Leica Monochrom: example for those considering

I found this to be "interesting" not necessarily from a picture-point of view, but if you view the maximum size,

I think it's a good example of what that Leica Monochrom can do.

 

There are a few others at that same site; have a look. I'm not really trying to show off, just show what I've done in the last few days playing around with a Leica Monochrom. I really think this is the most fantasic machine I've ever worked with. Not from a purely "megapixel" point of view, just what it can do with the megapixels that it has. Its results have been a bit startling to me.

<p>Hey Tony, your Monochrom is terrific! I was admiring your b/w photos on Flickr for the last few days and am glad you are sharing them here. Nice camera in the hands of a very good photographer.</p>

thanks, Alex. i just can't find a "style" for me. Jeff Spirer and Brad have such one, yah?

<p>You have a style, man. Don't worry about anyone else. All artists are different.</p>

<p>Style, shmile you've always taken interesting photos. The pics actually all of yours with the different cameras including film, are all very clean. What's amazing is the lack of noise in the high ISO monochrome pics. So Tony, it will be interesting to see how the pics look with the new Leica Digital M's coming out. The photos are great on the Monochrome, but doesn't it bother you to have to use another camera for color? These pics are nice though.</p>

<p>Hello, Tony, I really enjoyed looking at your portfolio. You obviously have a good eye and an ability to capture the moment. The amazing resolution of the Monochrom photos add detail and textural interest. I particularly enjoyed your photos from South Africa, having grown up there. It's interesting to see an outsider's view of what to an insider is mundane and every-day. I wondered if your photo, "Tree in Sweet Light" taken in the Kruger Park was captured with an uncoated, pre-war lens like the Summar; it has that kind of signature. Thanks for sharing! Best wishes, David</p>

Thanks for the encouragement! (It does work.)

 

David, the "sweet light" shot was with my Nikon D700 (70-200). It was tweaked in Lightroom, though, so some characteristics sneak into the final image that way, I imagine.

 

Barry, I routinely reduce noise in Lightroom, but not very much. If ever you wish, I could report my Lightroom develop settings in that regard. The high ISO performance of the Monochrom really is excellent; so much so that it borders on the bizarre! I struggled with the "black and white only" notion, but I figured two things: pick a camera that does one thing _really well_ and go with it, and the fact that it doesn't have to be a permanent solution. I do enjoy working in color, too, but for now I will chock this up as a B&W experiment. The new Leica M seems to be a great camera, and I have R lenses that might make its acquisition logical, but I have not really missed color by using the Monochrom.

Working in Lightroom with images from the Monochrom is a whole new experience. First, a layer of complexity is removed entirely: the color-channel sliders. You're left with the exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, and blacks sliders. In a way, it's much easier to tweak your image to perfection, but the opposite side of that coin is that the sliders are used slightly differently. For instance, I find that I don't find useful, so far, reducing the highlights on account of it doesn't do much because once details are lost, you only have one channel to deal with and no amount of reduction can bring back detail. What that means is that you have to be careful with your initial exposure. Also, I have noticed that I need to bring up whites more, lower blacks less, and work the contrast in smaller increments.

<p>Tony, if you wouldn't mind sharing your settings for noise reduction, not that I have any Leica digital, but just to see how you go about doing it. I'm clueless when it comes to how to reduce noise and retain detail. BTW, its great finding some of your work again. Didn't realize you were on flickr, but when I first got into photography and started here on P.net, I remember some of your photos very much.</p>

Thanks for saying, Barry!

 

The trick to noise reduction is one thing: don't over-do it! But between the Monochrom and the traditional color sensor, I think that is where the similarities end. With the Monochrom, the "grain" is much easier to work with, and in some scenarios, it truly does resemble film grain. Even at its highest ISO of 10,000, the grain is still reasonable and can be dealt with pretty easily in programs like Adobe Lightroom or Nik DfFine.

 

Barry, are you using Lightroom?

<p>Tony, as someone who has used, or is using, both the colour and monchrome digital Leicas, is there any trade-off by not being able to manipulate the three colour sliders when converting to a monochrome image in post-exposure, as one has with the colour camera? I understand that if initial exposure is right (placed on right values) or if you are using colour filters, this may not be an issue, but I wonder if the Monochrom doesn't sacrifice some such flexibility by having everything in a single channel, pre-digested as it were (except for monochrome histogram and other modification potential in post-exposure).</p>

<p>Although no slouch, my Leica M9 probably cannot fully compete with the Monochrom for resolution, dynamic range and ISO range in black and white (although I am curious about how much of an "offset" that may be in performance), but maybe it has some advantage for monochrome work with three channels, as mentioned above?</p>

Relative contrast control is sure easy when starting with a color image, that is for sure. So far I'm learning that to obtain the best in skin tones for Caucasians, one need place a light yellow or orange filter on the lens of a Monochrom, otherwise the skin tones come up a tad dark (at least sometimes, depending on lighting). I'm not sure if this is a huge deal, but I think that is where having the full color range in your M9 is more convenient. It may be the pay-off for the higher apparent resolution. Time will tell for me, as I have not shot that many pictures of people yet, but of the several, they sure look good with just adjusting things like contrast, whites, shadows, blacks, etc.

 

I worried about this, because it was only recently that I began learning about using Hue/Saturation/Luminance (HSL) treatment in Lightroom. What an excellent and rich tool to use for B&W conversions from a color image.

<p>Yes, and have define as well as a plug-in.</p>

<p>Interesting shots.</p>

Last night we had dinner company and so I put the Monochrom on my own version of "Snapshot Mode" :-) by downsizing its resolution to 4.5 MB JPEG Fine (!), and by mounting my Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 Super Wide-Heliar Aspherical. I knew that the shots of the evening would not require 35 MB uncompressed (extracted from camera) on my hard drive, and a little funky angle of view for these times could be fun.

<p>

There is no downsizing of the .DNG format, so when you do this, you have to put up with some in-camera processing of the .JPG file type. For my purposes that was fine.

<p>

This is fairly close to a 100% crop of a picture I took of Mimi's silverware drawer. You might notice that her Chinese spoons are more prominent. (The next drawer is full of chop sticks!) The data follows. Make sure to view at highest res ("View all sizes"). Note that I increased the "Blacks" slider to +10 (this lessens the blacks and makes them a bit lighter). This is an ISO 2500 picture, with standard in-camera sharpening and no noise reduction that I am aware of. The Lightroom adjustments are fairly mild, the whites being shot up a bit more than the rest so I could bring out the whiteness of her spoons:

<p>

<p>

Monochrom #5559 (jpg) 4.5 MB JPEG Fine<br>

Approx 100% crop<br>

Standard sharpening (in-camera)<br>

No sharpening or noise reduction in Lightroom<br>

ISO 2500<br>

1/60th<br>

Aperture: Not wide open<br>

--<br>

Lightroom 4 Adjustments<br>

Exposure: +.24<br>

Contrast: +14<br>

Highlights: +16<br>

Shadows: 0<br>

Whites: +36<br>

Blacks: +10<br>

<p>Here is one example. I attach the full size picture. Notice the outstanding whites and blacks.</p><div></div>

That's pretty remarkable, Nozar. Thanks for contributing.

<p>Nothing much to offer. However. The picture of the Raven - WOW - what a picture. It's funny, a bit weird, and it even talks to traffic congestion (only way to get across the street is to fly?). Congrats.</p>

that was a planned shot. i saw him perched on top of that car and i knew he was going to jet. relatively fast shutter

caught him. thanks!

We have tons of ravens in Anchorage (indeed, Alaska) in the winter time. Even in Fairbanks when it is 50 below or colder, they are out. And you can hear them from farther away in the ice fog, and it is an eerie, strange, swallowing sound that is indescribable.

 

Edgar Allan Poe would have dug Anchorage.

I hear the new 50mm Apo-Asph Summicron is the lens that really shows what the M Monochrom can do.

THAT lens will show what ANY Leica can do! :-) (But you're definitely correct)

<p>I often wonder how much perfection is really needed? How much poorer is a few thousand dollar Summicron 50 compared to its recent aspherical namesake at about 4X the price? Or how much better is the Monochron compared to previous Leica digital Ms on B&W (M9, M8.2, M8)? For what it's worth, here is an unprocessed (except for the title) M8 image (sorry, I forget which lens, likely the 50mm Elmar-M f2.8) with the camera set on fine jpeg B&W setting.</p>

<p>To answer those questions, I guess we would need rigorous comparisons of the two Summicrons as well as those between the M, Monochron, M9 and other bodies. I am sure the Monochron would have some advantage, but how significant for most usage? </p>

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That's cool, Arthur, it never dawned on me to use lens filters on the M8 in B&W mode. I will try that some time. Nice picture, by the way.

 

On the Monochrom's distinct advantages, I'd say a major one is its high-ISO performance which is outstanding. The beauty there is that you can set it on Auto-ISO, lowest speed: 1/60th or 1/125th, highest ISO= 6400 or 8000 or even 10,000, and zone focus to your hearts content and get sharp pictures.