LEICA M11 Tip: ALWAYS shoot 60MP DNG for BEST Dynamic Range and lower Noise

[@RenePfluger]

Deine Analysen sind top! Ich denke, es ist das Beste für Leica Tech at all!! 👍👍 Danke Rene

[@robertpearson1781]

Great video - 2 days into M11 ownership so very useful to know.

[@na23dude]

Since in the high-ISO case the main difference seemed to be color noise, it would be very interesting to see this same comparison with the new M11 monochrom

[@Tedwill-home]

Very informative! I was always under the impression that for low light shots 36 or even 18mp would be best, especially for astro and northern lights shooting. Thank you!

[@mathphotographer]

Thanks Ted - for the time being its best to always shoot with 60MP. Over time, Leica will optimize also for the lower DNG resolutions, then the situation might change.

[@T.Q.]

@@mathphotographer Just curious if after two years since you said this, if Leica has optimised the lower DNG resolutions or if the situation is still the same?

[@rakeshravindran3147]

If you realize what happens during pixel binning, this is expected. First, binning is a software process, a compaction algorithm that is applied after the sensor readout. In one sense it is like a compression, but more accurately, a compaction. The difference here is that the the compaction converts a mosaic structure to another mosaic structure (instead of demosaic->profileCorrect->compress). So this binning is much faster to do than usually compression. However, the cost is, you lose details a lot more than if you had compressed after the full readout and demosaic and profile correction of the image. Nevertheless, it is more useful, since it saves a lot of space for most casual shoot.

[@gurugamer8632]

Please do more videos on M11

[@jrsanders5]

For my first Leica, I'm still debating between M10-R or the M11...the new USB, no baseplate, and more custom button options seems appealing, and I doubt I will shoot 60mp all the time. But, with the electronic & mechanical shutter issues on the M11 has me leaning toward the M10-R. I know you have/use the M11, but can you offer any thoughts on what I should look for in each option to make a final decision?

[@gregcartwright4135]

I would love to see what mathphotographer suggests as I am in the same situation and trying to decide

[@garymc8956]

What about motion blur that is more pronounced in 60 mp cameras? Would 15:22 this be different if taken in the smaller mp settings? Thanks for the video, very informative.

[@moshenc]

Great testing! How are we so sure Leica will improve things in upcoming firmware updates? Perhaps it's CPU limited in camera and not able to do more advanced downscaling/binning methods at speeds required for burst shooting etc..

[@ArminHirmer]

interesting. but man the M11 sensor... just wow. I so hope that the Q3 will get this sensor :)

[@mathphotographer]

Looking fwd to an improved Q3 :)

[@dazhsh7109]

does it matter with which lens to shoot on? Whether not APO-lenses resolve this 60M matrix? May be it matters for not-APO-lenses: 60M or 36M you schoot?

[@zenonkontolemis1232]

Thanks for the video. I mentioned this before, but Lightroom does not yet support these M11 profiles. So not sure if when they do these corrections will not come automatically and the conclusions will be changed

[@mathphotographer]

It will come soon. LR had the profiles for the M10-R significantly before it also supported the M10 Mono but then, after a while, it finally was there and worked well.

[@DonaldHawk]

Alot of work. Agree it is just saying how good that 60 MP sensor is. Thanks.

[@mathphotographer]

It is a really good sensor and it is currently based on software optimized for the full 60MP resolution. Over time Leica will also optimize the lower DNG resolutions, I am sure about that.

[@DonaldHawk]

My Silver M11 arrived today.

[@fictiondc]

Thanks for the great testing. I notice you’re using APO lenses on these tests. In my short testing with the M11 at my Leica store I saw lots of chromatic aberration with the 50mm summilux and 35mm summicron (older lens). If you’re not using the best lenses does shooting at 36mp limit the amount of chromatic aberration?

[@fodiographer]

I really thought that with pixel binning it is better to shoot with less resolution with high ISO for less noise? I heard this from an official Leica channel .. i am so confused right now :(

[@Millicente]

Idk if they’re lying or what but as far as I know they have yet to implement anything that makes their statement true

[@emmetwasserman]

Do you think in a future software update we will get pixel binning that works better and gives us better low light performance at lower resolution?

[@RS-Amsterdam]

Good video. Due to the fact that nowadays cameras have ISO invariant sensors, post editing (e.g. recovery from lower ISO darker image to normal exposure) is at least as good and often better. As long as you keep it 16 bit PSD or TIFF after RAW conversion and only finally change it to jpg.

[@mathphotographer]

Agree -thx RS.

[@R0dan]

Very helpful 👍👍

[@crashkg]

So in short, pixel binning in the Leica is not coming in a firmware update it was just a sales tactic?

[@mathphotographer]

It will come, its just still not there. The software is still optimized for the full 60MP.

[@meltysundae4540]

This is not for work just for fun and hobby..

[@MrMilanina]

What about the dynamic range, does your noise analysis also imply there’s no benefit? Why Leica then advertises 15 stops for 18 and 36? I am a tad confused.

[@mathphotographer]

For the time being I do not see any benefit in the lower resolution RAW files except lower file size. That might change with future firmware but for the time being you get the best out of the camera if you shoot 60MP DNG.

[@MrMilanina]

@@mathphotographer Thank you.

[@derrickdu]

That sucks. This means Leica is using cropped sensor when down-scale to M or S?

[@Biosynchro]

No, the field of view is exactly the same. Perhaps the software has not been optimised for the lower resolution settings.

[@mathphotographer]

@@Biosynchro Exactly, spot-on. No crop but also no optimization in software. Very likely that will come with a firmware update in the course of the year.

[@williaminbody205]

The pixels are molded into the glass sensor, their size can’t be changed. There’s no scaling or changing that, it’s fixed. Any talk of changing that is a gimmick.

[@mathphotographer]

William, thanks for your comment, spot-on in this particular case. But if you watch the video I linked below on the Samsung S22 Ultra, here you see the positive effect of pixel binning. I think Leica will and should improve their algorithms for the lower resolutions.

[@williaminbody205]

@@mathphotographer Your results prove my point. If the small pixels can’t collect enough light for the processor to accurately process and each small pixel needs to work with surrounding pixels to combine and process the small amount of light into a smaller pixel images you might have a point as to what’s happening here. However I think the capabilities of the sensor and processor are always way above that situation to the point you can’t really see with your eyes any difference.