The conditions purposely favored the M9, as the comparisons featured images taken in good quality, directional natural light with vibrant colors, and defined contrast. It was to merely test the “CCD look” theory.
Keep in mind that this test wasn’t to determine which camera was more capable. Most other pairs of images came in very close to 50/50. On the flip side, I was equally stunned that so many guessed incorrectly on two images which I felt were bound to be easier to pick due to their color ranges: Red Cards and Lombard Street. Roughly two thirds of the voters picked correctly on these. I was amazed that so many were able to accurately identify the M9 images in the Streetcar and Apartment sets. There were some surprises for me, though. This is visible in the voting numbers, with almost 800 votes for the first set and about 450 for the last set (as of this writing). I received feedback from some users that they started taking the test and just gave up halfway through as they couldn’t see any significant differences and felt they were merely guessing. On the direct comparisons in Part 1, only 7 out of 19 (36%) match-ups were correctly identified. The pairs were then posted without metadata and were randomized in the order displayed. I wanted it to be realistic so that almost anyone with moderate Lightroom skills could produce the same results as I did.
After all, this test was not about how good my post processing skills are when given any and all tools and unlimited time. Instead, I used only overall image slider adjustments in Adobe Lightroom. In the spirit of the experiment, I wanted to see if a match could be achieved without using any localized adjustments. Rather than use all the tools at my disposal to create an exact match, I opted instead to impose some limits. I then used the M9 images as a reference to adjust the corresponding M240 files and tried to achieve a rough match. After taking an image with one camera, I’d quickly swap lenses to shoot roughly the same picture with the other body using the same lens and equivalent settings.įor Part 1, I first processed the M9 files to look like what I’d expect M9 images to look like using my preset and personal preference. To conduct the test, I ventured out with both an M9 and an M240 while I was visiting San Francisco with my family for a couple of days at the end of February. Many who hold this belief feel that this look cannot be achieved with a CMOS-based camera, regardless of post-processing efforts.
To recap, I was testing the theory that images from a Leica CCD-based camera have a unique and instantly identifiable look and feel to the images. The results are in! Thanks so much to everyone who cast their votes in both Part 1 and Part 2 of this experiment.
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