@david-farkas
active 1 year, 5 months agoForum Replies Created
Stuart Richardson;650 wrote: And just another note — Eric Chan confirmed that the detail slider towards the higher side brings into play deconvolution sharpening — so that would mean that David has it right…
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=45038.0Also, it would seem to make sense to me anyway as to why the detail slider is best used sparingly with the M9 and S2 — since these cameras do not have AA filters and have exceptionally sharp lenses, there is less convolution (blur) than in traditional cameras. So when you try to deconvolute that which is not convoluted in the first place, it starts to look weird! That's my take anyway…
Stuart,
Here's what Eric Chan wrote over on LL:
Yes, the Detail slider in CR 6 & LR 3 is a blend of sharpening/deblur methods and if you want the deconv-based method then you crank up the Detail slider (even up to 100 if you want the pure deconv-based method). I do this for most landscapes and images with a lot of texture (rocks, bark, twigs, etc.) and I find it's not bad for that.
I've emailed back and forth with Eric and we had a nice chat last year at Photo Plus. He's a wealth of information and a lot of my LR settings are based off his advice, as well as that of Stephan Shulz. Eric is a senior developer for Adobe and actually rewrote much of the sharpening algorithms for LR3.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiRoger;641 wrote: Thanks Josh
I know as you build an archive overtime that there is an advantage to having some consistency in rendering. For example when the pros look back at their life s work ..its nice that everything they shot on kodachrome or tri x has a similar look. For example look at the Leica video on Steve McCurry ….the images that were taken years apart hang together .
So my goal is to have the S2 and M9 files render in a similar way .
My question on clarity really comes from more recent insights on LR3 and how Adobe has worked in improvements in the raw conversions. This may be more related to Nikon files which suffer from the AA filter and benefit greatly from deconvolution algorithms . But the logic was similar above 50% the algorithms start to kick in. I will ask on the adobe forums. (most leica users developed their presets during prior versions of LR ) .
Roger,
I think you may be confusing clarity with detail. The detail slider under the sharpening settings acts in this way:
0 = 100% USM
50 = 50/50 USM + deconvolution
100 = 100% deconvolutionI prefer to set the slider to 75, which emphasizes the deconvolution method which I prefer for textural detail with a bit of USM which enhances edge contrast. Here's the sharpening settings from my S2 preset ( David's LR 3.4.1 Preset – S2.lrtemplate ) which I use as a starting point for all my S2 files:
My clarity is pegged at +7 and never moves. I have, on occasion, brushed in some negative clarity using the local adjustment brush. Just a little goes a long way in a portrait without softening the image overall.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store Miamiarminw;627 wrote: great review thanks for the link
Be sure to click the Member Blogs link in the navbar to check for new blog posts from members, as well as the News and Articles link to check for updates, articles and reviews from me and Josh.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiPete Walentin;615 wrote: Camera is on the way to Solms. Even if it is always a pain when those kind a things happen, the support from the community, especially David and Josh and from Leica is extraordinary. They really take care.
Thanks.
Pete
Pete,
Sorry we couldn't get you sorted out without a trip back to Solms. I'm sure the turnaround will be quick.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiNick Rains;612 wrote: From what I have been told by the Leica guys, the zoom will be actually much smaller than expected as there will be no CS version. I suspect it will be an f3.5 design but don't know for sure.
From my conversations with Stephan Shulz, the 30-90 should actually be roughly the same dimensions as the 35 f/2.5. The aperture range will be f/3.5-5.6. While a constant aperture f/3.5 was the original goal, it was decided that this would have resulted in a lens that was too large, too heavy and too costly. The variable aperture design is fine by me as I see it mainly as a flexible landscape lens where I'm shooting most everything at f/11 anyway for greater DOF.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiNice shots. Looks like you are getting the hang of M photography pretty quickly.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiPete Walentin;598 wrote: Everything was fine before. Just updated the firmware. Camera automatically turned off. I turned the camera on and now it has a nice black, shimmering line through the whole display. GREAT!
This is already my 2nd camera and I'm starting to really get annoyed.
Does anyone experienced the same problem or does anyone have an idea?
Thanks,
PetePete,
I alerted Leica to your problem (which we've never seen before, BTW). I just heard back that reloading the firmware will resolve the issue and that the technicians in Germany are looking for the underlying cause.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiRoger,
In the current firmware, you can set the rear button to either AF-C or AF-S in MF mode. By default, a half-press and hold on the shutter release will act as an AE-L.
If you're used to using the rear button for focus, you may not want to confuse things by setting it to the shutter release. Muscle memory is a powerful force especially when you're under pressure and trying to shoot quickly.
I agree with Al. Save a few user profiles to a small SD card which you leave in the camera all the time. If the shooting scenario changes, just load the profile for the situation and go. Very quick and easy.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiNick,
Thanks for posting this sample over here on Red Dot Forum. It is one of the best examples I've seen yet for detail and noise at 640 ISO.
I took a look at the metadata: 1/1000th at f/9.5. Easily hand-holdable shutter speed for the 120 with good depth of field as well. ISO 160 would have dropped you down to 1/250th, which should have been fast enough. 1/1000th guaranteed it.
Personally, I usually set the S2 at 320 ISO for walk-around shooting for the same reasons you outlined, mainly to afford faster shutter speeds and smaller apertures for more DOF.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiWhoa! Brave volunteers. 😮
I'd say you effectively captured the moment and the emotion (tension) extremely well.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiThis looks nice!
http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10549
LaCie Little Big Disk with Thunderbolt
No pricing yet, but sizing will be:
240GB SSD
500GB SSD
1TB 7200RPM HDDAll sizes will have built-in RAID 0 and Thunderbolt 10GB/s interface
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiPeyton,
Is this lens still available? I have someone who might be interested.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiAtanabe;548 wrote: David,
Thank you for doing the test and damn you – now I lust for the 35 😡 Very impressive performance even without the corrections. Overall, the entire stable of S lenses have far exceeded my expectations.-Al
You're welcome on both counts, Al. 😀
The S lenses are really extraordinary. Peter Karbe told me, “The S lenses are the best that we [Leica] have made… for any system… ever.” Strong words from an understated genius…. and true.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiJack MacD;543 wrote: Mark,
I think David wants to do weightlifting. Since he is both his own very good IT dept. and Dale has an IT dept. he can work very well with a PC. Apple is a good choice for those of us without those skills and departments.So if he was willing to give up 8 to 16 Gig RAM capabilities with all the rest that he needs to have with him at all times, David should get a Dell SSD lightweight over the Air, and that is fine and can be a great choice.
If however one lives in the Mac ecosystem, the Air is an perfect solution for travel as I discussed on another thread. I am now typing on it and I must say that David was the one who advised me to get the i7 over the i5. I am not using this for huge crunching of photos because when I am on the road, I don't want to be in my hotel all night crunching photos and then too tired to shoot photos the next day. BTW David, you are so right that the SD card reader is one quarter of the download speed of a firewire 800 reader of my CD card, so I look forward to a thunderbolt reader. I have yet to test how long it takes to work a big S2 file on my 4gig Air versus my 16gig iMac. I am hoping the SSD is a big help.
If I go on the fall shoot with David, we will have a test of the best travel solution. But if he doesn't buy a true lightweight solution, either PC or Mac, we will see who checked their luggage and who did just carry-on.
Jack,
I think my issue is that I have a lot of different needs depending on my intended use. Sometimes, like on our Fall foliage trip, I need to have full editing capability with desktop speed and screen real estate. When I travel for demos, I also need speed, but portability is a bit more important as I take cabs and trains to visit multiple clients in a short amount of time. Personally, when I fly I like to have in-flight distractions so a super-lightweight iPad with enough battery life to watch a few movies is the most important factor. I only use my iPad for entertainment and web browsing 90% of the time (even though I have about 100 apps installed). My laptop stays in the overhead bin.
In an ideal world, I'd have a MBA to possibly replace my iPad (flash content would be sweet as would a real keyboard), but there is no built-in 3G/4G. I could always just use my BlackBerry to tether over Bluetooth or USB (unlimited data and no extra charge for tethering – life isn't so bad in the non-iPhone world :p).
Weightlifting? 🙂 C'mon… the M4600 is 6lbs. A 15″ MBP is 5.6lbs. My current machine is 8.5lbs and I carry it from home to work and back every day. In fact, I don't have a desktop at home or at work on my desk. My laptop is my movable desktop – I like to have access to all my files all the time.
I don't think Windows is as bad as Steve Jobs would like everyone to believe. I've always used business-class Dell computers with 3yr next-day on-site service contracts (no waiting in line at the Genius Bar) and no installed bloatware. Drivers just work and the hassles of home-built computers is non-existent.
We don't have an IT department besides me. I go several weeks between reboots on my computer and keep tons of stuff running all the time: 50-100 browser tabs spread between Firefox, IE and Chrome, a few Excel spreadsheets, a few Word documents, Outlook, a couple PDFs, our order management software and Lightroom. I like to have information quickly available and often work on multiple projects at once. I think in the last fifteen years of Windows use, I've gotten one virus and it was on Windows 98, never on Windows 7. Windows 7 is an amazing OS, which perosnally I find faster and more productive that OS X, which I also use on an almost daily basis.
I'm not knocking Apple products. In fact, I own shares of AAPL and several Apple products and have a business account at our local store. But for serious image editing, content creation, web programming and getting work done every single day, I turn to my Windows machine. Not saying I know better than others or that you can't get work done on a Mac. I just prefer Windows for most things.
And, you better believe I will be checking a lot of bags! I have a week's worth of hiking and cold weather clothes, a photo backback full of S2 gear and filters, a 3-series Gitzo tripod, and yes – a computer to bring. I would be astonished to see you manage carry-on only. 😀
I look forward to you coming on the trip so we can compare notes and laptops. 😎
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiPete,
Ask and you shall receive. I went out today with the S2 and 35mm Summarit-S around noon when the South Florida light is at its most harsh and direct. I headed for a polished stainless steel sculpture in nearby Greenbelt park as I figured it to be the toughest test of CA within driving distance.
The files here were processed in LR 3.4.1 with my standard S2 preset applied (which includes auto lens profile correction). I then unchecked the lens profile so that the shots are identically processed otherwise. I made no additional CA correction or moved the sliders in the lens profile tab from their default positions (100 for distortion, 100 for CA). For each set, the image with no lens profile is first and the one with lens profile applied is second.
The full shots when clicked will bring up 1800×1200 images sized down from the original. The crops when clicked are non resized crops and are pretty large. The thumbnails generated by the forum software don't show much difference, so please make sure to click on each example.
Here's the results of the tests:
First, the full shot with no lens profile applied
S2 with 35mm Summarit-S, 1/750th @ f/8, ISO 160
Full shot with the lens profile applied
100% crop from upper-left corner with no lens profile
100% crop with lens profile
Another full shot with no lens profile applied
S2 with 35mm Summarit-S, 1/750th @ f/5.6 ISO 160
Full shot with lens profile applied
100% crop from upper-left corner with no lens profile
100% crop with lens profile
All in all, a very strong showing from both the 35mm Summarit-S and the LR lens profile. What little CA is present in these extreme examples (at the frame edge I might add) is almost completely eliminated with one click.
Hopefully, this was the kind of test you were looking for.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store Miami
