Leica Converting from Canon to Leica - A diary

Look at other photos in the same set - you'll see that the dust spots are gone.

I'm normally very obsessive about cleaning my lenses, but that particular morning, I woke up at 6AM and immediately went to the Taj, so as to avoid the huge crowds. After taking a few shots, I realized that my lens was dusty, and I kicked myself, then used my LensPen to clean the lenses.

I was hardly going to try and clean the sensor in the field, heh.

Also, look at my other photosets. You'll see that there're no dust spots - that's because I took the time to clean the lenses, first.

The bottom line is that I don't have a chronic sensor dust problem. Given that the OP is experiencing fringing & sensor dust issues, I wonder if his M9 body is somehow twisted out of true so that it's not sealing properly.

Dust on the front element just won't show in an image, sorry. And you'd have to be at around f16 for any on the rear to be noticeable. Just because the dust moved doesn't mean it wasn't there. It's most likely that the shutter closing shook it off.

I never mentioned a dust problem and I don't believe I have one. There are a few spots, but no worse than my Canon 5D2 with it's fancy ultrasonic system and no where near as bad as my original 5d or 1Ds2. ALL digital cameras get sensor dust occasionally. And larger sensors are more prone than smaller ones. I have an artic butterfly that I use to deal with it.

As for the fringing. It's a widely reported phenomenon with ultra fast lenses. There are threads active on Fred Miranda and the Leica forums currently. I am absolutely positive that it has more to do with the lenses that I use in conjunction with the narrow dynamic range CCD sensor in the M9. If I stop down a bit it improves. By f2 it's almost completely gone. It also only happens in ver specific circumstances. Backlit scenes where the subject is in front of a very bright backlight. Expose for the subject and it's there. Expose for the background and push in post and it's not as bad. Next year when I get my Noctilux rather than the "classic" glass I'm currently using and it will be better. But it will still happen. Try googling M9 purple fringing and look how many hits you get.

Gordon
 
Got my Zhou half case today. The camera feels quite large with it on. It's well made but I may get something better. The rear cutout doesn't match the raised section on the rear of the camera at all and it looks like it doesn't fit properly, although I'm sure that's how it was designed. A bit disappointing, really. The kidney grip really does help handling though. I'll keep it on until I can summon the courage to spend the money on a Luigi case, to protect the finish on the camera.

I've found that the FL58 flash is just a rebadged Metz 58af2 ( because I bought two 58af2's for my m4/3 system). But it sells for at least twice the price. That sort of stuff really annoys me, so no Mr Leica, I won't be purchasing one. Being ripped off for batteries and flashes etc. Really dampens your enthusiasm for the brand, especially as Metz don't actually carry ANY alternative. I'll probably pick up a used SCA flash and buy an SCA3502 module. I won't need flash much anyway. For now I'll use my Olympus FL36R on auto mode. Which has worked well around the test area (otherwise known as my lounge room. I think I may have blinded the dog.)

It looks like there's new firmware out in a few weeks. So there may be improvement in the colour cast with wides. That may prompt some more lens purchases if that's the case.

I found another peeve. What's with the tiny, tiny, tiny jpeg previews embeded in files. It's a total pita because if you open them in a preview app or on an iPad all you get is a 360 pixel preview. AAAAARGH!

But I also found something I like as well. The auto ISO works well on the M9. I get realistic shutter speeds before the iso is pushed up. Unlike the GH2 which gave me a 30th of a second with a 200mm lens attached. I use auto ISO as standard for working quickly now and then override to manual control when I have time to think about a shot.

I've now done two small commercial shoots where the M9 played a part. The shots were OK but not great. That's because of me, not the camera. The clients loved them though and the camera worked really well in the field. I'm using a 3 stop ND filter outside so I can get nice DOF control and it seems to work well.

Gordon
 
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