scott kirkpatrick
Well-known member
Surprise!
L1000647 1 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10-D with 24/2.8 asph, ISO 10,000
In early August, I received an email asking if I would be interested in joining a beta test of a mobile app plus an unannounced and unidentified Leica product. Can't resist that. I struggled with a very early version of FOTOS, and have watched as it got ready for prime time. An M10-D finally reached me in Israel the following month, with two weeks left to try it out before it went back.
L1000112 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10-D with 24/2.8 asph, ISO 200
Its predecessor, the M-D, had a very simple, clean concept. Based on the M-262, which had already stripped out LiveView and video, the M-D further removed the LCD and all the buttons on the back of the camera, leaving just exposure controls, shutter, aperture, ISO in its traditional place on the back of the camera, and exposure metering offset on the thumbwheel. One kluge was required -- a button that was used for video in the M240 reappeared, but on the M-D it started a complicated process that let you set the date and time, and also played a role in installing a firmware upgrade. Once that is done, you can forget it. Everything else came as factory defaults. Every copy of the M-D that was made seems to have sold, to very satisfied buyers. If you find one for sale used, be prepared to pay more than it cost new.
L1000267 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10D, 24/2.8 asph, ISO 200
The M10-D is based on the M10-P. That was apparent the moment I clicked its nicely damped shutter. That means that there is quite a bit more under the hood. The M10 and its -P derivative have live view, supported through the Visoflex 20, a big improvement over the (Olympus) VF2 which the M240 had used, approaching the quality of the CL's viewfinder. They also have WiFi, which in the latest firmwares switches on in one click from the WLAN line in the menu. This creates a hot spot, which FOTOS captures the first time by taking an image of a square QR code on the LCD. For the M10-D, the WiFi switches on one step past the ON position in the outer ring on the back of the camera. On the M10-D (remember, no LCD) the QR code is printed on a little piece of paper which is glued onto the bottom of the camera, under the removable baseplate. Either way, once the information is captured, FOTOS remembers it and you can skip this step.
L1000610 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10-D, 18/3.8 asph, ISO 200
I did some tests of WiFi power consumption and discovered that the M10-D must have a new radio card inside. I kept the M10-D's hot spot active for over two hours, using only half of one battery. Of course, doing something useful with FOTOS during the time that WiFi is active will increase the power demand, but this was less than half of the power needed by an M10 or a CL. Didn't have an M10-P to compare with; didn't try this with the SL.
L1000128 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10-D, 24/2.8 asph, ISO 200 f/6.8@1/4000
The Visoflex support is invaluable if you like to shoot wider than 28mm lenses (I do), or have R and other non-M lenses (I didn't have time to go down this path). But you can just take the M10-D out of its little box, set the date and time, and go shooting with any standard lens, just as with the M-D, and upload from the SD card at the end of the day to see what you have got. That's essentially what I did. I wondered if the classic exposure metering off the silver surface of the closed shutter would be accurate in low light (it was). I wondered if the camera would be easier to hold and quicker to shoot with, with nothing on the back but a leather coating (it was). I wondered if the charming little thumb rest that comes out like the film advance lever of the old days would provide extra grip and be comfortable (it did and it was). And no, it doesn't do anything but provide a thumb rest, and only does that if you want it to.
L1000334 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr, M10-D, 28/1.4 asph @ISO 800
I shot with the M10-D at night, in a very dark restaurant, under street lighting on the evening of Yom Kipur, and in bright daylight at an event and in our local sculpture garden. Everything works and it is a bit faster and less fussy than its brother, my M10. Pleasant to hold. No one paid any attention to it.
L1000373 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10-D, 28/1.4 asph, ISO 2500
The M10-D, having more horsepower under the hood than its predecessor, also has several areas in which reasonable people might not want to accept the factory default settings. M10 derivatives all have auto ISO, which I like to use, on the dial. But the default Max autoISO was set at 12,500, which seems a stop too high for me, and the min shutter time is 1/2f, which can get too low for wide angle shots with people moving around in them. Focus magnification, seen through the Visoflex 20 anytime you move the focus ring, can be helpful or annoying. I'd be happy to switch that to come on only when I press the button on the front, as I do on the M10 by setting "focus aids" to manual rather than automatic. And options for 2 or 12 second delay and continuous shooting are now deep in a menu. FOTOS is the answer to these desires, or at least will be some day. The document describing it on Google PlayStore promises that it will let you go "deep into the settings," but so far I have only seen that "drive mode" is one of the settings that comes up for an M10. The Leica press release introducing FOTOS at Photokina showed a screen shot with auto ISO parameters and automatic/manual focus magnification settings controllable. So I think we will see these eventually, and perhaps more. Most of the controls like this I would just set once and then again forget them.
L1000587 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10-D, 35/1.4 asph, ISO 6400
Finally, what does this configuration of attaching the powerful computer that lives in my smart phone to my Leica over a WiFi channel capable of many tens of Mbps foretell for future products? Can touch input at the smart phone interface replace touch input on the LCD that the M10-D has eliminated? FOTOS provides touch control of the focus point for the CL and SL but not, during the beta tests, for the -D. So I have no idea how far this will go and how soon. It still takes FOTOS 10-15 seconds to upload a compressed M10 DNG file, and more like 45 seconds for the uncompressed DNG from my CL or SL. JPGs are smaller and thus faster, and I guess I will have to figure out the path to WhatsApp where the rest of my whole family lives. In principle, this setup is able to send party JPGs to a printer in the back room and print souvenir magnets for the guests' refrigerators, but I have no plans to do that.
L1000564 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10-D, 35/1.4 asph, ISO 200
L1000579 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10-D, 35/1.4 asph, ISO 3200
Here are more pictures, in two galleries, both shot with the M10-D.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/133969392@N05/6DvB30
https://www.flickr.com/gp/133969392@N05/3268B9
Don't miss Jono Slack's review over at http://www.slack.co.uk/m10-d.html .
.
L1000647 1 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10-D with 24/2.8 asph, ISO 10,000
In early August, I received an email asking if I would be interested in joining a beta test of a mobile app plus an unannounced and unidentified Leica product. Can't resist that. I struggled with a very early version of FOTOS, and have watched as it got ready for prime time. An M10-D finally reached me in Israel the following month, with two weeks left to try it out before it went back.
L1000112 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10-D with 24/2.8 asph, ISO 200
Its predecessor, the M-D, had a very simple, clean concept. Based on the M-262, which had already stripped out LiveView and video, the M-D further removed the LCD and all the buttons on the back of the camera, leaving just exposure controls, shutter, aperture, ISO in its traditional place on the back of the camera, and exposure metering offset on the thumbwheel. One kluge was required -- a button that was used for video in the M240 reappeared, but on the M-D it started a complicated process that let you set the date and time, and also played a role in installing a firmware upgrade. Once that is done, you can forget it. Everything else came as factory defaults. Every copy of the M-D that was made seems to have sold, to very satisfied buyers. If you find one for sale used, be prepared to pay more than it cost new.
L1000267 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10D, 24/2.8 asph, ISO 200
The M10-D is based on the M10-P. That was apparent the moment I clicked its nicely damped shutter. That means that there is quite a bit more under the hood. The M10 and its -P derivative have live view, supported through the Visoflex 20, a big improvement over the (Olympus) VF2 which the M240 had used, approaching the quality of the CL's viewfinder. They also have WiFi, which in the latest firmwares switches on in one click from the WLAN line in the menu. This creates a hot spot, which FOTOS captures the first time by taking an image of a square QR code on the LCD. For the M10-D, the WiFi switches on one step past the ON position in the outer ring on the back of the camera. On the M10-D (remember, no LCD) the QR code is printed on a little piece of paper which is glued onto the bottom of the camera, under the removable baseplate. Either way, once the information is captured, FOTOS remembers it and you can skip this step.
L1000610 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10-D, 18/3.8 asph, ISO 200
I did some tests of WiFi power consumption and discovered that the M10-D must have a new radio card inside. I kept the M10-D's hot spot active for over two hours, using only half of one battery. Of course, doing something useful with FOTOS during the time that WiFi is active will increase the power demand, but this was less than half of the power needed by an M10 or a CL. Didn't have an M10-P to compare with; didn't try this with the SL.
L1000128 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10-D, 24/2.8 asph, ISO 200 f/6.8@1/4000
The Visoflex support is invaluable if you like to shoot wider than 28mm lenses (I do), or have R and other non-M lenses (I didn't have time to go down this path). But you can just take the M10-D out of its little box, set the date and time, and go shooting with any standard lens, just as with the M-D, and upload from the SD card at the end of the day to see what you have got. That's essentially what I did. I wondered if the classic exposure metering off the silver surface of the closed shutter would be accurate in low light (it was). I wondered if the camera would be easier to hold and quicker to shoot with, with nothing on the back but a leather coating (it was). I wondered if the charming little thumb rest that comes out like the film advance lever of the old days would provide extra grip and be comfortable (it did and it was). And no, it doesn't do anything but provide a thumb rest, and only does that if you want it to.
L1000334 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr, M10-D, 28/1.4 asph @ISO 800
I shot with the M10-D at night, in a very dark restaurant, under street lighting on the evening of Yom Kipur, and in bright daylight at an event and in our local sculpture garden. Everything works and it is a bit faster and less fussy than its brother, my M10. Pleasant to hold. No one paid any attention to it.
L1000373 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10-D, 28/1.4 asph, ISO 2500
The M10-D, having more horsepower under the hood than its predecessor, also has several areas in which reasonable people might not want to accept the factory default settings. M10 derivatives all have auto ISO, which I like to use, on the dial. But the default Max autoISO was set at 12,500, which seems a stop too high for me, and the min shutter time is 1/2f, which can get too low for wide angle shots with people moving around in them. Focus magnification, seen through the Visoflex 20 anytime you move the focus ring, can be helpful or annoying. I'd be happy to switch that to come on only when I press the button on the front, as I do on the M10 by setting "focus aids" to manual rather than automatic. And options for 2 or 12 second delay and continuous shooting are now deep in a menu. FOTOS is the answer to these desires, or at least will be some day. The document describing it on Google PlayStore promises that it will let you go "deep into the settings," but so far I have only seen that "drive mode" is one of the settings that comes up for an M10. The Leica press release introducing FOTOS at Photokina showed a screen shot with auto ISO parameters and automatic/manual focus magnification settings controllable. So I think we will see these eventually, and perhaps more. Most of the controls like this I would just set once and then again forget them.
L1000587 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10-D, 35/1.4 asph, ISO 6400
Finally, what does this configuration of attaching the powerful computer that lives in my smart phone to my Leica over a WiFi channel capable of many tens of Mbps foretell for future products? Can touch input at the smart phone interface replace touch input on the LCD that the M10-D has eliminated? FOTOS provides touch control of the focus point for the CL and SL but not, during the beta tests, for the -D. So I have no idea how far this will go and how soon. It still takes FOTOS 10-15 seconds to upload a compressed M10 DNG file, and more like 45 seconds for the uncompressed DNG from my CL or SL. JPGs are smaller and thus faster, and I guess I will have to figure out the path to WhatsApp where the rest of my whole family lives. In principle, this setup is able to send party JPGs to a printer in the back room and print souvenir magnets for the guests' refrigerators, but I have no plans to do that.
L1000564 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10-D, 35/1.4 asph, ISO 200
L1000579 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10-D, 35/1.4 asph, ISO 3200
Here are more pictures, in two galleries, both shot with the M10-D.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/133969392@N05/6DvB30
https://www.flickr.com/gp/133969392@N05/3268B9
Don't miss Jono Slack's review over at http://www.slack.co.uk/m10-d.html .
.
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