With all due respect, Kurt, the AWB on the M is not any worse than that on the M9. The AWB on the M9 produces ugly cyan cast, while the M produces ugly yellow cast. In both cases they are unusable, and correctable. By the way, I use one single WB setting for all my daylight shooting with the M9.
Ed
Sorry I have to disagree here . I am not seeking an unusual level of accuracy here ...I have well over 25K M9 captures and now more than another 10k with the D800E ..both produce fairly consistent AWB when doing street shooting . Right out of the camera I appreciate having an AWB as a reference . This does not mean that I don t use a grey card or adjust to taste in post processing .
The new M has an AWB equal to using an 81a filter ...this over saturates the yellow/orange in skin tones as a starting point . (diglloyd reports on this in detail including measuring the difference between the M9 and the M to a correct WB) But its more than that ....
The M out of the camera DNG has a bias toward yellow green bias and the M9 has a bias toward blue magenta ....this of course can be to some extent corrected with custom camera calibrations . In fact if you try the various profiles available ..you would see that the adobe standard adds substantial magenta to the rendering . Just do some before and after on the embedded profile verse a custom profile and you can see the differences.
But thats not all ...the new M DNG is highly saturated overall ..not necessarily in a bad way but like a different film stock . It also has a much different tone curve which takes advantage of the larger DR . Both of these contribute to the complaints about skin tones .
I am not convinced that these can all be completely fixed with firmware and raw processing refinement . Rather I think they will be improved upon and a new standard established ..but this is pure speculation .
The point I think thats being made is that new M color using AWB is not very good as it stands today particularly if you are concerned about skin tones . I think thats a very fair point of view based on my tests of the M and review of the examples cited .
This is not to say that M files can not be processed by a skilled photographer to an excellent result or that having a warm saturated rendering doesn t make certain photographs look great straight out of camera .
Be clear ...I depend on my M bodies for 70% of my work and have a real desire to transition to the new M if for no other reason than the better high ISO performance . However I watched as others chased their tails trying to get the S2 files right during the first 6 months after introduction . Leica and Adobe really got it right eventually ...so I am hopeful . But I ve chosen to wait and see rather than frustrate myself trying to custom process my M files .
I voted with my decision to return my new M and to delay my order for a 2nd . That never would have happened with the M9 which was fabulous IMO at introduction .
I am sure we just have different perspectives on how the color "issue " affects our work but I think its hard to deny that it exists .