Remember that event I shot with the Leica M9 and 35mm F2.5 Summarit and then how I stated that it was easiest for me to just convert the files to black and white because of the high ISO? Well I was bored one night and felt like editing some photos in Lightroom 3 Beta to hone my editing skills. The files from that event were chosen and edited. Originally, I had stated that the M9 files are not as versatile as the Canon 5D Mk II‘s. While that statement still stands, the files are versatile enough to the point where some editing was able to save them to be published in color. The gallery and findings are after the jump.

This is going to be a short posting as most of what I’ve needed to say has already been said in the Leica M9 review.

Essentially, users do not need to always straight convert to black and white when using the high ISO settings on the camera. While the image noise can look very nice and organic when doing this, it isn’t essential to the photograph. Some noise processing, contrast setting, and messing with the tonal values can deliver some more than usable photos.

Once again though, this needs to be done more carefully than with other camera RAW files. By far, Canon, Nikon and Phase One have provided for me the most versatile RAW files for editing. That’s not the say that an editor can’t get creative with the files.

However, for a camera this pricey a photographer should be getting much more versatile files. I understand that Leica is a special company that has higher costs in manufacturing but the company does toute image quality above all other factors. And while Leica lenses are worth every dime, their sensor development in the next model should take a stronger priority.

That goes out to you, Kodak. 😉

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