Click for larger image (2 MB)
OK. I’ll start with this: No, this is not an April Fools Day joke. I did buy an M9. I’ve been thinking about it for, oh, since 9/9/09, the day they were released. I finally got around to doing it. You can find any number of reviews on the M9, waxing poetically about how grand, great, and wonderful it is. Who knows, I may say that too, but I’m not a Leicaphile. I would have bought a different one if anyone had made a rangefinder, but that’s not the case. I can wish all day, but that won’t change things.
So, here are my immediate impressions after about 100 shots with the M9, most of them today. This is not to be construed as a review, only my first impressions. As I use it more and more, I should get more detailed impressions.
1. Sharpness – Holy cow! Very nice. Very! Very, nice! No anti-aliasing filter, Summicron lens, and 18 MP make it a stunner. Click on the photo above for a more detailed look. Mind you, the full file is 18 MB, this export is 2.
2. Automatic White Balance – Sucks! My S90 does a better job, but at least the M9 uses DNG. I will not be shooting JPG with this just because of the WB.
3. Rear viewing screen, as compared to my D300 – Disgraceful – Plastic! Really? No sapphire screen. Just plastic. Doesn’t matter to me so much because I don’t chimp all that much AND the number of pixels and the color rendition is pretty poor. Good for viewing a histogram, not for judging anything else.
4. Weight and size as compared to M6. A little heftier, but it fits my hand better.
5. Noise. A bit louder than I’m used to, especially the cocking of the shutter, though it was interesting that I didn’t miss the cocking lever. I guess its’ because I switch back and forth between film and digital so it’s no big deal. The shutter mode, Soft & Discreet is fantastic, though. Just a shutter click when you take the picture, and a re-cocking of the shutter when you release the button. Very stealthy.
6. Menus – Love ‘em. Very simplified. Single level. No fluff.
7. Battery – Dang it takes a long time to charge, about 3 hours. So far, my best guess is that I will be able to take about 400 – 800 shots, depending on chimping. My best guess, about 700 as I’ve turned off the automatic preview.
8. DNG – Kudos to Leica for choosing DNG instead of some proprietary stuff. I normally shoot JPG, but the White Balance issue will cause me to shoot DNG … for now. I imagine that 99% of the photos that I take with this camera will be converted to B&W, so color is not an issue.
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Wow, didn’t see that one coming. How about your love affair with film? Doesn’t your film Leica do all that you could want?
Well, even though I don’t use AWB, I always shoot RAW. So that wouldn’t be a problem for me. Do you need to punch up the color at all?
Oh. So you’re one of those people, eh? I have to punch up the color a little bit. They come out a little flat. I just bump up the saturation slider a bit, to about 10 or 12 and the black slider to about 30. I like deeper blacks. It all, of course, depends on the picture.
HOLY COW, PAUL, AN M9? Congratulations. That tax return check must have just cleared. Just kidding, of course, I’m just jealous. You’ll get years of enjoyment out of it and superb photos, too.
I have been converting all raw file to the DNG format since I got the Nikon and the museum also converts to that format. It’s an archival format that the manufactures proprietary formats should all adapt to.
omg…. as said, there were signs that it would come. lucky you.
Hmmmm. Lucky me, eh? I just got my online statement from my credit card company! Ouch!
I thought of that, if you really could be lucky, and decided you must be.
Paul, I know from my own experience of buying equipment this buying decision was probably a battle you’d fought internally for a some time… “yes I should, no I shouldn’t, yes I should, no I shouldn’t, heck, yes I should.” I say if you can do so without compromising some other area or responsibility in your life then why the heck not. Congratulations and enjoy it! I’m looking forward to seeing more of the resulting photos.
By the way, will you be using your 50mm lens from you M6 or did you get another lens as well?
Yep. Went through all of that for a while, then decided, as you said: Why not?! I could come up with no compelling reason to not do it, other than the $$$!!! As for another lens, no way. Even if I were to purchase another lens, it would have to be a Voigtlander, as the Leica lenses cost a of money, too. So, same lens. I have to send the rental back on Monday.
Awesome! I know you’ve been hashing this desire around for a long time. I assume you will sleep much better at night and want to sue this new tool a lot. I will be interested in hearing more about your experience with it. Have fun with, Paul!!!!
Congratulations on the new member of your camera family
I’d be interested to see how you use this as time goes on, if you use it like your film camera or your digital one or if you take the best habits of both worlds and pull them together?
That’s an interesting thought, Julie. I wonder. The only thing that I can think of would be that I tend to take more shots with digital. I think that the choice of subjects will remain the same, though.