Photograph the Milky Way by Leica M240 (English version)

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Recently we wrote about “Can we photograph the Milky Way by Leica M240?”.  Because of the limitation of maximum exposure time for Leica M240 in different ISO setting, it will cause the underexposure while photograph the Milky Way. This is because the standard exposure for taking the Milky Way is ISO6400 F/2.8 30S. So the only way to take Milky Way is the exposure with ISO400 F/2.8 30S, and post process +3~4Ev by Lightroom. This will get the enough exposure for Milky Way.

After we take the Milky Way by this setting and post processed, we found there is color ribbon liked background noise behind the millions stars. This is the processed JPG:

This photo was taken by ISO400 F/2.8 30S, and processed 3Ev exposure / Contrast 70 / Clarity 60 by Lightroom. As you can see there is color ribbon liked background noise. It is lucky the color noise itself can be erased by Color Noise Reduction just as this(left is before, right is after processed):

You can see the color noise reduction effect in cropped window. The photo has been processed will become this:

As you can see there is no longer color noise but still has a little ribbon liked shadow.

This ribbon liked shadow has been hind in the background due to the level is too low to show up. But it shows up after push the exposure by 3Ev in Lightroom. Originally it comes from the CMOS sensor of M240. Something likes the crosstalk of pixels transmission. The latest version Leica’s camera bodies still have this kind of background noise. You can find it at the review of Leica Q and Leica SL at DPREVIEW.

Due to this ribbon liked shadows noise of M240, we hardly can take a high quality Milky Way photo. Because it is just like the phantom always follows with your images. Make it as low as we can’t see is the only way we can do now. So take the Milky Way by using faster lens or cooling the M240 before take the photo is the possible approaching (Recently we found the background noise of M240 CMOS sensor is sensitive with environment temperature.). If we got any further improvement by this kind of solution, we will post here.