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Photokina and the new M

algrove

Well-known member
Well, I saw the roll out last night and was impressed with the new M the most since that is my thing. It weighs in at 680 grams and feels slightly heavier than my MM that I had with me.

At 24MP who knows what the images will look like but it seemed to me that Mr. Kaufmann stressed that it was mostly an in house endeavor and liked that he stressed it was a EUROPEAN sensor. I hope it renders like the CCD in the M9, i.e., warm. The native ISO 200 is a welcomed sight. Time will tell where the ISO breaks down before you hit the new ISO 6400 limit. I can tell you increased ISO has made me a fan after using my MM.

The new rubber seals could be felt when mounting the new GPS hand grip. I do not like the silver buttons on the black model so you silver guys might go for this one more than the all black guys.

The focus assist in the front via a silver button really helps by outlining in red what is in focus. I even tried an 800mm APO monovid with adapters for the new M and the focus assist was spot on. The 800 8.2, f like 7.9 (!), costs Euros2500 and the M tube like Euros 880. There is a bayonet to screw in adapter for this setup that is a prototype for now with no pricing until early 2013.

They were demonstrating the M adapter with a 28-90 ASPH 2.8 R lens that seemed huge on the M (when compared to the new APO 50) but worked well and I can se me getting some R lenses.

The EVF is the same one the X-2 uses, BUT the LCD is finally bigger at 3". Next to my MM I did not feel it was that much bigger now that I am used to the M9/MM 2.5" screen.

I am NOT into video, but had to give the new HD a try. It was easy to turn on by hitting the silver M button on top to the right of the on/off switch. After using the 35 FLE on it the video images were to my eyes about the best I have ever seen and now I have reason to finally get rid of my Panasonic HD video. M lenses and video do make an impression. The sharpness achieved on a simple 2 minute video blew me away with the clarity/sharpness, etc.

More later and some pictures too.
 

algrove

Well-known member
So today I had more time with the M and more impressions follow.

The bottom plate of the hand grip has a special plug for the bottom of the M about a half inch long and allows tethering with the M via USB 3.0 if wanted. When using very long lenses this could be handy for focus confirmation on like 400mm R lenses or the 800mm monovid 82. The built in GPS is totally concealed in the nicely curved grip which to my hand feels about like my RRS L bracket I have on my M9. I especially like the wheel for attaching this grip into the M tripod thread which is truly built in and makes removal simple and attachment secure. Also the base attaches with a circular pin way up the side of the M unlike the little pin for base plates on the current M9 models.

While the base was off I had a good look at the new battery and it is huge compared to the M9 battery and has about double the Wh of the M9 battery. This battery fits into the M in a way that reminds me of the Panasonic GF1-right next to the SD card. Since the bottom plug takes up space where/near the old M9 battery slipped in this area is no longer used. I eye balled some dimensions and they came in about 2" deep into the body, 1.25" wide and about 1" thick. With both my MM and the M without lenses, the new M felt hardly heavier and probably if it is, then the battery is to blame.

I was impressed with what looks like a simple design for the R adapter, but has one very handy feature. It includes a tripod mount thread, but should it not be needed one can remove it by loosening two screws on the bottom of the thread base. A nice well thought out feature. More R stuff in part 2.
 

algrove

Well-known member
OK Part 2--

Continuing with the R adapter, it is coded BBWBBB for the 6 bit system. Instantly the M knows the R adapter is in place, but not yet which lens. So you go off Auto lens detection and switch to manual and then select R lenses. Then the menu gives you a list of the 20 R lenses supported by this camera with their part numbers!. Terrific! This was great and so easy.

Then with the R 28-90 lens attached I decided to try video. You just hit the small silver M button to the right of the on/off switch and instantly the LCD shows you your picture with pretty good movement flow (I can't remember what it is called) and shows how many seconds you are recording in HD. The sharpness with this combo was truly Leica and the zoom of the R lens made me want to keep the vid going for well over 5 minutes.

I used the 135mm on the M today to see how well it handled LV/focusing etc.
So activating LV you press just once the small silver button on the front just above the lens release button which is larger and the same as on the M9. Once activated the LCD shows in the upper right corner a wheel and a minus sign to the left and a plus sign to the right of this digital wheel which is meant to resemble the actual wheel you use for zooming. It always starts out at 1 and when you turn the wheel to the right it then shows you are 5 times magnified. The next turn of the wheel to the right gives 10 times magnification. There are only three positions--1,5,10. Ten seems too much in many cases for me so there is plenty to spare when using 1 or 5.

So I kept focusing and then red outlines started to show up around whatever was in focus. It will take getting used to, but the red is very fine at times and hard to find. I was focusing on some guy and could not find the red line and the Leica guy helping said look its on his hair strand. I thought Holy Sh-t, that's really finely tuned. It worked. And in this case I had not zoomed to 5 or 10 yet.

On to Part 3.
 

algrove

Well-known member
Part 3 today.

So the silver round "Info" button is placed where the black wheel is on our M9's. Push the center and info shows up like the M9. Press the left or right and/or up and down arrows and you scroll around the image like before. I still do not like the silver buttons all over the black model, but that's just me.

Notes-When you press the LV button you turn on or off the LV. When you press the button just at the bottom of the EVF then it gets turned on or off a la the X-2. I will get the EVF, but still hate the lump look on the top of the M.

I overheard many people who did not especially like the EVF lump on top of the nice clean looking body.

The 3" screen is of course bigger, but does make that big an impression on me after using my M9 for about 2 years this November.

I guess I should have said that when you press the silver button on the front you go to focus peaking mode as the Leica guys like to say.

Saw Overgaard again today and he was waiting in line just like the rest of us to get our hands on the M. Nice guy. I showed him some MM shots I took over at the Hasselblad booth where they had slow motion models available for photographing ALL DAY LONG. Hats off to them. The background was black (YES!) and many models had white or yellow outfits on so it seemed like they made the set for an MM!

Talk about MM. Even the Leica guys where impressed someone had one as many had not yet seen one in a customer's hands until today. Even the Hasselblad guys let me shoot for over an hour since they kept showing the Canon and Nikon guys an MM guy was present. I laughed like hell.

I put my MM on the 800mm monovid and it just would not work. Put the M back on and LV saved the day. That combo is very tempting for me, but I do not know if I could hold the lens steady enough for that kind of tele work. Can't remember if I mentioned they have a tube adapter which connects to the 800 and then a T2 adapter which also accepts Nikon , Canon, etc adapters for 800 use. The T2 Leica adapter is a prototype so it will not come out before M's start delivering. Zooming is the only way to use this tele even though it has rough and fine focus knobs. It sells here for Euro2500, the tube costing like Euros 880, the T2 like USD10-20 and who know for the M adapter with cam cutout. The Leica guy showing me this setup actually was the guy testing the tube adapter with T2 ring with the Nikon 800E and it worked flawlessly he said. Now there's another excuse for getting either the 800 Leica and/or the 800 Nikon!

That's it for now, but I will work on figuring out how to load up some OOC jpegs for you to view, but I warn you they are B&W only a la MM.

Just an additional word about these postings. I am not a reviewer, but felt very privileged to be present for this launch and just wanted to get some initial impressions out to you guys. My hat goes off to people like Overgaard who do this month in and month out. I will never get the image out of my head of Overgaard working on his laptop the entire launch night where he only got up on a chair once to shoot a photo of all the guests/honors given out and of those present. Heck, I was so excited I couldn't sit down. Just like a kid in a candy store! And no one else was floating over the floor with an MM like I had in hand!
 
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algrove

Well-known member
Si I will try to download a few images that I hope are OK size wise, but I never know until after seeing them on this site.

View attachment 63641
This was some funky lighting they had on the floor before the main event started

View attachment 63642

This is the new R lens adapter for the M. You can also see the 6 bit coding here which I earlier mentioned yesterday.

View attachment 63643

This shows the M on the 80mm Monovid and shows what you see on the screen when on focus peaking at 5 times magnification.
 
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Michiel Schierbeek

Well-known member
(Crossposted in the Ricoh forum)

Yesterday I took a trip to the Photokina. What a crowd and huge display of gear
Touched the Leica M with handgrip. Feels nice and rather big, but you will need it once you put on those Leica R lenses. I tryed the focus peaking which was in red and I found it quiet good and better then on NEX for straight lines, because you get beautifull in focus red outlines. As I red in Algrove's report it does not work that great for people. I did not check that.
It works great for architecture. The EF viewfinder itself is in no way as good as the NEX-7 viewfinder, although a little better as the attached EVF on my Ricoh.
It was not a booth anymore but a whole hall for themselves included a real good exhibition of great photographers.

The Hasselblad booth was all over that new Lunar, which is even a bigger joke in reality. They come in countless versions. It is all about a sort of almost folkloristic craftsmenship in which they put the latests electronics. It is a big mistake, I think. The whole booth was for a great deal in the light of their grand history, besides their great prof cameras.

In contradiction to those big players was the small booth of Voigtländer but to my surprise they showed the new (to me) 21mm 1.8 Ultron in M mount. Very well made lens. Could be a good alternative for a fast 21
It is rather big and it has an integrated hood. In line with their non consistant hood politics. At least you don't have to pay extra for a seperate hood.
I screwed it on my RIcoh GXR and took a few shots.
The affiche shot is not sharp and was my hectic attempt to check the distortion.

The last picture is from the even smaller SLRMagic booth. Very nice people and they let me try the SLR Magic Hyperprime 50/0.95. Almost to well aperture damping (no clicks) for videographers. Feels very solid but it is a lens you have to spend more time with to get good shots.
Also tryed the new 35/1.4 on their NEX. Could be a good alternative pricewise.

Samsung booth was huge as well. You can see they are doing well companywise, breakdancers and models - BTW lots of booths with models - all day to shoot.

Michiel








 
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StephenPatterson

New member
Am I the only one surprised that Leica has unveiled the new M and there are no sample images allowed, or for that matter available for download from Leica? The Leica website has three extremely small, low res jpegs, none of which appear to have been shot with a wide angle lens.

Now I realize that the camera is not in production, and has no firm release date. And I also recognize that the hardware and software are still being debugged and optimized, and so they don't want a bunch of reviewers shooting images with prototype firmware. I am, however, VERY surprised that, to the best of my knowledge, Leica has made no DNG images available. It could easily be late Spring or Summer before this camera begins shipping to customers.
 

pophoto

New member
Surprised, but perhaps it's understandable too! I'm actually more surprised like Jlm has said, there few people reporting in!

I think it's to their best interest to offer sample images as late as they need if it simply isn't ready to be shown in the best light. The m9 before it had excellent IQ at lower ISO, now the monochrome M is showing it to have high standards also, and the S has always been excellent. I always felt Leica have never felt rushed, but although having slightly increased resolution than the M9, it will be as good if not better especially at higher ISO, being a CMOS sensor.
 
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