Leica M Monochrom and color filters

[borge]

Just wrote a very short blog article about my experience with using B+W MRC color filters on the Leica M Monochrom, with some example photos:

http://bophotography.net/2012/12/18/...color-filters/

[Calzone]

Borge,

Thanks for the post and sharing. The MRC versions are worth the premium over regular B&W filters because one they are easier to clean, and for some reason they tend to stay cleaner.

I use filters all the time, but I compensate for the filter factor differently than you. I found that on my M6 and Nikon F3P that the TTL sensor does not respond fully with say a one stop offset for a yellow filter and only registers a half stop difference and with an orange filter only one full stop. When I use filters (mostly yellow and orange) I just set my film speed lower by one half stop to bring up the difference.

On film I would rather have the contrast on the negative so I can straight print in the darkroom. I assume the amount of post in digital becomes simpler with less tweaking when your Monochrome is used with filters?

Cal

[borge]

Originally Posted by Calzone

Borge,

Thanks for the post and sharing. The MRC versions are worth the premium over regular B&W filters because one they are easier to clean, and for some reason they tend to stay cleaner.

I use filters all the time, but I compensate for the filter factor differently than you. I found that on my M6 and Nikon F3P that the TTL sensor does not respond fully with say a one stop offset for a yellow filter and only registers a half stop difference and with an orange filter only one full stop. When I use filters (mostly yellow and orange) I just set my film speed lower by one half stop to bring up the difference.

On film I would rather have the contrast on the negative so I can straight print in the darkroom. I assume the amount of post in digital becomes simpler with less tweaking when your Monochrome is used with filters?

Cal

The B+W MRC filters does indeed seem quite nice and very easy to clean compared to the Hoya branded filters that I previously owned (which was impossible to clean and which "locked on" to the lenses filter thread).

I tried compensating manually by using the filter factors but this resulted in quite over-exposed images on the MM atleast. Even with the red filter. I found that just letting the camera handle the metering worked best under the scenarios that I used them atleast. It might have been different under different lighting. I always checked the raw histogram to be sure though.

By using the filter factors (2, 4 and 8 respectively - 1, 2 and 3 stops) and compensating according to the filter factors the camera always over-exposed the shots. The maximum amount of manual compensation that I could perform was about 0.5 stop on the yellow filter, 1-1.3 on the orange and 2-2.3 on the red otherwise the images would be very over-exposed.

[Calzone]

Originally Posted by borge

The B+W MRC filters does indeed seem quite nice and very easy to clean compared to the Hoya branded filters that I previously owned (which was impossible to clean and which "locked on" to the lenses filter thread).

I tried compensating manually by using the filter factors but this resulted in quite over-exposed images on the MM atleast. Even with the red filter. I found that just letting the camera handle the metering worked best under the scenarios that I used them atleast. It might have been different under different lighting. I always checked the raw histogram to be sure though.

By using the filter factors (2, 4 and 8 respectively - 1, 2 and 3 stops) and compensating according to the filter factors the camera always over-exposed the shots. The maximum amount of manual compensation that I could perform was about 0.5 stop on the yellow filter, 1-1.3 on the orange and 2-2.3 on the red otherwise the images would be very over-exposed.

Borge,

I performed an experiment and was careful to meter a shot with a filter and without and discovered that the TTL did not fully compensate for the recomended full Filter Factor. Using a 2X yellow filter I saw that the meter only offset the exposure a half stop instead of a full stop; with a 3X orange filter I only saw a one stop offset.

Since I found that the two most used filters were the yellow and the orange I just offset the TTL automatic further by a half stop with the ISO selection. To me it seems that the light level response gets notched out and does not respond to full spectrum white light at least on my M6, F3P and Pentax 67II with AE prism.

I hope I didn't confuse the hell out of you.

Cal