Fun with the Leica SL (digital)

[doug]

Yesterday, as part of my continuing evaluation of the Leica SL for my use, I visited Colusa National Wildlife Refuge north of Sacramento, what I consider a target-rich environment. I didn't expect great art from this day's photography so I was not disappointed . I wanted to see how the SL's raw files looked in a context I was familiar with when using the DMR and a7II.

In a nutshell, I'm delighted with the raw files. Aside from conversion to jpg all I did was use a Photoshop curves layer to adjust black point and (infrequently) white point. That's all. The colors are rich and full with excellent gradation.

Details: I used the Canon FD 500mm L at f/5.6, ISO 400. Manual focus without magnification is not difficult, and in challenging cases magnification is available at the touch of a button. I'd like to see a firmware update to enable two-step magnification on the joystick like the bottom left button has. The first magnification step is usually more than sufficient for critical manual focus and is easier to track a moving target. The other firmware update that would make this camera much more useful to me is being able to make the 'exposure preview' mode sticky.

the pix:

(full detail in the black plumage, no highlight clipping. A first for this species)

​

All comments are welcome.

 

[erudolph]

Yesterday, as part of my continuing evaluation of the Leica SL for my use, I visited Colusa National Wildlife Refuge north of Sacramento, what I consider a target-rich environment. I didn't expect great art from this day's photography so I was not disappointed . I wanted to see how the SL's raw files looked in a context I was familiar with when using the DMR and a7II.

In a nutshell, I'm delighted with the raw files. Aside from conversion to jpg all I did was use a Photoshop curves layer to adjust black point and (infrequently) white point. That's all. The colors are rich and full with excellent gradation.

All comments are welcome.

Here's hoping the Leica folks provide you with a sticky preview mode!

 

[Paratom]

Yesterday, as part of my continuing evaluation of the Leica SL for my use, I visited Colusa National Wildlife Refuge north of Sacramento, what I consider a target-rich environment. I didn't expect great art from this day's photography so I was not disappointed . I wanted to see how the SL's raw files looked in a context I was familiar with when using the DMR and a7II.

In a nutshell, I'm delighted with the raw files. Aside from conversion to jpg all I did was use a Photoshop curves layer to adjust black point and (infrequently) white point. That's all. The colors are rich and full with excellent gradation.

Details: I used the Canon FD 500mm L at f/5.6, ISO 400. Manual focus without magnification is not difficult, and in challenging cases magnification is available at the touch of a button. I'd like to see a firmware update to enable two-step magnification on the joystick like the bottom left button has. The first magnification step is usually more than sufficient for critical manual focus and is easier to track a moving target. The other firmware update that would make this camera much more useful to me is being able to make the 'exposure preview' mode sticky.

the pix:
....

All comments are welcome.

I like the colors of your images. Do you plan to continue to use all 3 cameras or will you let 1 or 2 go after checking them out?

 

[doug]

I like the colors of your images. Do you plan to continue to use all 3 cameras or will you let 1 or 2 go after checking them out?

I've already let go of the DMR because it had put on too much weight and the thought of dropping a battery pack in a swamp or a pile of boulders freaked me out. The a7II's sensor stabilization would be hard to let go of so I suspect if I can dig up the cash for the SL and those firmware issues are fixed I'll buy the SL and keep the Sony for longer shutter speeds with questionable support.

 

[erudolph]

Book store Pug, 50mm AA

 

[Paratom]

I've already let go of the DMR because it had put on too much weight and the thought of dropping a battery pack in a swamp or a pile of boulders freaked me out. The a7II's sensor stabilization would be hard to let go of so I suspect if I can dig up the cash for the SL and those firmware issues are fixed I'll buy the SL and keep the Sony for longer shutter speeds with questionable support.

I see the advantage of the A7II sensor stabi.

 

[doug]

I see the advantage of the A7II sensor stabi.

I've started looking into the SL's higher ISO settings (and a faster shutter speed) as a means of compensating for the lack of sensor stabilization. I'm impressed with ISO 1600 so far:

I'm not fond of the a7II's noise pattern above ISO 400. However there are times when I wanted a slower shutter speed in order to show raindrop streaks (more obvious in a bigger print) so a faster shutter speed is not the ideal solution:

I do like having a responsive camera at all shutter speeds (the SL). The a7II is sufficiently responsive with electronic first curtain (E1C) enabled but the a7II's E1C produces uneven exposure at shutter speeds faster than 1/1000 sec.

 

[Paratom]

Hi Doug,
interesting observations. I am curious if you will end up with both cameras in a Long term.
One thing...maybe one day the 90-280/2.8-4.0 might become interesting for you and then you would have IS in the lens.
Tom

 

[doug]

Hi Doug,
interesting observations. I am curious if you will end up with both cameras in a Long term.
One thing...maybe one day the 90-280/2.8-4.0 might become interesting for you and then you would have IS in the lens.
Tom

That remains to be seen. I much prefer simple non-electronic lenses so sensor stabilization appeals to me much more than optical stabilization.

 

[scott kirkpatrick]

Re: Fun with the Leica SL -- Bokeh with "Doug's wide angle"

Some flower studies using the APO-Macro-Elmarit-R 100 today.

L1010585 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr

L1010596 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr

L1010597 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr

scott

 

[erudolph]

35mm FLE, ISO 50

 

[scott kirkpatrick]

Re: Fun with the Leica SL (digital) and my old E-1 (4/3)

February 2005 (with the E-1) thinking of Kurosawa's "dreams"

and February 2016 (SL with APO-SC-R 90):

L1010649 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr

Same subject, same flowers (we call them kalaniot, but in English they are rendered as anemones). The original field was plowed up and somebody's crop took the place of the richest field of flowers, but the ones seen today are nearby. (Near Beit Guvrin, Israel)

Incidentally, I could never get the little dots of red to render properly in the 5 MPx E-1, even with much fussing over raw file developers, which then were Capture One 3.0 or so, but the SL is making progress on this challenge.
scott

 

[Godfrey]

Re: Fun with the Leica SL (digital) and my old E-1 (4/3)

Nice. You should warm up the SL shot a little to match them.

Red flowers and yellow flowers are always quite tricky to expose and render. I think it's because they reflect so much IR.

G

 

[Godfrey]

Lovely fog in the park this morning. Fog is for ultra-wide lenses. And for people too when you can manage it...

all: Leica SL + Super-Elmar-R 15mm f/3.5​

enjoy,
G

 

[scott kirkpatrick]

Re: Fun with the Leica SL (digital) and my old E-1 (4/3)

Red flowers and yellow flowers are always quite tricky to expose and render. I think it's because they reflect so much IR.

G

I suspect the problem with the E-1 was that the CCD pixels would overexpose and bleed into adjacent cells when presented with an intense red. But the software for demosaicing was also very rudimentary. C1 in those days had problems with mosaic patterns that also showed up in larger areas of red.

scott

 

[erudolph]

35mm FLE ISO 1000

 

[Godfrey]

Re: Fun with the Leica SL (digital) and my old E-1 (4/3)

I suspect the problem with the E-1 was that the CCD pixels would overexpose and bleed into adjacent cells when presented with an intense red. But the software for demosaicing was also very rudimentary. C1 in those days had problems with mosaic patterns that also showed up in larger areas of red.

I still have my E-1 (and still use it, very occasionally). Advances in raw processing software continue to give it more life. Using Lightroom 6.3, I can shoot even color now at ISO 3200 with more dynamic range expressed than anything I could achieve with the same camera in 2008. At ISO 100, it produces superb results unachievable with the older raw converters. Almost twice the DR...

Try it out, if you still have the .ORF files. I kept every photograph I ever exposed with the E-1 ... It's a marvelous camera—my favorite DSLR despite having had many others spec'ed much more highly and much newer. ;-)

G

 

[scott kirkpatrick]

Re: Fun with the Leica SL (digital) and my old E-1 (4/3)

I still have my E-1 (and still use it, very occasionally). Advances in raw processing software continue to give it more life. Using Lightroom 6.3, I can shoot even color now at ISO 3200 with more dynamic range expressed than anything I could achieve with the same camera in 2008. At ISO 100, it produces superb results unachievable with the older raw converters. Almost twice the DR...

Try it out, if you still have the .ORF files. I kept every photograph I ever exposed with the E-1 ... It's a marvelous camera—my favorite DSLR despite having had many others spec'ed much more highly and much newer. ;-)

G

Back then I kept selected JPEGs, to save on the cost of storage (!?). I have five tries at rendering that particular shot. But if you look at it at 100%, the clothing and the grass are crisply rendered, while the red of the flowers are blurred.

_2193375-4 copy by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr

ISO 100 33 mm f/4 1/320.

I see that I got the E-1 in late 2003, lost it in summer 2007. I packed all my Olympus gear up in a single bag, leaving it at home while traveling with Leica M8s. Easy pickings for the burglars...

scott

 

[Godfrey]

Valentines is still hanging around ...

Leica SL + 2x Extender-R + Elmar-R 180mm f/4
ISO 400 @ f/8 (f/16 effective) @ 2.5 sec​

enjoy!
G

 

[Godfrey]

Leica SL + 2x Extender-R + Telyt-R 250mm f/4
ISO 200 @ f/8 (effective f/16) @ 0.4 sec​

enjoy!
G