[Leica] Leica M8 hands on

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

>Hi Henning,
>
>Thanks for this--my keyboard is all wet with drool.
>
>One little detail: what kind of storage does the M8 use? Compact Flash?
>
>Cheers,
>Nathan

SD cards. I had some Sandisk Ultra II's.

I've also read the spec now, and found out the connector is apparently USB2.

One thing I didn't like and forgot to mention was that after you 
select an option on the menu, and then go back to shooting mode 
directly, you don't get what you selected. You have to press the 
'set' button after you select an option. But that's fixable in 
firmware (hope, hope!).

>Henning Wulff wrote:
>>Well, DPReview has said that Leica has now officially announced the 
>>M8, posted pictures and spec so there's no point in being quiet any 
>>more.
>>
>>Tom Abrahamsson got hold of an M8 about a month ago, and shortly 
>>after let me use it for about 10 days so that I could evaluate it 
>>and do a write up.
>>
>>Firmware version was 0.23 so final image quality and some 
>>electronic operational items are certainly going to be different 
>>than what I got to use. Reasonably, I was asked not to post 
>>pictures from this camera. Various family members have gotten 
>>prints from it, but they really couldn't care much about which 
>>camera they came from. I took about 1600 pictures.
>>
>>I had a couple of interesting moments w.r.t. other people's 
>>reactions. A couple of times while walking around downtown someone 
>>came up and said 'nice camera' while sporting their own late model 
>>Leica's. I slipped my fingers over the 'M8' logo and held the 
>>camera back against my body, went into grumpy mode, grunted and 
>>walked past. Then we had a gathering at our house, and among others 
>>the neighbours were there. A friend of their son came to our door, 
>>asking for Christoph; I let him in and he saw the M8 on the counter 
>>and immediately oohed and aahed. Turn's out he's a photographer and 
>>while born in Vancouver now lives over the LeicaShop in Vienna. 
>>After that I 'disguised' it, but it still was recognized at times.
>>
>>So - the camera. It handles like an M, except your hands miss the 
>>grip that the wind level gave you. The extra thickness is easy to 
>>get used to, and the responsiveness is very good. Because of the 
>>firmware issue, the testing I did on it is meaningless, but there 
>>was nothing negative to my perception. The shutter, while certainly 
>>different than the rubber-curtained one on the film camera, is not 
>>particularly loud, either in firing or winding. I think the 
>>dampening they did on the transplanted R9 shutter had some effect. 
>>It doesn't have a high frame rate, but neither do the film M's and 
>>that's not important to me. The shutter travel includes a detent 
>>for locking the exposure that was a bit hard to find, but a lot 
>>better with one of Tom's softies.
>>
>>The covering is fine grained and a bit too slippery, especially 
>>since I missed the wind lever for holding the camera with the right 
>>hand. Some kind of molded bump like on the Hexar RF would be nice, 
>>but I'm not sure right now how that could be implemented in line 
>>with the desire to retain the 'classic' look.
>>
>>Frame lines were bright and useable, and came up in the pairs that 
>>you would expect due to the traditional lens mount activation. The 
>>frame for the 24 is reasonably visible  with glasses. It works with 
>>the Visoflex III, and it worked fine on the Aristophot I got 
>>recently, and I shot some pictures with the various Photars. I also 
>>put on my 17mm fisheye, and it looks like this:
>>
>>http://www.archiphoto.com/Various/Incognito.jpg
>>
>>All lenses that I tried, including 12, 15 and 21 CV; 21, 35/1.4, 50 
>>and 90 ASPH, and older 35/2, new 50/2.8, 50/1, 75/1.4 and 135/4 
>>worked, and worked well. I wouldn't hesitate to use any of them and 
>>there was no vignetting that wasn't visible on film as well. Those 
>>angled microlenses do their job, and erase one of the main 
>>objections I had re the RD-1, which was really not useable with 
>>lenses beyond the range of 24 to (slow) 75. Image quality was 
>>outstanding in general, the best were easily on a par or, in the 
>>case of wideangle shots, readily exceeded that of the best on the 
>>Canon 5D. My favourite lenses on the M8 were the 21 and 35/1.4 ASPH 
>>and 75/1.4, but I wouldn't hesitate to use any lens.
>>
>>Menus were fine, and quite direct. There is no 'dedicated' button 
>>for ISO (full stops from 160 to 2500), but since you can get at two 
>>different menus by pushing two different buttons, changing ISO's 
>>was very fast and efficient. There are also good user parameter 
>>save options, so after you set them up you can go from low ISO with 
>>-1/3 compensation, colour, colour histogram, bright LCD screen, 
>>high resolution with DNG and fine jpeg with medium sharpening and 
>>low saturation to high ISO, not compensation, B&W, dim LCD screen 
>>and regular jpeg with higher sharpening in a very few button 
>>pushes. The dial that's concentric with the arrow pad is also very 
>>nice and works well.
>>
>>The little door to the left of the screen just has a connector for 
>>a dedicated cable, which I didn't have so don't know whether it's 
>>USB2 or 1394.
>>
>>Mainly, it felt like an M, and within a couple of minutes of 
>>picking it up you could shoot with it like an M, and except for the 
>>sound, lack of winding and having more than 36 shots, it really 
>>wasn't different than an M.
>>
>>And that's good.
>>
>
>--
>Nathan Wajsman
>Almere, The Netherlands
>
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