Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/09/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Thanks Tom for your thoughts about the M8... or more properly about the digital, I liked very much your sentence about of the indecisive moments..., I share your opinions. Saludos desde Barcelona Luis -----Mensaje original----- De: lug-bounces+luisripoll=telefonica.net@leica-users.org [mailto:lug-bounces+luisripoll=telefonica.net@leica-users.org] En nombre de TTAbrahams@aol.com Enviado el: domingo, 24 de septiembre de 2006 8:01 Para: lug@leica-users.org Asunto: [Leica] Musings on the M8... I was just packing up the M8 for transport back to Solms and this started me thinking about what I thought about it. It is very M-like in operation, to the point that the right thumb is forever flailing around for an advance lever and every time I opened the baseplate I stopped myself "did I rewind the film?" This particular M8 cycled through Vancouver and out-laying areas for about a month and the consensus seems to be "how soon can I get one" or " how can I raise the required $ 4800 for one". In 2004 Epson lent me a RD-1 for an extended trial (3 months) and this was my first foray into the world of Pixels and JPEG/RAW. At the time I thought the experience was interesting, but not sufficiently so to buy the camera. Another two years have passed and even a confirmed Luddite like me is getting more interested. I do harbour a suspicion that Leica allotting one of the M8 to me for trying could be a way to establish a baseline "if Tom would buy it we have the design right". In my opinion they have succeeded - the M8 does feel like a true M. The controls are simple enough and reasonably well laid out. The old "standards" like viewfinder, frame-lines, body-shape is close enough to the regular M and the digital part is easy enough to figure out even without a manual. The M8 came along when I went out, but never alone. There was always a M2 as a companion and I found that I shot as much with the film based camera as with the M8. This could change when I get my own M8, but I know that I would still use film primarily. There is process you go through when you shoot film, composition, exposure, processing and editing that I find changes with the digital. The instant "recall" leads to many "corrective" pictures. "Hmm, if I move over there, would it look different or improve?" With film you have to think more clearly and there is a "decisive moment" when to shoot. With the M8 there was many an indecisive moment instead! Part of this has to do with my inexperience of this particular medium but part of it is inherent in the process. You shoot and it is tempting to instantly look at the image rather than continue to look at the scene, it is easy to lose the "flow". This afternoon I had coffee with my friend Chris, he borrowed the M8 for 3 days and brought some prints to show me. Extreme low light scenes with 28/1,9 and 35/1,2 lenses. The quality is amazing, it would be difficult to duplicate the shots with film and printing them would have been a nightmare. The prints had a smoothness to them that was disconcerting, at least for someone used to TRI-X. They were unmanipulated prints - straight from a card, no photo-shop magic applied. They had the look of XP-2 or Tmax C-41 prints, with that long tonality and lack of grain. I did add up what I shot over the time I had the M8; "keepers" were about 130 shots which were transferred to a CD and during the same time I shot about 55 rolls of film and looking at the negatives and marking the ones that looks interesting I ended up with about 150. About the same ratio and yes, the CD is more compact, but the film stuff can be filed away and I don't have to worry about long term storage. I am looking forward to "go digital", but there is no way I am giving up on film. At the moment there are more than 2 miles of film in the freezer and watching that print pop in the developer tray beats looking at a computer screen anytime. I can see the M8 shine in "Hail Mary" situations. The dynamic range in low light is nothing short of amazing, the ability to "push" and "pull" at the touch of a button is another bonus and the fact that it can use lenses that have established performance parameters already on our "regular" M-mount cameras. It is also a compact system, a M8/a M2 and the 21/35/50 kit that I use is smaller and faster than most of the DSLR's with their HUGE zoom lenses and camera bodies the size of SUV's. The M8 is the first camera that got me interested in digital as a picture taking tool. With the RD-1 I never got the same feeling as with the M8 - no fault of the camera, just my perception at the time. Epson deserves much credit for it and it does have a film-advance lever and a rewind crank (which is more convenient to "chimp" with than the M8's buttons). Will the M8 make me a better photographer? Probably not, but as I mainly take pictures for reasons only known to me, it doesn't matter. Photography to me is a way of enjoying myself and the M camera's suits me for that. Hasselblad's, Sinar's, Nikon's, etc. were tools for working and I cant still loose that feeling that there is a client or even worse, an AD waiting to pounce upon my efforts. With the M it is for me, by me and if nobody but me ever see the results that is fine too. Now it is off to that Pixel Party known as Photokina - somewhere among the halls there will some black/white silver halides hiding for me to fondle. Tri-X and a M2/MP and maybe extend the loan of the M8 another couple of days for that low light stuff! Tom A ------------------------- Tom Abrahamsson Vancouver, BC Canada (http://www.rapidwinder.com/) rapidwinder.com _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information