Forum Replies Created
Thank you for the compliment David. I am working on a blog post about my time with the Pentax 400mm. It has been an interesting experience. Stay tuned.
Thank you for the compliments on the photo. It's not the sort of subject one thinks of when shooting a 400mm, but I had walked out in a field a few hundred yards in hopes of capturing a photo of a doe and her very young fawn. I lost track of the doe and fawn and missed the photo I set out for. On the walk back to the car, I liked how the grass was backlit with the dew sparkling and figured the 400mm would be good as it would compress the layers of grass. I can't remember the aperture for sure, but I assume it was f8.0 as that it what I used most with that lens. The grass was rather close so that is probably why the bokeh looks so good (of course in combination with the lens design).
One might ask themselves, why use ISO 1250 in good lighting condition such as those in the photo I posted above. The answer is shutter speed, but to be honest I would have never considered using ISO 1250 just to gain a little bit of shutter speed until Josh posted his article.
In the photo above, I was using a 400mm lens, but I was also using a tripod with the lens locked down and 2 second self timer which fires mirror up at the beginning of the timer. At ISO 160 I had a shutter speed of around 1/125 sec which should be acceptable for this setup. However, there was an almost imperceptible breeze causing the grass to move a small amount. I shot a few frames at ISO 160 and then decided to try out Josh's method and bumped ISO to 1250. I am glad I did. The ISO 160 photos are not sharp due to the small movement in the grass. however, the ISO 1250 photo turned out pretty good due to the shutter speed increase to around 1/1000 sec. (Note: The shutter speeds I stated are from memory and I will verify when I get back to my computer. I don't know of a way to check exif data of an embedded image on the iPad.)
Ok Josh, I am now a believer that ISO 1250 can be used with excellent results – at least in certain conditions. The photo below and the associate crop was taken at ISO 1250 with 1/2 stop over exposure. I processed the image as normal but I did not do any noise reduction. I am shocked at just how good ISO 1250 is in good light.
Oh by the way, the photo was taken with the S2 and a Pentax 400mm ED lens via adapter
Crop
Very impressive Kurt (especially handheld). I like the composition as well.
Thank you for the article Josh. I appreciate the effort and the sample images look very good. However, they were all taken in fat light where the only reason to increase ISO is to get even higher shutter speeds. I am anxious to see how well method this works in poor light where you are increasing ISO just to get near hand holdable shutter speeds. I am afraid there are limited situations where this method will save an image, but I am happy to get all the extra I can out of the S2.
Pete Walentin;388 wrote: They listened to you. Should be done with new firmware.
I am glad they made this change, however, I can't take credit for it – it was so obvious I am sure many people requested it. Hopefully, Leica will incorporate some of the other suggestions on this thread.
Just remembered another feature I would like to see.
– Fix the auto bracketing feature to work like the M9 where it will fire off all shots in the sequence at the first press of the shutter. As it is now, the shutter button must be pressed for eacha ND every shot in the auto bracketing sequence.
– Also, allow auto bracketing be biased plus or minus. As it is now, the auto bracketing sets the shots equally spaced +/- from 0 exposure compensation. Sometimes, I would prefer the bracketing to be from, for example, -3, -1, and +1 for a 3 shot bracket that is 2 stops between each shot.
I love this pano David. It is amazing just how good the software is at creating panos now days. I really like the lenticular clouds on top of Mt Ranier. Also, I see some moire in a couple of the high-rise buildings at this resolution. Perhaps it is not there on the full size image.
Thank you for he replies David and Pete. Food for thought.
The Leica price of $849 is more than the cost of adapters from other makers, but it isn't as much as I thought they would be when announced. I expect the Leica branded adapters will be better build quality than other available adapters so the small premium in price is quite reasonable.
Marc, I am with you on the 1.4x extender for the 180mm. I want one bad. However, I don't know the limits of the S2's autofocus limits so I don't know if/how well it will autofocus at approx. f5.6.
I'm glad to see you picked up the 180mm. It seems to be working well for you. The 180mm is an exceptional lens.
David K;258 wrote: I wish I had a better idea of what kinds of things can be addressed with firmware (vs hardware). Anybody out there feel like sharing some knowledge. For example, could Leica implement a 1 push 100% zoom feature.
I agree, it would be good to know what can be done via firmware although I am not holding my breath. Probably all we can do is create a wish list such as this forum thread and see how Leica responds.
I like the 1 push 100% zoom idea. Usually, the only time I zoom is to check focus and I usually go to 100%. Since a short press of the wheel during image review gets you into zoom mode, then maybe a long press of the wheel when in image review mode could be used to go to straight to 100%. Or, simply add a menu option to skip the intermediate zoom steps and go to 100% when short pressing the click wheel.
Hi Jeff, Welcome to the forum and congratulations on getting your S2 (I saw your thread on another forum). I think you made a great choice. Now back to your post – it is my understanding that each Leica S lens is programmed with its specific information which is communicated to the S2 when mounted. I can't imagine how or if it possibly works for autofocus calibration. Maybe David Farkas knows the answer.
The autofocus on the S2 works a little different than some cameras in that focus point is not confined to the cross point. It extends into the area within the circle around the cross. The autofocus will pick-up on the highest contrast subject within the circle. At least that is what seems to be happening. For example, place the cross point on a long distance subject and autofocus. While keeping autofocus engaged (I use the rear thumb button) move the camera so that a high contrast and closer subject (e.g., tree branch or flower) comes into the circle area while keeping the cross on the distant subject. You will see the autofocus select the nearer high contrast subject. I haven't done extensive autofocus testing, but I have noticed the behavior I just described.
