Leica M9 Compact Camera Preview
Full Frame 18 Megapixel Digital Rangefinder With Legendary Lenses.
Sep 17, 2009
The M9 is a major upgrade of Leica’s first digital rangefinder camera, the M8. The introduction of the Leica M8 did not go smoothly, perhaps due to photographer’s high expectations and inherent design problems with the M8.
The digital sensor in the Leica M8 proved to be oversensitive to Infra Red (IR) light causing a magenta cast on dark objects. Fitting IR filters on the front of the lens proved to be a workable solution.
There were other problems such as green ghosting and colors streaking that Leica fixed under warranty or with firmware updates. This process is common for digital cameras from Japanese manufacturers but it dented the expectation of quality that goes with the Leica name.
New Kodak Sensor
The heart of the Leica M9 is a new Kodak Digital sensor and this promises to be something special as it is an 18-megapixel resolution full frame sensor. This is a brand new Kodak unit specifically designed for the Leica M9 and promises to overcome the challenges involved in using a large sensor in a compact body. These are the same as the in the M8 and are even more significant due to the larger full frame sensor in the same compact body.
Kodak allowed for the short lens to sensor distance in the compact Leica M9 rangefinder in the design of the sensors and its micro lenses. The pixels at the edges and corners of the image still receive a similar amount of light as those at the center of the image as the design allows for the acute angles of peripheral light rays.
Digital sensors are much more sensitive to the direction of the light rays coming through the camera lens than photographic film. This is not such a big issue in DSLRs as the distance from the lens to the sensor is quite large to accommodate the reflex mirror assembly. Certainly, quality lenses for film SLRs still perform well on DSLRS.
Apart from the micro lens the additional measures are required. This includes using very thin sensor cover glass, with a minimum of IR filtering and no anti-moire "blur" filter. For the Leica M9 sensor Kodak have addressed the IR sensitivity problem of the M8 design and Leica says “the sensor of the M9 features a newly developed glass sensor cover that is designed to guarantee the suppression of the infrared portion of the light spectrum in practical photography. This avoids the necessity of mounting special UV/IR filters.”
“We are honored that Leica has again chosen Kodak to supply image sensors for their latest camera – the new M9,” said Chris McNiffe, General Manager of Kodak’s Image Sensor Solutions group. “This new sensor is the latest example of Kodak’s continued commitment to support a broad range of imaging markets with high-performance image sensors that leverage Kodak’s most advanced CCD technology.”
“In developing the M9 camera, we knew that Leica could not compromise on the quality we would offer to our customers,” said Rudi Spiller, CEO of Leica Camera AG. “By working once again with Kodak to supply the image sensor for this new camera, we helped to ensure that images from the M9 would meet the high expectations our customers have for this exciting new product.”
ISO Range
The Kodak sensor allows an ISO range of 160- 2500 in the Leica M9. With the larger pixels possible in a full frame sensor there is the promise of excellent noise performance. This should allow street photographers and photojournalists to shoot in low light conditions without using flash.
Legendary Leica Lenses
Leica optics are among the best ever made and the Leica M9 is compatible with nearly all M system lenses made since 1954. New M series lenses come with a 6-bit code on the bayonet mount that is optically scanned by the M9 to correct any slight vignetting and dedicated flash units can automatically adjust their reflectors to suit the focal length of the lens.
Viewfinder and Focusing
The Leica M9 is a manual focusing system and uses only prime or fixed focal length lenses.
The focusing ring on the lens of a Leica M9’s drives the rangefinder focusing system. The viewfinder displays two views of the same image until the two views coincide, indicating the subject is in focus.
One advantage of the rangefinder system is that the viewfinders in DSLRs camera viewfinders that only show the view through the lens, the rangefinder lets you see the area that surrounds the actual image in the viewfinder giving you greater possibilities and confidence as you compose each image.
Quirky
As well as the rangefinder system, the Leica M9 inherits a compact camera body similar to all M series Leica’s. Rather than having doors and flaps in the body for access to memory cards and the battery Leica stuck with their traditional system and photographers must remove the bottom plate of the camera.
This is Not a Sports Camera
The Leica does not pretend to be a complete camera system unlike DSLRs. To go with the manual focusing the lenses only range from 16mm to 135 mm, a little bit on the short side for most sports shots. Then there is there is the slow frame rate of aapproximately 2 frames per second up to 8 frames in the sequence.
Memory Cards
Despite the large increase in file size due to its full frame sensor the Leica M9 continues to use the compact SD cards. However, it is compatible with the new SDHC cards of up to 32 GB capacity.
Price and Availability
Retailers expect the Leica M9 in stores around October 2009 at an estimated price of $US7, 000.00 and comes in all black or a steel-grey.
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