[Leica] IMG: M8 1st Shots and impressions.

[luisripoll at telefonica.net (Luis Ripoll)]

Congratulations Len, enjoy your toy!

This is one of the advantages of a digital camera, and if it is an M8...!,
but everytime I read about the spare batteries etc..., I become affraid to
be depending to have a battery to shot..., I'm not use to be..., I have my
camera on my armschair and when I want I get it, no troubles about the
battery....

All the best from 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
Leonard Taupier
Enviado el: jueves, 18 de enero de 2007 17:20
Para: Leica Users Group
Asunto: [Leica] IMG: M8 1st Shots and impressions.

I received my new M8 late yesterday afternoon. By the time the battery
charged, it was already dark and pretty cold out. So I played around in the
house experimenting with different lighting, lenses, and Ultra Violet
photos.

First impression. If you're shooting in tungsten lighting you better get the
WB right for color or shoot b&w. My first color shots in my living room (WB
tungsten) turned my blue chair purple. I expected that. So I took the same
shot with a Tiffen hot mirror filter on the lens. The blue/purple chair
turned brown. That I didn't expect so I took the same shot with my D200.
Same tungsten WB, no filtering. The color came out exactly like the M8 hot
mirror shot, brown chair. My only conclusion is I have some pretty screwy
lighting in that room.

I then decided to have a little fun. Put my Visoflex III and bellows II on
the M8. Put an EL Nikkor 135 on the bellows and the whole thing on a tripod.
Pretty kludgy but everything fits perfectly. Didn't have anything to shoot
except the leaves on my African Violet. No flowers in a couple months. Here
it is. Black light and B+W UV bandpass filter.

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/LeonardT/M8/M8_UV1.jpg.html>

I then spent the rest of the night trying to figure out why I couldn't put
my photos on my computer. I thought I had a bad SD card.  
It was on Leica's list. Should work. It turned out my multi everything card
reader doesn't like SD very much. I ended up using a little SD only reader I
bought for my cell phone. Works like a champ.

I then went to bed knowing at least that my camera works. Slept like a baby.

This morning, after coffee, I went out to my cold, frosty backyard and
looked for something to shoot in daylight. Took a few boring shots of
hibernating shrubs and stuff but the sky looked pretty interesting so I shot
that.

<ISO 160, 21mm Elmarit ASPH, about f11>

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/LeonardT/M8/Dawn.jpg.html>

A few impressions about the M8.

It's an extremely well made camera. Mechanics and esthetics A+

Capable of very fine images given the right lighting and camera setup.

Purple problem doesn't bother me.

Uses Leica glass. No vignetting with any lens I tried including the Noctilux
at f1.

Don't like jpg photos. Kinda dark in comparison to raw taken at the same
time. Most noticeable on flash photos ( SF20 in A mode). RAW shots nicely
lit. SF24D on order but I don't think that's the problem.

Operation (mostly firmware dependent) not nearly as refined as any C or N
digital I have ever used. (Many models, mostly N).

I'm able to use CS2 to process raw files in exactly the same way as my C and
N files. I did not install any other software on my Mac.

I'm definitely not sorry I bought it. Need more time to learn it's
idiosyncrasies. Like most of you I couldn't find a spare battery.

Sorry for being so long winded but it's cold outside and I'm not going
anywhere for awhile. Now to catch up with the last 100 or so LUG e-mails.

Len









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