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Leica s colors (006 vs 007)

Earlstone

Member
I have had many great private messages as well as a good discussion on the Leica forum about this. I feel I like this forum has a different perspective that I like so I wanted to bring it up here. I had an 007 awhile back and sold it because I had to. I kept the 100S which I really love. Recently I purchased a CPO 006 with warranty for a great price. So far I've been stunned with the ooc colors. I also started playing with capture one, but that's still in the discovery process. What I noticed with my old 007 files vs the 006 files was that starting from scratch the 006 images definitely have a great color right away. The 007 felt flatter yet more mailable though. Either are really nice no doubt. My question is for owners of both who have really dug into color what are your feelings between the two. I do miss the speed and smoothness of the 007 in terms of mechanics as well as the higher ISO, but I really want a unique image more than anything as this is a hobby fo me. The 006 colors really do pop. Is that just a CCD thing and the CMOS will never get there, yet can be special in its own way?
 
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dave.gt

Well-known member
I have had many great private messages as well as a good discussion on the Leica forum about this. I feel I like this forum has a different perspective that I like so I wanted to bring it up here. I had an 007 awhile back and sold it because I had to. I kept the 100S which I really love. Recently I purchased a CPO 006 with warranty for a great price. So far I've been stunned with the ooc colors. I also started playing with capture one, but that's still in the discovery process. What I noticed with my old 007 files vs the 006 files was that starting from scratch the 006 images definitely have a great color right away. The 007 felt flatter yet more mailable though. Either are really nice no doubt. My question is for owners of both who have really dug into color what are your feelings between the two. I do miss the speed and smoothness of the 007 in terms of mechanics as well as the higher ISO, but I really want a unique image more than anything as this is a hobby fo me. The 006 colors really do pop. Is that just a CCD thing and the CMOS will never get there, yet can be special in its own way?
This is interesting, but not having owned an S, yet, I am curious... do you have any comparative images?:)
 

thrice

Active member
Probably a strong CFA thing rather than a CCD/CMOS thing.
Leica were pushing CMOSIS so hard for high ISO performance that I think the CFA became a little weak (to let more light in) and colour precision and metamerism suffered.
You can create a profile that shifts the 007 colours closer to the 006 but if it's anything like the M240 (and it is) then the colours can never quite be pushed to fit.

There was a great article in LFI a year or so after the M240 release that showed that camera was unable to be colour-accurate due to the incredibly weak CFA and colour inaccuracies that introduced.
 

Earlstone

Member
Probably a strong CFA thing rather than a CCD/CMOS thing.
Leica were pushing CMOSIS so hard for high ISO performance that I think the CFA became a little weak (to let more light in) and colour precision and metamerism suffered.
You can create a profile that shifts the 007 colours closer to the 006 but if it's anything like the M240 (and it is) then the colours can never quite be pushed to fit.

There was a great article in LFI a year or so after the M240 release that showed that camera was unable to be colour-accurate due to the incredibly weak CFA and colour inaccuracies that introduced.

Thank you. Yeah, I have files from both cameras and the 006 despite its ISO limitations really seems to jump out as well as get to "good" color much easier.
 
To me its not even a question - yes you can do some raw edits on the 007 to look close to a 006. But the colors of the 006 are in my opinion the best in the world.

I don't mind the iso performance for my work, so I chose the 006 purely over the 007 for color.

I felt this way when shooting phase one as well. The older P45+ and p25+ Kodak sensor backs have the nicest pop by far. The newer sensors just don't have that "special look" while they do have a lot more bells and whistles.
 
M

mjr

Guest
Hi

I shot the 006 and 007 side by side for about a year commercially, colours are infinity tweakable in all sorts of ways, the thing that stood out for me with the 006 over the 007 was the tones and transitions between lights and darks, there is an incredible richness in the 006 files and whilst they can be very similar in output when you take the time, the 006 is just a magical file. Despite having shot millions of frames with lots of different cameras, my favourite shots even now have come from the 006. The 007 obviously has the ISO advantage which makes it an excellent camera for handheld work, I mainly shot with strobes or personal landscape work so very rarely got off base ISO.

I have a GFX now, in every measurable way it's a "better" camera but there isn't that richness of tone that I see from the S, if I was just shooting personal work then I would be back with a 006 for sure.

Have fun with it!

Mat
 

thrice

Active member
Most Kodak Sensors, eg. M9, S006, P45, P25 etc have similar colour response and fantastic tonality. Obviously the bigger the chip the better the tonality.
 
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