Leica M8: reality check, a modest proposal - and some pictures

[rex_vaubel]

Joseph

If one were to accept the neccessity of filters, and Leica implemented an anti-cyan software algorithm that worked, would the filter flare issue still be a deal killer for you? I'm assuming that the form factor of a rangefinder (i.e.compact) is an important consideration.

 

Rex

[joseph_wisniewski]

Ken - Increased IR sensitivity isn't as annoying to B&W as it is to color photography. But it still can lower microcontrast (IR doesn't focus in the same plane as visible light, so it adds an out of focus component to the red, green, and blue channels), lower overall contrast (veiling flare), produce blotchy skin tones (but not as severe as for color, the blotches are more hue than luminosity), and increase the visibility of veins on skin and dark circles under the eyes in portraiture.

 

Marc - the cost issues depend on how they do the filter. A custom designed dichroic would be more expensive (not to mention the workflow issues covered earlier), a different dyed glass filter wouldn't be, like using that new Schott BG50 glass I mentioned earlier. The big cost consideration is how big a batch of chips with the old filter permanently bonded to them did Kodak produce?

 

Rex - maybe not a deal killer, but definitely a major consideration for me. Unlike most of the other posters on this thread, I used those bright red filters for years on my Nikons, right up until 12 months ago when I got the D200. Even when i got the D2X and retired one D100, the filters stayed, because the backup body was still a D100. The occasional strange flare isn't the big problem. The workflow isn't the problem either: I've used a PhotoShop based anti-cyan workflow for years, the mostly automatic Leica workflow is a breeze by comparison. The problem is psychological, the filters do affect how people react to you and your camera.

[rex_vaubel]

Joseph

 

Well, if I decide I can live with an external filter, why can't it be a nice, unassuming absorbtive one? I have a Heliopan IR cut filter for my 20Da (astro model with almost no IR filter) and it is very obtrusive, a red eyed cyclops. And wouldn't an absorbtive filter be better in terms of the cyan vignetting issue?

 

Rex

[pico]

Rather than try to trace the thread I had with Joseph Wisniewski, I hope it suffices to say Thank you, Joseph, for clarifying a number of things. It helped a great deal.

 

I was distracted by the IR hot-filters I've seen used in a lab, but not for conventional photography and they were not red. The brilliant red one you pointed to does look much like either Hal's eye (movie 2001) or something I have seen on a rifle scope. Indeed, conspicuous is an understatement.

 

We need not review the issue of whether the filter in front of the lens has a significant effect upon accutance because, well, it does not matter now because I won't be getting an M8. Not after all that's been questioned.

 

Thank you again, Joseph.

[miah]

<p>I've seen the magenta cast in images but now the orange cast, wow. !The people @ Leica are pure geniuses!Bet Nikon or Canon cant do that! Nice photos</p>