@david-farkas
active 1 year, 5 months agoForum Replies Created
Well… I made a decision and went for two Crucial m4 512GB drives and configured them in RAID 0 on my current laptop. Just got finished cloning my system back over and ran CrystalDiskMark:
As you can see, it's much faster overall. I'm a little surprised that the 4K random reads was actually 2MB/s better on the old drives. Where the drive really shines is in 4K random writes with a high workload (queue depth 32). 200MB/s 4K read/write is insanely fast! This is where much of the OS and programs do their work.
When I rebooted the computer after the disk image restore, I've never had my desktop come up so fast. Just tried some S2 DNGs in LR. Everything feels faster, especially 1:1 rendering.
Overall, I'm pretty happy so far. I know that I'd get much better performance if I was using a newer computer with SATA3 vs. mine with SATA2, but in RAID I am still exceeding the total single drive max bandwidth as each drive has its own bus. Oh, I also like the fact that I now have 954GB of formatted fast SSD capacity. 😀 Plenty of speed and plenty of space.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store Miamifotophil;717 wrote: Hi David:
Leica lenses eat everything for lunch at wide open apertures. My Pentax 400mm tests confirm that the performance is disappointing wide open but greatly improves stopped down 2 stops and even better at 3 stops. In long lenses there is no free lunch. What is the going price for the Leica APO 400mm and modification?
Thanks for running these tests
Phil
Phil,
My own Pentax 400mm testing yielded the same results. Unfortunately, shooting birds at f/8 – f/11 just doesn't cut it when I was already fighting 1/125th shutter speeds at f/4.
The modification cost is $1200. The lens combo we have is selling for around $6500-7000. Unfortunately, the 1.4x is far less common than the 1x module.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiPete Walentin;716 wrote: WOW! That is really great.
I guess there are shot on a tripod? Would like to see some handheld as well. 😉
Looking forward to the whole report.
Cheers.
Pete,
These were all shot on a Gitzo 5-series with the Systematic Hydrostatic Ball Head. The lens weighs 9lbs alone, hardly hand-holdable, especially in 92 deg F heat and 80% humidity (my test conditions yesterday). I'm assuming you were kidding though. 🙂
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiDoug Herr;718 wrote: Should we assume the larger lens head would work too?
Doug,
I would assume so, as the image circle limitation comes from the focus module not the lens head.
With the larger 400/560/800 lens head and the 1.4x, you'd have a drool-worthy 560mm f/4 on the S2!! 😎 This is equivalent to a 450mm in 35mm land.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store Miamifotophil;713 wrote: Hi David:
What a great 400mm set-up for the S2!!! After the the dust settles, please compare with the Pentax 6×7 400mm ED lens.
Phil
Phil,
Our 400mm P67 lens has been on loan to a forum member here and is on its way back to us for comparative testing. Even without a side-by-side, it's safe to say that the Leica eats the Pentax lens for lunch. Much, much sharper. Easier to focus. Better contrast. Better build quality. The Leica can be used wide-open without penalty. The Pentax really needs to be shot at f/6.3 or f/8 to extract the best sharpness and then you are fighting shutter speed.
We will post results of our tests when we receive the lens next week and do some shooting.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiArif;711 wrote: How fascinating! David, Will I have to do permanent changes to my APO-telyt or can I manage via an adapter?
Thanks for posting,
ArifArif,
I'll post all the details in my article, but no, this isn't done via an adapter. The lens has to be shortened to achieve infinity focus. This also involves moving the aperture ring and mechanical linkage back towards the front of the lens. Because of this, I don't think the 1x module will work, only the 1.4x and 2x.
If you are interested in converting your lens, let me know.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiDelfi_r;708 wrote: impressive images. The image covers all S2 sensor? if yes, you've got the Holy Grail!
Yes, the projected image covers the entire S2 sensor with no vignetting.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiAnother one, also shot wide-open…
1/350th @ f/4, ISO 320David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiOne from yesterday's testing with the 400mm.
Leica S2 with 400mm f/4 APO-Telyt-R
1/350th @ f/4, ISO 320
Remember, you must be logged in to view forum images.David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store Miamijrv;700 wrote: Are there any off-camera shoe extension cords that allow the SF-58 to be fully functional?
Yes. The Nikon SC-28 or SC-29 cable has the same pin locations that Leica uses. The SF-58 functions perfectly when used with the cable.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store Miamimelantye;684 wrote: Thanks David!
I'm a really lazy photographer:D Actually I've been thinking of using some kind of multi exposure with multi flash, to capture dancing steps. If the camera superimpose a single image for me, it would be much more convenient to check on site and make changes to setting errors.
For stacking double or more still images I agree PS is so easy
If your dancer(s) can dance in complete darkness, you could always do a multi-second exposure and trigger multiple flash pops from a strobe.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store Miamimelantye;681 wrote: Not sure if I missed this function in the menu or not… can we do multiple exposure?
There is no way to do multiple exposures in a single capture, but you can easily do this in Photoshop with layers, with far more control than doing so in-camera.
See the following thread for an example where multiple long exposures of fireflies were easily composited against a single background:
http://www.reddotforum.com/showthread.php/44-Challenge-to-Photoshop-Users?p=92#post92
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiStuart Richardson;668 wrote: Just some questions out of curiosity, David…what is the widest lens you can focus to infinity with using this kind of setup? I suppose it would support basically any 4×5 lens as long as it was not too huge…
How do you synchronise the shutters in the S2 and the view camera? Just with a flash sync or something similar? Or do you have to use a dual cable release, or even use bulb on the S2 and then trigger the lens shutter?Stuart,
We are currently experimenting to see what the widest usable lens is. We have a 15mm recessed lens board and a wide-angle bag bellows (both different than what is pictured here). Both of these have given us an extra 20mm or so, but we are exploring other avenues to reduce the register distance further. We will publish our final findings and some test shots soon.
As far as the shutter goes…. the S2 uses a focal plane shutter, so we just leave the lens shutter open. There is no reason to sync it. Same goes for using Hasselblad CF lenses.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiBobby,
Interesting test. I'm curious about your testing process. Assuming that the JPG for testing was generated from the DNG, how did you process the file?
If using LR, I'd strongly suggest lowering the Black Point from the default of 5 to 2. This alone will give you back some DR in the shadows that the software is clipping. In fact for testing purposes, you may want to drop this to 0. Also, did you apply any Fill Light or Recovery as one would do in real-life processing?
I've found that extra DR can be extracted pretty easily from the DNG. Would be interesting to see how the results change as a function of different LR settings.
If you send me a DNG file, I'm happy to process it and send it back to you as a JPG if you want any assistance.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiStuart Richardson;653 wrote: Thanks David,
I read that bit. I still think his advice probably applies more to standard cameras. Did he mention specifically that he was recommending high levels of detail for non-AA filtered cameras? Because if he is, I would still disagree with him! I certainly am not saying you cannot get decent results by using high levels on the detail slider, but if you do want to go that way, you need tone the sharpening way back down into the lower levels (teens to 30s) otherwise things start looking freaky. Again, that's just my taste, and I am sure it differs.A while back, Eric wrote me this by email:
[INDENT]Regarding the sharpening settings: One of the things that has changed in PV 2010 is the effective Radius setting. Previously it was very difficult to extract the finest details (pixel-level details, like texture in bark, grass blades, fur, hair, etc.) even when the radius was set to its smallest value of 0.5. So with PV 2010 we’ve internally adjusted the Radius scale, so that in the [0.5, 1.0] range, it’s thinner than it was previously. In other words, an edge halo with PV 2010 at Radius = 0.5 is thinner than it was when using the same radius setting and PV 2003. The thinner halo is somewhat less visible, which can give the impression that the image is less sharp. Please try increasing the Radius to a value in the 0.8 to 1.2 range and see if that helps.If you have a low-noise image (e.g., ISO 80 or 160, or a well-exposed ISO 320 image) that has a lot of natural image texture (e.g., landscapes), you can also try increasing Detail to very high levels — even 75 or 100! This will extract a lot of texture and small details, but of course can make noise more visible. This is why it’s more effective on low-noise images.
[/INDENT] [INDENT]
[/INDENT]And, yes, he is referring to S2 processing specifically. Eric was responsible for working with Leica's digital team in Germany to tweak the processing for the S2.I don't ever turn my sharpening amount past 45, but rarely do I ever turn it down, either.
Here's a 100% crop using my standard sharpening settings (taken from my recent S120 vs P105 article):
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store Miami
