Leaving my comfort zone

[alistairm]

As a very long time "full frame" shooter for holidays (usually a Nikon SLR or more recently Lecia M, SL or CL for travel) I am presently packing for a three week trip to Europe with the X1D, 21, 30, 45 and 90.

It feels VERY odd not to have an f/1.4 lens in there for wandering the streets of Paris, Palermo, Taormina, Venice, Florence and Rome at night.

I had the CL and a Leica 35 Lux tucked in there but just pulled it out... what do you more experienced medium format shooters think. Am I going to miss the fast glass?

[michael123]

Be careful at night 

[alistairm]

Will do... but in all seriousness, does the ability of the sensor and natural thiness of depth of field compenstate for a fast lens? I'm looking for tips from experienced users who have done this transition if you could kindly share them.

[BillW]

Hurry and get on the plane with just the X1D and then stop worrying. Right after I got my X1D I took a trip and only had the 45 at the time. I also took my M10 and a couple of lens. I never took it out of the bag....! FWIW

[hcubell]

As a very long time "full frame" shooter for holidays (usually a Nikon SLR or more recently Lecia M, SL or CL for travel) I am presently packing for a three week trip to Europe with the X1D, 21, 30, 45 and 90.

It feels VERY odd not to have an f/1.4 lens in there for wandering the streets of Paris, Palermo, Taormina, Venice, Florence and Rome at night.

I had the CL and a Leica 35 Lux tucked in there but just pulled it out... what do you more experienced medium format shooters think. Am I going to miss the fast glass?

I love shooting with the X1D but it would not be my choice  for walking around a city shooting at night. It has less to do with the lack of fast lenses than the lack of IBIS, the just OK AF, and the slight shutter lag. I would use a Sony A7RII or A7RIII with the Sony 24-105 f/4 lens. I think it's a much better tool for the job.

[maxct]

I am keeping my Leica Q for exactly this circumstance (and others).  Last year I took the Fuji GFX-50s and the Q to New Orleans and the Q was perfect for walking around at night (see https://www.mendelsonfineartphotography.com/blog/new-orleans-with-the-fujifilm-gfx-50s-camera).  If you read Steve Huff's blog he talks about using the X1D at night at very high ISO, but I would probably use my Q in that situation. 

[siddhaarta]

As a very long time "full frame" shooter for holidays (usually a Nikon SLR or more recently Lecia M, SL or CL for travel) I am presently packing for a three week trip to Europe with the X1D, 21, 30, 45 and 90.

It feels VERY odd not to have an f/1.4 lens in there for wandering the streets of Paris, Palermo, Taormina, Venice, Florence and Rome at night.

I had the CL and a Leica 35 Lux tucked in there but just pulled it out... what do you more experienced medium format shooters think. Am I going to miss the fast glass?

For that special case, when I want the f/1.4-2.0 bokeh effect, I use adapted lenses. The Leica M Lux 50 works fine (the 35mm Lux vignettes I think), also a lot of the FF lenses in the 70-90mm range have enough coverage. Adapters are around for nearly all brands. Only limitation is the e-shutter with its slow readout time, but I use it a lot handhold without major issues.

[braver]

FWIW I have the exact same XCD lens lineup and Leica M10, and am taking the Leica on a trip to Moscow/Siberia/Netherlands next week.  With the 21mm Voigtlander and two Zeiss Biogons, 25mm & 28mm, "slow" at 2.8 and the two Luxes (35 & 50) and probably leaving behind the Noctilux to have just the really small (albeit some heavy) lenses with all different focal lengths.  I like the X1D alone on a nature trip where most of it is in daylight or sunset.  I'd rather do urban photography on a road trip with a car where I can pack both systems.   After coming back to Leica for travel it feels ridiculously small, and even the Noctilux just normal.  Hopping planes with a backpack with gadgets, containing a smaller camera bag, and a carry-on is a lot already for me.  If it were a car trip it would be a different deal.

[tedtrimmer]

A light tripod will support all of your selected lenses and you can shoot to your hearts content at f/8 and ISO 100.  Above all have fun.

[alistairm]

I really appreciate the input from everyone - thank you.

At this stage I am torn whether to throw the M or CL and a fast lens in for wandering with at night. The head says no and that the X1D's high ISO ability will compensate, but old habits die hard!

As to a tripod, I use a Really Right Stuff TFA-01 Ultra with a BH-25 LR head and an RRS L-bracket and have found this a brilliant small travel solution for several cameras, including packages that are heavier than the X1D.

[JimBrennan]

Will do... but in all seriousness, does the ability of the sensor and natural thiness of depth of field compenstate for a fast lens? I'm looking for tips from experienced users who have done this transition if you could kindly share them.

It's a different beast. You are bringing too many lenses bring the 20 and the 90. About shooting at night. You do realize the X1D has no image stabilization. The incredible resolution shows every flaw in poor technique, so it's good to practice and know what reasonable shutter speed you can hand hold the camera at, and what iso your comfortable with.

[braver]

... You are bringing too many lenses bring the 20 and the 90...

My combo was 30+90 since 30 is smaller and normal-ler.  But 21+90 is rad.

[alistairm]

Happy to report that so far so good and I am not missing the faster lenses.

Despite the resolution, the X1D seems able to be handheld at much lower shutter speeds than any other camera I have owned, which I suppose must have something to do with the leaf shutter.

[jwillson]

The leaf shutter will definitely reduce the effects of shutter shock, and the camera in general is compact enough with a good enough grip that motion blur is minimized.  Nothing magic, though, and if you really want the benefits of those 50 megapixels you still need a fast enough shutter speed.  Good ergonomics are no substitute for IBIS.

A couple more things to keep in mind for anyone finding themselves in a similar situation of wanting a fast lens for static, low-light shots...

With respect to the SL/M, you should be able to push the ISO about three quarters of a stop and get the same image signal to noise ratio, so those f/3.4 lenses should act an awful lot like f/2.8 lenses on full frame.  With respect to the CL, you should be able to push the ISO almost two stops and get the same signal to noise ratio, so those f/3.4 lenses should act like f/2 lenses on the CL just in terms of signal to noise.  Not quite the f/1.4 you may be used to, but it's not as far off as the f/3.4 number would indicate.  Where this falls apart, of course, is IBIS.  There's no image stabilization in the M, CL, or the X1D, so the SL (at least with the 24-90) would have a clear advantage for static images under poor light.  Even compared to f/1.4 glass on the M. 

In any event, glad that it is working out for you and you haven't missed the faster lenses.

Oh, one more trick I would recommend if you really get in a bind...  This will only work with static subjects--no people walking around--but it can work quite well as long as you have a little extra time...

Let's assume your camera is recommending an exposure of, say, ISO 3200, f/3.4, and 1/8s exposure and you are using the 30mm lens.  You are at least two stops away and perhaps three from what would really be hand holdable.  Darn.  What should you do?  Try setting the ISO to 3200 and the f-stop to 3.4 just as recommended, but raise the shutter speed to, say, 1/30s, compose your shot, put it on continuous shooting, and take ten or twelve exposures.  They will all be underexposed, of course, but that's OK.  Open them up in Lightroom (assuming you use Lightroom--fine if you use ACR and Photoshop instead) and pick out the best eight or ten.  Push the exposure up till it looks the way you want--noise and all!  Now export them all to Photoshop as layers.  Tell Photoshop to align the layers.  Then convert the layers to a smart object using a "Mean" combine.  Suddenly, the noise will drop dramatically!  You should get a result that is every bit as good as if you had a much faster lens.  Perhaps a slight loss of dynamic range compared to a fast lens, but that's about it.  It's basically a poor man's way of doing IBIS in software.

So what are the downsides to this method?  A couple.  First and foremost is time.  Processing one picture in this manner can easily take fifteen or twenty images, so it's just not practical for a large volume of pictures.  Second, you really do need a static subject.  If you have people walking around, leaves blowing in a breeze, etc. you'll be introducing a lot of blurred components into your picture since it's really an average over several seconds.  Third would be storage space.  The X1D already has pretty hefty storage requirements.  Taking 10x as many images is going to eat through hard drives pretty quickly (though you can always delete the raw images if you want and just save the Photoshop result).  Fourth, you'll likely be taking a very small hit in resolution, though that is debatable and depends a bit on the stacking algorithm used.  It's not a big hit, though, and there are ways to minimize it by up-sampling the images before combining and other little tricks.  Oh, one benefit to the technique is that it almost eliminates moire. 

Enjoy the trip!