Can we photograph the Milky Way by Leica M240?(English version)

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Exposure of photographing Milky Way:
First thing to know about photographing Milky way is the exposure. Due to the Light Value of the Milky Way is LV-8(Regarding the light value please reference “What are LV and EV”). So aperture F/2.8, iso 6400 and exposure 30 seconds is suitable for most of the milky way(here is the article of photograph Milky Way “How to photograph the Milky Way”). If your lens maximum aperture is F/2.8 and camera body is capable for iso 6400 exposure 30 seconds, then your gear is enough for photographing the Milky Way.

Can we photograph the Milky Way by Leica M240?

Base on the requirement of photographing Milky Way(iso 6400 and 30 seconds exposure), we know the Leica M240 is no way to photograph the Milky Way(or we will get the under exposure result for Milky Way). Are there other solution to photograph a clear Milky Way? Yes. We can try to take the pictures in RAW file, then post processing by Lightroom to compensat the under exposure(+EV) before export JPG. For finding the optimum exposure model, we photograph some sample pictures at indoor and compare it to Olympus E-PL6.

First let’s look at the result of Olympus E-PL6:

We turn off all the main light at indoor and photograph a DVD cabinet with iso 6400 30 seconds exposure. Here is the JPG result export from Lightroom:

Olympus E-PL6 ISO6400 30S full frame:

Here is the 100% crop of above:

Following is the Leica M240 result:

Due to the limitation of maximum exposure time on Leica M240. We take the same picture by iso 6400 8s, iso 3200 8s, iso 1600 8s, iso 800 15s and iso 400 30s. Export JPG by post processing +2EV, +3EV, +4EV, +4EV and +4EV with Lightroom. Here are the 100% crop:

ISO6400 8S +2EV：

ISO3200 8S +3EV：

ISO1600 8S +4EV：

ISO800 15S +4EV：

ISO400 30S +4EV：

Compare the result of Olympus E-PL6 and Leica M240:

It is obvious only the Leica M240 iso 400 30s can beat Olympus E-PL6 iso 6400 30s. Let’s compare them again:

Olympus E-PL6 ISO6400 30S full frame：

Leica M240 ISO400 30S +4EV full frame：

 
Olympus E-PL6 ISO6400 30S 100% Crop：

  
Leica M240 ISO400 30S +4EV 100% Crop:

M240 is better than E-PL6 In color saturation and detail rendering. The contrast is the same. The noise spot is different between M240 and E-PL6. The noise spot is white spot for E-PL6 and color for M240. Anyway the noise spot level of M240 is a little lower than E-PL6.

To sum up the comparison. We think to photograph Milky Way by Leica M240 is possible. But the result of M240 can’t beat E-PL6 much, only a little better than E-PL6.

Regarding the sample picture of Milky Way please reference to "Zeiss Biogon 25mm F2.8 Sample Pictures(with Leica M240)"