Surely there are better cameras suited to your needs, why stress the 2 that do not have what you need?
ranger9
Well-known
Thanks for this info! I also asked about this on Kasson's site, but can you briefly explain how you modulate the LED at 120 Hz? I don't have a function generator, but figure I could use a microcontroller that supports pulse width modulation (PWM) and varying the clock speed...
Emile de Leon
Well-known
When I go out..I use 1 cam only..and need it to do everything..esp when just having fun..
Godfrey
somewhat colored
I would not consider video to be a deciding factor in the purchase of a Leica M. It's the same as when I am out with a film camera ... if I want to make a video clip, I use my iPhone. 
G
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SirGin
Newbie
In the USA, the typical LED modulates at 120Hz, in Europe at 100Hz. I took pictures in a small storage room illuminated by the LED light. I measured several cameras that way, including M11 and fp-L.
olakiril
Well-known
Thanks for this. That puts an end for me towards this camera... Lets see what Pixii v3 will bring along.
olakiril
Well-known
I agree. Definitely a good reason to get this camera.
SirGin
Newbie
I would rather you wait on somebody's confirmation of my measurements before making a decision
.The Pixii numbers are industry standard, i.e., what can be currently accomplished without using expensive (development, production) stacked sensors. AFAIK, no new sensors on the horizon could improve the readout. So instead, Pixii did the best they could to make the readout fast: 24MP and 12-bits.I find the readout speed adequate for most uses.
Godfrey
somewhat colored
I would rather you wait on somebody's confirmation of my measurements before making a decision
I find the readout speed adequate for most uses.
It's certainly better than my Hasselblad 907x/CFVII 50c eshutter readout speed (300ms) which I've found pretty usable for adapting lenses, as long as the subject matter wasn't running about too much.
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ranger9
Well-known
Aside from flickering LEDs (which can look terrible even with a mechanical shutter, depending on the LED's flicker rate) what I care about most in these scan-speed discussions is what visual effect they produce. So far I haven't seen any distortion effects in photos of fast-moving people. Moving vehicles might be another matter, but it's too cold right now where I live to go stand next to the highway taking test pics! Some kind of test rig involving a rotating drum might be a possibility, if anyone feels like tinkering...
This camera is super interesting to me. However, if there was a problem, I would hate to deal with the shipping back and forth from France which will be expensive. And then the Chilean govt will impose fees each time not understanding it is not a purchase. If I lived in the USA... I'd think about it...more. I mean it comes down to this or a used and almost 10 year old fatty M240. Probably both are very comparable in IQ.
Emile de Leon
Well-known
You can get a brand new M240 on Ebay for around $4600-.
ranger9
Well-known
Pixii pics again...
Leaving aside the question of whether it would have been smarter for me to buy a discontinued camera of a different model from an unknown party on an auction site, or use that money I'm supposed to be getting from a Nigerian prince to buy a new model of a different camera, or some other alternative that has nothing to do with this thread... anyone want to look at some pics?
I was documenting the day's activities around the office, and now that I've got the Pixii's rangefinder dialed in thanks to Melric's home-study course [see earlier post] I was able to use my 28mm Voigtlander Ultron and 50mm Nokton with confidence. By my standards it was a fairly long shooting day -- I started about 11:30 am and finished up about 4 pm, during which time I pushed through about 270 frames. I have two batteries for the Pixii now, but was a little worried about having enough juice to get through the afternoon. Still, since I was shooting at a fairly moderate pace, I was able to finish off one battery, put it in an external charger, and have it just barely recharged by the time I had run down the second battery. If I were going to be averaging more shots per hour, I'd need a third battery to make sure the first one had time to recharge and keep the rotation going; probably will buy another one this weekend just in case. The NP-FW50 batteries are readily available thanks to their use in various Sony cameras, and they're not expensive.
One thing I noticed while gripping the Pixii for multiple hours at a stretch was that the camera body, elegantly designed though it is, doesn't provide much purchase for the third through fifth fingers of my right hand, and after a while those fingers got pretty tired. It would be nice if some third party made a well-designed finger grip for the Pixii, like this Kamerakraft grip for Leica Ms (fun fact: I have an online acquaintance who uses this grip and he says it also fits the Canon 7/7s perfectly!) or even a nice half case to provide a little more gripping area. But that's one of the problems with using a very-limited-production camera owned only by the discerning few... no third-party accessory support!
Anyway, aside from those issues, I was pleased with the results of my afternoon's shooting, especially considering that I didn't do much with the Pixii other than to set it to portrait profile, spot metering, auto white balance, and let it rip! I started out at ISO 1600, then dialed back to 800 later.
Fairly close focusing with the Nokton at f/2.8: Hair decor
The boss decided they were going to try out the orange parasols today, so things got photogenic in a hurry... Orange parasols I | Orange parasols II | Orange parasols III
The backlight was pretty strong by the last session of the day. It was good for revealing skin textures, but the sun slanting in through the window blinds brought out some unpleasant-looking background color fringing in the Nokton (I assume this is what those two Canadian bros call "loca", for lateral chromatic aberration?) so I dodged that bullet by converting those images to b&w. This would have been a good time to try the Pixii's dedicated monochrome mode, but of course I didn't think of that until later...
Backlight I color | Backlight II color | Backlight III monochrome | Backlight IV monochrome
Leaving aside the question of whether it would have been smarter for me to buy a discontinued camera of a different model from an unknown party on an auction site, or use that money I'm supposed to be getting from a Nigerian prince to buy a new model of a different camera, or some other alternative that has nothing to do with this thread... anyone want to look at some pics?
I was documenting the day's activities around the office, and now that I've got the Pixii's rangefinder dialed in thanks to Melric's home-study course [see earlier post] I was able to use my 28mm Voigtlander Ultron and 50mm Nokton with confidence. By my standards it was a fairly long shooting day -- I started about 11:30 am and finished up about 4 pm, during which time I pushed through about 270 frames. I have two batteries for the Pixii now, but was a little worried about having enough juice to get through the afternoon. Still, since I was shooting at a fairly moderate pace, I was able to finish off one battery, put it in an external charger, and have it just barely recharged by the time I had run down the second battery. If I were going to be averaging more shots per hour, I'd need a third battery to make sure the first one had time to recharge and keep the rotation going; probably will buy another one this weekend just in case. The NP-FW50 batteries are readily available thanks to their use in various Sony cameras, and they're not expensive.
One thing I noticed while gripping the Pixii for multiple hours at a stretch was that the camera body, elegantly designed though it is, doesn't provide much purchase for the third through fifth fingers of my right hand, and after a while those fingers got pretty tired. It would be nice if some third party made a well-designed finger grip for the Pixii, like this Kamerakraft grip for Leica Ms (fun fact: I have an online acquaintance who uses this grip and he says it also fits the Canon 7/7s perfectly!) or even a nice half case to provide a little more gripping area. But that's one of the problems with using a very-limited-production camera owned only by the discerning few... no third-party accessory support!
Anyway, aside from those issues, I was pleased with the results of my afternoon's shooting, especially considering that I didn't do much with the Pixii other than to set it to portrait profile, spot metering, auto white balance, and let it rip! I started out at ISO 1600, then dialed back to 800 later.
Fairly close focusing with the Nokton at f/2.8: Hair decor
The boss decided they were going to try out the orange parasols today, so things got photogenic in a hurry... Orange parasols I | Orange parasols II | Orange parasols III
The backlight was pretty strong by the last session of the day. It was good for revealing skin textures, but the sun slanting in through the window blinds brought out some unpleasant-looking background color fringing in the Nokton (I assume this is what those two Canadian bros call "loca", for lateral chromatic aberration?) so I dodged that bullet by converting those images to b&w. This would have been a good time to try the Pixii's dedicated monochrome mode, but of course I didn't think of that until later...
Backlight I color | Backlight II color | Backlight III monochrome | Backlight IV monochrome
Sorry, but you are the only person we have to live vicariously through. My comment about this vs. the M240 was solely based on my exact decision at the moment and nothing to do with your choice. Please understand that this is THE Pixii thread on this site. The M240 alternative is a reality for those of us who have a self imposed budget but want a rangefinder. I could afford the latest and greatest, but I am ultimately not comfortable with doing it because it would not be my main camera. Thank you for your time and effort here.
Godfrey
somewhat colored
Very nice photos! And the B&W renderings are very good.
I don't know who the two Canadian bros might be, but I'd think 'loca' stands for "longitudinal chromatic aberration" ... Lateral CA generates the effect of the color channels being shifted in pixel position to one another. Longitudinal CA means that the color channels are not focused on the same plane in the same pixel positions ... It is contributory to imaging problems like purple edging around high contrast boundaries, etc. Lateral CA is a one-click correction in tools like Lightroom; Longitudinal CA is often not correctible without a lot of work.
It sounds like you are getting reasonable battery life out of the Pixii ... that's encouraging too.
The Pixii is, like the Leica CL (film or digital), a fairly small camera. I can see where shooting that way, an all day session of semi-continuous use, can be a little tiring on the hands. Same issue with the Ricoh GXR/G1 and other small cameras. The simple controls help, but for all day shooting a bit larger body and/or a grip is a plus. The most comfortable camera I have for all day shooting is without a doubt my Olympus E-1 DSLR: superbly shaped body, nice big control dials and buttons, etc. But it's a bulky thing. I guess that's one of the trade-off compromises we have to deal with. A half case or grip accessory would be nice for those moments when we need to hold it a bit more than usual. I'm sure something could be made for it without too much difficulty.
G
ranger9
Well-known
Heck, I suspect this thread may be the world's largest collection of Pixii information! Pixii SAS seems to have a lot of documentation available, but they don't make it easy to find!
Don't worry, I'm not upset. I'm writing these posts for entertainment value as much as anything else. I totally get the thrust of the used-Leica argument, and I 100% agree that if 24 megapixels suits your needs, if you have (or hope to use) a lot of different M-mount lenses including fat ones and long ones, and if you don't mind the small but not vanishingly small risks involved in buying a discontinued camera model with no manufacturer warranty from a private party... then an M240 is probably a better way to spend your rangefinder-camera budget for the majority of people here.
From what's been said here, it sounds as if a good M240 is likely to cost roughly US $1,000 more than a midrange Pixii, which is not an insignificant amount... but I think we all agree that any time you're spending a non-trivial amount of money, there are always this-or-that questions that will have different answers for every individual!
ranger9
Well-known
They're Calgary, Alberta denizens Chris and Jordan of DPReview TV. They're entertaining guys and I enjoy their reviews, even though I'm typically not interested in buying any of the products they get the most excited about. Chris was the first person I heard use the term "loca" as a shorthand for longitudinal chromatic aberration -- my writing "lateral chromatic aberration" was an, er, aberration caused by late-night typing -- which he usually illustrates by photographing a high-contrast subject in backlight, and I also blame him for the apparent world-wide obsession with "sunstars," for which he includes a detailed evaluation in every lens review.
Personally, I enjoy my status as YouTube's #1 commentator on the Pixii A1571
... but I've been hinting for months that Chris and Jordan should review it -- I think it would be comedy gold because Chris would be totally flummoxed by it, and Jordan (he's the video specialist) would be stymied by the fact that it has no video capabilities whatsoever. On the other hand, Chris loved the Leica M11 (or at least loved the free trip to New York that Leica provided so he could shoot with it) so who knows?
Oh no, the M240 is between $2200-3000 used in the USA depending on where you buy. Honestly though, the Pixii might be the better camera at this point for me. If I can get one mailed to the USA for around $3000, it might be nice to have. The sensor does not bother me since my main camera is the X-Pro3 and I love it. Also using a 35mm color skopar on it would be a tiny 50mm.
aizan
Mentor
How do owners feel about the viewfinder magnification and lens options? I'm crossing my fingers that they will someday partner with Voigtländer or another company to make 18mm f/2 and 23mm f/2 M-mount lenses and reduce the viewfinder magnification to 0.6x.
ranger9
Well-known
Frankly, 0.67x is about as small as I would want to go. Anything much smaller and I think it would be hard to see important subject details such as the direction someone's eyes are looking or subtle facial expressions. (I admit that I'm not much of a wide-angle lens user, and that I've been spoiled by the 1.0x finder magnification of my Epson R-D 1 and Bessa R3M!)