The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

Fun with the Leica SL (digital)

docmoore

Subscriber and Workshop Member
There must be some way. I have three different camera types active at the moment, so I don't use a standard input program. But I do set up each Leica with a different leading digit. The SL wants to have its files labelled L80000x. This was easy to arrange in the M.

scott
My solution is a bit different ... I use a program ... ImageIngesterPro ... to capture the images from a folder that sits on the desktop. Card images are copied manually to the Landing Zone folder and then I tell ImageIngesterPro which camera was used ...

You set up presets for each camera with file name and destination and up to two backup drives or folders if desired. It remembers the last number for each specific camera and I use the YYYY-MM-DD
set to drop each to a specific subfolder based on date of capture ... or you can name them based on job name or trip. It writes and error checks for the write each time.

I then import to LR ... or C1 ... and only after verifying the files are in the destination do I write over the Landing Zone and card files.

So in the LR Library it looks like this:


Screen Shot 2015-11-22 at 11.18.13 AM.jpg



Bob
 

jonoslack

Active member
One question for Jono and/or Godfrey -- have you found a way to set the initial file numbering to a user-specified folder/image number? (i.e.: not starting at L1000001) -- I've already got 000s of L images starting at L1000001 and I want to avoid conflict/confusion :) -- I suppose I could always renumber as I import to LR, but one day I'll forget and chaos will result :)
HI John
No - sadly you can't - irritates the hell out of me, but hopefully it'll be changed later on (I don't know how many L100001 photos I've got, but certainly too many!)

best
 

jonoslack

Active member
HI There Roger
The real test of AF will be on “Continuous Focus” with a subject coming straight at you . Lock on the subject and fire a burst ...how many are in focus ? With a Q I can get maybe the first 3 in good focus but the next 2 will be lost . With a D4s I can get a dozen . Try having your boy come straight at you on his skate board and test the focus tracking .

This is the feature that will tell us how competitive the new SL is to the D4S or the 1DX . I will be amazed if its even close . Most sports photographers are constantly looking for an edge in AF accuracy and ability to follow the focus point .
You're quite right Roger - the tracking focus doesn't really cut it - it's quite good, but not like a 4Ds . . . but the single shot focus certainly is.

With the Q ...I fire a shirt burst then tap the shutter release to reaquire the point of focus .
I really like the idea of a shirt burst - buttons everywhere ?

The other obvious requirement for a good sports camera is minimum lag time ...an M with an EVF is extremely hard to time due to shutter lag . Whereas a M with the RF has minimal lag time ( I could photograph your example with an M using the RF) . I frequently shoot tennis with the M and wide angles to show the stadium crowd etc and the players are moving (point of contact not fixed). The Q is even faster or feels that way so it would be a better choice .
Ah, now here things are better - better I think than the pro DSLR cameras - I think you'll be able to get your egg ball, today I took a snap of someone blinking - I saw them blink in the EVF as I pressed the shutter . . . . . and that was what the photo was of, I don't think I've ever had a camera which would do that before.
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
...
Ah, now here things are better - better I think than the pro DSLR cameras - I think you'll be able to get your egg ball, today I took a snap of someone blinking - I saw them blink in the EVF as I pressed the shutter . . . . . and that was what the photo was of, I don't think I've ever had a camera which would do that before.
That's impressive ... I've noticed it too: Very very little shutter release lag. That's definitely one of the details I really like about the SL.

So I pulled out the Macro-Elmarit-R 60mm and 2x Extender-R, and tripod to see how they did together.


Leica SL + Macro-Elmarit-R 60mm + 2x Extender R
ISO 400 @ f/16 @ 4.0 sec

What I've found on Arca-Swiss adapter plates:

Acratech:
  • 2137 for M/M-P typ 240 fits well.

Really Right Stuff:
  • BP-CS fits very well, put the positioning ridge at the front of the body with the center index at the rear. Doesn't block anything.
  • The B25 C (listed for the R8 and R9) fits with the locking ridge at the front of the body; there's excess that overhangs the rear of the body by 8-9mm. Remove the safety screw and it makes a good "fore/aft" capable tripod mount with a little room to move the camera back and forth for fine macro positioning (poor man's macro slide…).
  • The distance from tripod screw to locator pin socket is 14mm, which means the B26 camcorder plate should fit just fine, same deal as the B25C but a bit more compact and likely no overhang.

G
 
Last edited:

Godfrey

Well-known member
Another from Saturday morning's walk in the park:


Leica SL + Summilux-R 50mm f/1.4
ISO 50 @ f/1.7 @ 1/400

The reds here were tricky, and the SL's in-camera JPEG engine was almost better at them than I was with LR 6.3. But I managed to match and then to past by just a wee bit—at least to my eye! :)

enjoy, G
 

Erik

Member
Hello Roger

Yes, the instructor told me that Ben does in fact have a natural swing. Would you believe that this was only his 10th lesson or so?

You are quite right that it's more of a frames per second advantage photographing a rapidly moving subject. The big difference in the SL over the M other than the FPS is there is no need to prefocus ahead of the swing. Just point and spray.

Answering your question about how many of the series were in focus... they all were. Here is the entire series.

Erik

Erik

Your boy looks darn good with that swing!

I shot plenty of different sports with all sorts of equipment ..so I know this challenge well . In tennis its called the “fried egg” which translated is getting the ball compressed on the strings . With manual focus ..you can learn to time the point of contact and routinely get the ball near the racquet but rarely compressed on the strings . Its not AF as much as frames per second that is tested here . (the point of contact is fixed in golf as it is often in baseball). 11 FPS is a big deal in tennis verse say 5-7FPS ....you can lead into the “hit” by starting the series before the point of contact . Practice until you can get at least 30% before and 70% after . Even here you need to time it so you know when to start the series .

The real test of AF will be on “Continuous Focus” with a subject coming straight at you . Lock on the subject and fire a burst ...how many are in focus ? With a Q I can get maybe the first 3 in good focus but the next 2 will be lost . With a D4s I can get a dozen . Try having your boy come straight at you on his skate board and test the focus tracking .

This is the feature that will tell us how competitive the new SL is to the D4S or the 1DX . I will be amazed if its even close . Most sports photographers are constantly looking for an edge in AF accuracy and ability to follow the focus point .

With the Q ...I fire a shirt burst then tap the shutter release to reaquire the point of focus .

The other obvious requirement for a good sports camera is minimum lag time ...an M with an EVF is extremely hard to time due to shutter lag . Whereas a M with the RF has minimal lag time ( I could photograph your example with an M using the RF) . I frequently shoot tennis with the M and wide angles to show the stadium crowd etc and the players are moving (point of contact not fixed). The Q is even faster or feels that way so it would be a better choice .

Roger
 

Attachments

Paratom

Well-known member
Hi Ashwin,
I find the color of the landscape excellent and vibrant.
However the skintones indoors look quite red and unnatural to me. Did you post process it that way or is the profile tend to be that way at the moment.
Great images! Best, Tom

SL/24-90









- - - Updated - - -

WITH NOCT



 

Godfrey

Well-known member
...
WITH NOCT



Hi Ashwin,
I find the color of the landscape excellent and vibrant.
However the skintones indoors look quite red and unnatural to me. Did you post process it that way or is the profile tend to be that way at the moment.
Great images! Best, Tom
I think there's a lot of red reflecting from the accordion and clothing into the skin tones. The rendering is probably fairly true to life.

The skin tone in my macro shot of Astro Boy is a near perfect match to the toy, and that's with AWB under very warm lighting so the camera caught the WB of the illumination source and adjusted it to match the subject very well.

G
 

scott kirkpatrick

Well-known member
@Ashwin -- how are you processing? LR 6.3 (the only software with at least a first-pass color profile) or COne (no color profile as yet) or ...?
This may be subject to change in the next month or so, since the LR6.3 profile appears to simply match the JPEGs. Cone typically uses their own judgement and may give different results than the manufacturer.

On the other hand, we should expect firmware corrections for vignetting and color shifts at the edges to be pretty well sorted out, and the distortion corrections for the Vario-Elmarit 24-90 are in the DNG. So those things do not have to wait for the raw file software to catch up with the camera.

scott
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
@Ashwin -- how are you processing? LR 6.3 (the only software with at least a first-pass color profile) or COne (no color profile as yet) or ...?
This may be subject to change in the next month or so, since the LR6.3 profile appears to simply match the JPEGs. Cone typically uses their own judgement and may give different results than the manufacturer.

On the other hand, we should expect firmware corrections for vignetting and color shifts at the edges to be pretty well sorted out, and the distortion corrections for the Vario-Elmarit 24-90 are in the DNG. So those things do not have to wait for the raw file software to catch up with the camera.

scott
I'm pretty sure that Ashwin is a LR user unless that's changed recently.
 

D&A

Well-known member
Although there is a considerable amount of red in the shirt and accordion probably influencing skin tone, the reds in those images as well as some others appears to show the reds being crushed. These are early days for the camera, profiles and firmware corrections, so this and other teething pains are sure to be addressed.

Agree with others Ashwin, landscaoes are impressive.

Dave (D&A)
 

uhoh7

New member
Although there is a considerable amount of red in the shirt and accordion probably influencing skin tone, the reds in those images as well as some others appears to show the reds being crushed. These are early days for the camera, profiles and firmware corrections, so this and other teething pains are sure to be addressed.

Agree with others Ashwin, landscaoes are impressive.

Dave (D&A)
The SL seems fine to me. I am not seeing anything better than M240, and the zoom does not move me like the great M primes, but I never expected either to be the case.

At this point alot of it is down to the PP, and perhaps there is some learning to be done there, but Ron took the DPR RAWS with the 35 FLE and turned them fantastic a few weeks back, so I don't think it's going to be hard.

More interesting to me are reports of subtle differences in lens performance SL vs 240. E.G. the 28 lux is supposedly better on the SL but the 35 cron ASPH is maybe worse. I think the source on some of these findings is Sean Reid.

Godfrey you would do many of us a real service the compare some M glass side by side 240 v SL in infinity landscape shots, with distant corners, i.e. a corner as far away as the center. Apparently there may be a difference in the cover glass on the SL. Not huge, but with effects. At least that is the talk with some people who are really following close the best testers.
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Although there is a considerable amount of red in the shirt and accordion probably influencing skin tone, the reds in those images as well as some others appears to show the reds being crushed. These are early days for the camera, profiles and firmware corrections, so this and other teething pains are sure to be addressed.

Agree with others Ashwin, landscaoes are impressive.

Dave (D&A)
Dave,

I'm seeing excellent skin tones, both direct out of camera and with the LR 6.3 camera profile. I'm not seeing any teething pain here, not like there was with the M typ 240.

How much better it has to be before you're satisfied, I don't know, but I'm quite satisfied as is. A child, in indoor light, wearing a red shirt and holding a red toy up near his face ... And you want perfect skin tones with no adjustments? I don't think there any camera that can do that. Ever.

G
 

ashwinrao1

Active member
Dave,

I'm seeing excellent skin tones, both direct out of camera and with the LR 6.3 camera profile. I'm not seeing any teething pain here, not like there was with the M typ 240.

How much better it has to be before you're satisfied, I don't know, but I'm quite satisfied as is. A child, in indoor light, wearing a red shirt and holding a red toy up near his face ... And you want perfect skin tones with no adjustments? I don't think there any camera that can do that. Ever.

G
HI guys, the skin tones were at least in part my processing/mistake :). I am still actually using LR-5, so need to upgrade so that I have a profile. Indoor skin tones can be challenging, so having a profile can help. Some behavior may be due in part to the Noct, but more is due to me...


Onto some additional photos, with the R-80-200 f/4 Vario Elmar. A great lens to add some length. Most of these were shot wide open...it's a sharp lens :)

- - - Updated - - -







 
Top