[Leica] First time behind the (thumb)wheel of an M8 (5 photos)

[grduprey at mchsi.com (grduprey at mchsi.com)]

Peter,

Glad you like the M8, you will find it more enjoyable over time.  As for the 
problem with quiet mode and continuous shooting mode,  This is a Not 
compatible function.  Remember you are setting the camera for delayed wind, 
and then putting it into continuous advance, two opposed functions.  It will 
fault every time, since you are asking it to do two functions, which are 
opposite of the other.  Yes, maybe the Leica engineers should have figured 
someone would have wanted to do this, but thinking like an engineer they 
figured if the user wanted delayed advance, they would certainly never put 
it in continuous advance.  Go Figure.  I don't know for sure, but I think 
the M9 is the same way.  As to the battery going dead unexpectantly, I have 
never seen this with mine, but you may want to get a new battery and see how 
it behaves, since you may have a battery that has had some really heavy use 
from the previous user - just a guess.

By the way nice photos of your daughter.

Gene

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Cheyne" <geordiepete211 at yahoo.co.uk>
To: lug at leica-users.org
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 9:25:51 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: [Leica] First time behind the (thumb)wheel of an M8 (5 photos)

I've had an M8 for the last four days, and I'm glad I bought it, despite the 
glitches, the frustrations, and the let-downs.  

Three or four times a full battery went dead for a few minutes or more.  The 
body is coated with the least grippable material I have ever felt on a 
camera.  The battery needs to be reinserted if I use continuous mode after 
shooting in discreet mode. Many say its ISO 640 is fine, but I don't like to 
go above 320.  Quite soon I realized shooting in DNG is a must, because of 
poor white balance.  I set the in camera JPEG processing to desaturate to 
black and white, so that when I need to increase the ISO above 320,  I can 
switch to grainy monochrome by just hitting SET, then changing DNG for JPEG 
fine, not needing the advantages of RAW for b&w.  That last point is a 
neutral, not a minus, compared to my film M experience.  When my M3 or M6 
needs faster film than Provia 400X, I use monochrome.  That would also go 
for ISO 400 used indoors.

On the positive side, I've had a few wows with this camera too.  Apart from 
the slippy covering, which I really must get replaced with something 
grippier, it feels so much like a Leica that my thumb moved to touch the 
shutter lever and I then stared down at the absence of one in incredulity.

On balance, I'm happy about my M8, and I'm also happy I waited until I could 
get a reconditioned one for 3000 dollars (including import tax).  Here are 
some photos from the last four days.  If any comments, criticisms or tips 
come to mind, please let me know them.

This is the shot that made me like this camera and decide to really try and 
learn how to use it properly.  It's of my daughter, out on a walk, and was 
taken with a Tele-Elmarit at  f/2.8.  As a grabbed shot, I had to focus 
quickly on her eye, and I was pleased when I could review the image and see 
the focus seemed to be spot-on, with very clear definition in the eyelashes. 
 Having said that, 10 minutes later, the camera went dead, despite an 
indicated full battery.  Just as mysteriously, it started working twenty 
minutes later.  Here's the pic:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/geordiepete/4307441916/sizes/l/

In this next one the focus is not spot-on.  It was taken with the 50mm 
tabbed Summicron.  I've liked the colours, contrast and  bokeh from this 
lens since I started using Leicas fifteen months ago.  Today, thanks to the 
instant feedback of the M8, I learned how to correct the back-focus I get 
with that lens.  You know how that lens screws into two parts?  Well I just 
turn the front half of that lens a fifth of a turn or so, so that the white 
aperture marking dot is aligned with the red dot on the focussing barrel.  
That is enough to correct focussing at all distances with my copy of this 
lens.  I can live with that for a while, until I find out how to fix it 
properly.  My current method makes what used to be the simple light-fingered 
job of changing apertures into a bit of a bother.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/geordiepete/4303701107/sizes/l/

Here's another shot taken with the 'Cron 50.  This one is of a pair of 
racehorses  in Yorkshire.

http://www..flickr.com/photos/geordiepete/4304475744/sizes/l/

I like how the Canon LTM f/2 works on the M8.  This one is at f/2.8:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/geordiepete/4307433986/sizes/l/

This last one is of my daughter singing in the streeet on the way home from 
school.  I just felt like sharing this one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/geordiepete/4306680673/sizes/l/


      


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