LEICA SL2 | Highlights & Shadows Recovery | Dynamic Range
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- čas přidán 21. 08. 2024
- I consider and explain in detail the dynamic range of the Leica SL2, addressing question in comments on my comparison of the Leica M10-R versus the Leica SL2:
• LEICA M10-R vs LEICA S...
Watch in 4K to avoid video compression artefacts.
If you want to learn more about exposure bracketing with the Leica SL2:
• LEICA SL2 & System Cam...
If you want to learn all the technical stuff around Leica cameras incl dynamic range and all that tech language, consider this book:
gmpphoto.blogsp...
There are also various online articles. I found one at DPReview, much more detailed and technical, but very nicely made:
www.dpreview.c...
In the part of the video where I explain 14 Bit RAW, I used video snippets from storyblocks.com which I have licensed and permission to use.
Very informative, thanks Matt. A truly amazing sensor. I remember working with vidicons and plumbicons and see the changeover to CCD. Dynamic range on videos was more of an issue on the darker shades. Early digital still cameras were really limited but now we can recover so much nobody want to go back to film unless you are a black and white artist.
As always a thoughtful and factual analysis - many thanks!
At 16:55 you see the highlights in the clouds becoming blown out. Camera manufacturers should somehow render the fact explained at 12:40 by applying a logarithmic curve when rendering into the raw files to get a better, more even distribution of the recovery possibilities in post. Should I patent that (hopefully original) idea?
Believe me or not, but dynamic range is also a property of the lens. Some Lenses have better contrast then otheres, if you have a lens with low contrast the blacks get gray and you will lose Details in the shadows. Imagine a bar with all shades of gray on it. From white to black. When you bring up the darkest one it will look like the one next to it. So you will lose Details in the dark tones. But you need a very bad lens to see it.
For sports photography the size of the lens is your best weapon. The only other field where glass of infinity is wished for is astronomy!
I was going to say the same thing.
It’s not just a property of the sensor.
Newer lenses will ask more of the sensor in terms of dynamic range.
Dynamic range is a property of the sensor, not the lens. That some lenses impact on that final result is external to the sensor's capabilities...even if it is part of the overall equation. In the same way that an f/1.2 lens will deliver more light to the sensor than an f/2 lens - changing the combined equation - it doesn't mean that the sensor is natively any more responsive to light.
I agree, the lens takes part in it. But at the end you wanna rely on the sensor's capabilities with all lenses you shoot with, at least when you shoot with high-end lenses.
Always brilliant review
Can you also explain how Leica M10-R could recover those highlights? Does it have more dynamic range ?
My guess is it's probably just adjusted differently. Many M shooters either switched from film or are still shooting film. And to even out the shooting experience... If you test from total black to blown out white you would probably not see a big difference in dynamic range between M10-R and SL2.
There will be a third video on that topic, stay tuned :)
Excellent and detailed explanation!
Excellent video, very informative report! Thank you!
Your last video does not explain the differens in highlight recovery between M10R and SL 2.in you previous video.
.
Really enjoy this channel. Thanks for taking the time to make this content available. I’ve owned an SL and an X1D. Now trying to decide between and SL2 or and X1D II 50C. Any views about the relative merits of each?
The SL2 is a work-horse, gets the job done. The X1D II is elegant, has less features but likely the best sensor on planet earth. Will you see a difference in image quality? Hardly, I think. If I would have to decide between the two, I would go for the SL2. But don't get me wrong, the X1D II is great too. At the end its a matter of needs and taste.
@@mathphotographer SL2 is such a superb camera in the field or in the studio. Tackles all of my needs including sports.
Excellent video
Thanks for this. Most leica you tubers never use sigma lenses. What's the point of an L mount alliance if nobody will use the other lenses?
Sigma makes fantastic lenses, thanks for your comment!
Very informative, thank you !
Excellent video and explanation congratulation
Thanks!
Just to clear some parts of your video up and correct some other parts. The 14bit statement from leica isnt about the dynamic range its about the color depth. And also there is a difference between stated dynamic range and actual dynamic range depending on choosen iso. So even though the base iso is 100 it does not equal to being the best iso for high dynamic range enviroments. Most sensor work best at 2 or 3 stops above base iso when in high dynamic range enviroments. So to take this further, at iso 100 you get a uneven spread of dynamic range, while with lets say iso 800 you get a more even spread throughout highlight and shadow detail. At base iso most modern digital sensors work really good with shadows and rather poorly with highlights, while being 2 stops above base iso, so at 400, or even 3 stops above at 800, you will get better highlight recovery comparing to shadow recovery. In short the higher the iso the better the highlight recovery, the lower the iso the better the shadow recovery.
Hi Luke, thanks for your thoughts. At base ISO, shadow recovery works better than highlight recovery, that's what I showed in two videos. On your statement on 14 bit RAW, I recommend to read the supplementary article from DPReview which I linked below the video, the article is much more detailed than what I sketched in the video but will help to address your point. The article's core message is that "Raw bit depth is about dynamic range, not the number of colors you get to capture". Worthwhile read. Last point, where I respectfully disagree is on your point on base ISO and dynamic range. Dynamic range is always and on all camera sensors a strict-monotonically decreasing function of ISO, means, with increasing ISO (above base ISO) the dynamic range becomes worse. If you have doubts on my statement, you can look this up at DxOmark, Reddit, and many other reference sources. Lots of charts in the Web illustrate this, on all kinds of cameras. So going from the sensor's base ISO to some ISO stops higher will necessarily worsen the dynamic range although the two sides (shadows, highlights) might become more "evenly distributed" (but: at the expense of overall worse dynamic range after increasing ISO over base ISO).
Excellent. Thanks ;)
Am I missing something? Wasn’t he supposed to compare DR between the SL2 and M10R?
Yes Paul, there will be a third short video on the topic, then finally closing the chapter. This video here was a technical video with explanations on dynamic range and focus on the SL2. Next weeks, you will find a video on my channel where I put the two cameras side by side again and focus on highlights only to finally draw a conclusion.
So the M10R sensor is better recovering highlights ?
Not necessarily. The metering may be tuned differently for the two cameras, with the M10-R claiming (and its histogram showing) “correct” exposure at a lower overall luminosity than the SL-2. You’d need to do a finer grained test, using 1/2 stop increments, to pin down more precisely where each camera clips at both the shadow and highlight ends of the spectrum.
which camera is the best for you?
There is no such thing like a best camera :) Different shooting situations demand different cameras ... But if you ask me what pleases me most when I have a camera in my hands, then it is a Leica Rangefinder like the M10-R or the M10 Mono. Having said that, the most beautiful shooting experience is typically not correlated to the best technology. My Phase One is the best camera from a tech perspective but it is by far not as enjoyable to shoot like, for instance, my Leica SL2. So I guess the answer to your question has room for ambiguity :) I made it a habit to have a bunch of cameras and each of them has their advantages and disadvantages. I choose them based on the situation and shoot them and then I enjoy the moment. And ... I love them all :)
@@mathphotographer thanks 😘
@@mathphotographer absolutely. I'm and M photographer, its something that I come back to in film and digital - currently the M10-R and M10-M. A close second is the SL series, starting in 2015 with the SL typ 601 and now the SL2 & SL2S. I shoot mostly stills, but some cinematic video so the SL2S works well in a very familiar shooting experience. However, I will use my RED, BMPCC 6K or even Sigma FP if I want the dynamic range and malleability of raw video. I also need more depth for some of the work I do and that needs medium format. For film, easy, a Mamiya 7ii rangefinder or a Hasselblad 503cx, but for DMF its been a struggle. I am not happy with the almost decade old Sony 50MP sensor on most DMF cameras. Had the Pentax 645Z for a long time, and toyed with the Hassy X series (expecially the CFV 50c back) but I don't like the experience shooting them. So, I settled on the Leica S series that I have been in and around since 2013, keeping the S typ 007 and not upgrading to the S3.. yet. However, I think Leica itself may be just holding onto the system because of prior investment by Dr. Kaufman, as the upgrades in tech are slow. I would love a mirrorless S option with some of the features the Phase One XT series has without the price tag, but the shooting speed of the S and maybe some of the GFX100S features, but without the bulky ergonomics of the GFX line cameras. The Hassy 1XD/1XD II just seems like a SL like design choice that doesn't have everything I like about the SL (like some of the features that should be available in a digital camera just are not there at all in the 1XD like Auto ISO in manual)... maybe, DMF just hasn't arrived yet - so until then, my M10-R and SL2 are just fine for MOST things, and the first cameras I go for (besides a Ricoh GR III on my belt instead of a cell phone for quick snaps).
Isn't this a flawed argument or false premise. The purpose of shooting at +4ev isn't to recover the highlights but to expose to bring the shadows up i.e. the ONLY purpose is an 'on paper' exercise?
Please show in your "correct 0EV exposure that in fact the image has channels that are at the full 16Kcounts . use something like RAWDIGGER s/w to show this. I know from looking at images from my Nikon D7500 often what the camera thinks is correct is actually 1-2 EV under exposed depending on the image taken. unless you actually show what the levels are then you are supposing the 0EV was correct.
The image histogram is not very accurate on all cameras for showing your true exposure.
Secondly our displays can not show the full dynamic range of a modern sensor so we compress the dynamic range for them again we sample only a small part of the full dynamic range of an image.