but its contemporary namesake is functionally quite similar and it’s truly a superb rangefinder 35. It’s a totally mechanical classic M that works without battery power except for metering and it incorporates a superlative 0.72x range-viewfinder with projected, auto-indexing, parallax-compensating frame lines for 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, 90mm and 135mm lenses. Its TTL selective center-weighted metering system employs a silicon photodiode in the base of the body that reads off a 12mm spot in center of the first shutter curtain, providing TTL readings of about 13 percent of the frame area. Shutter speed and film speed (ISO) settings are electronically coupled to LED arrows and correct-exposure circle are displayed in the finder; a metering range EV-2 to 20 at ISO 100 is sufficient for low light work. Whisper quiet and vibration free in the Leica M tradition, the all metal MP accepts M-mount lenses from 21mm-135mm and will accommodate super-speed lenses. Since I’m not so hot at estimating exposures and using a handheld exposure meter slows you down, the MP is my top choice among rangefinder 35s. If you’d rather go meterless, by all means check out the current Leica M-A, which is basically an MP sans meter, Finally, I go for the chrome version of the MP because IMHO it has a more “classic” look.
Leica Q2
This remarkable new mirrorless compact qualifies as an instant classic, because it combines the timeless, round-ended form factor of a downsized Leica M with the extraordinary image quality capabilities, speed, and performance of a 47.3MP full-frame CMOS sensor coupled to Leica’s latest Maestro II Image Processor. I love the Q2 because it’s a great walk-around ultra-compact and a street shooter’s delight because of the superb wide-angle lens permanently affixed to its svelte body—a 28mm f/1.7 Summilux ASPH prime that focuses down to 6.7 inches. This is the focal length favored by street shooters like me and its wide f/1.7 aperture enhances its low light street capabilities. Other impressive Q2 specs: DCI 4K24p and UHD 4K30p video capture, Full HD at up to 120p, a 10 fps full-res burst rate, sensitivity settings ISO 50-50000, a hi-res 3.68MP OLED EVF, a 3.0-inch 1.4m-dot touchscreen LCD, a mechanical shutter enabling flash sync speeds to 1/500 sec, and built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE connectivity. Stills can be recorded as 14-bit DNG files and as JPEGs, and the added resolution enables high quality imaging even when you’re using the Q2’s digital zoom.
Leica M10-P
The original Leica M10 was the first full-frame digital M with a slim body profile that’s virtually the same as 35mm M-series Leicas of the past and present. To this same elegant form factor, the M10-P adds a redesigned shutter said to be the quietist in any film or digital camera, a rear touchscreen LCD for intuitive settings and playback control, a built-in level gauge for precise alignment, and eliminated the bold red Leica dot to make it more discreet. That’s why it tops my digital rangefinder list. Its superb 0.73x range/viewfinder shows parallax-compensating projected frame lines in pairs, covering focal lengths from 28mm to 135mm, and there’s a frame line selector. Its 24MP CMOS sensor is coupled to a high-performance Maestro II Image Processor to deliver exceptional image quality, it has 3.0 a 1.04m-Dot LCD provides sensitivity settings of ISO 100-50000, burst rates up to 5 fps, and has built-in Wi-Fi, all housed in a weather-resistant brass construction body. Unlike other current Digital M’s the M10-P, like the M10 is a stills-only camera, but that’s not a deal breaker for me. I like this one in cool, stealthy, understated black chrome finish but it’s also available in chrome.
Leica SL2
Leica’s second-generation SL is a lot more than just an upgraded SL. It’s a great crossover camera for that can capture impressive pro caliber stills plus high-end video and has the same compact, well balanced ergonomic form factor and L-mount as its predecessor. It features an un ultra-hi-res full frame 47.3MP CMOS sensor that omits the low-pass filter integrated with Leica’s advanced new Maestro II Image Processor to deliver a sizzling full-res continuous burst rate up to 20 fps, up to 6 fps with continuous AF (AF-C), 5K video at 30 fps, and DCI 4K60 video with 10-bit color sampling. The unique sensor also incorporates the Leica Object Detection AF System that provides 225 selectable AF areas, and a 5-axis sensor-shift image stabilization system to minimize the effects of handheld camera shake. Other key features: a new 5.76m-dot OLED EVF, a large 3.2inch 2.1m-dot touchscreen LCD with Gorilla Glass covering, a top status LCD to monitor frequently used shooting settings, dual UHS-II compatible memory card slots, and built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth that work in conjunction with the Leica FOTO app to provide seamless sharing and remote camera control. The SL2 can capture an amazing 14-stop dynamic range and provides sensitivity settings of ISO 50-50000. All this and more are built into a robust weather-sealed magnesium-alloy body that’s splash-, dust-, and freeze-proof to withstand adverse shooting conditions. If I were going for a full frame mirrorless the Leica SL2 would be tops on my list.