Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/08/31
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Friends in the LUG >From the responses that I have read in this subject, it would appear that the M8, apart from some issues related to battery availability and uncertain costs to keep the camera in "good working condition", serves well as an image capturing tool. Obviously this is a camera that is meant to be used and not closeted, or to be looked at and fondled once in a while. Keeping its value is not an issue as the M8 is likely to be owned by leicaphiles who have no second thoughts about putting it to its paces in order to achieve its purpose. Ultimately it's the image captured that matters. In the back of my mind I often wonder if leica lens characteristics that had a certain signature when film was used is also visible when an image is recorded in digital. We used to have colourful discussions about "bokeh" of various optics for example when we were not too distracted by Tilley hats and single malt whiskeys. Sharpness, contrast and shadow details were other attributes that we often talk about when we discussed new lenses. I get the impression that it's now the megapixels that counts or for many folks the only issue that matters. It must be difficult to be a professional in this day and age. Once upon a time, if you did not know a bit about f-stops and shutter speeds, or had bad eyesight, you did not venture into photography. Automation put image capturing into the hands of more people. Even then you had to know about films and depended on the lab to produce the hard copies. Now its utopia. An average person with a functioning index finger (or thumb) can bring home beautiful images that possibly outclass the best that even pros can achieve. Digital photography has an effect of a class equalizer similar to the way education elevated people from poverty into middle class. I wonder often: What do professionals now have to do to keep above the herd, to maintain that cutting edge, to corner that market, so that the income keeps coming in? Leically, Dan K.