Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/01/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I wear glasses and keep them on to focus. It would be terrible to be taking my glasses off and on every time I wanted to take a photo! You will get used to it. You can get a soft eyepiece that will protect your glasses from scratches but I've never had one. My left eye glasses have scratches all along the edge from my camera. You can set the ISO on your M8. I usually leave mine at 160 and use fast lenses. I take a lot of photos in the dark. Sometimes it's easier to move yourself than to fine-tune the focusing. Just move your head back and forth. Rangefinder focusing is totally different from DSLR focusing. The great thing is that you can take as many photos as you need to to learn. It's much cheaper than learning with film!! There is no such thing as Picture Mode with the M8. Just keep it on S for single shot or C for continuous. You can set Aperture or Shutter speed. Shoot Raw and there is nothing else to set. Make it easy on yourself and practice with plenty of light. Once you can put the camera to your eye and get what you want, try less light. Good luck and have fun!! Tina On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 11:40 PM, Ryan Scott Bardsley <rbardsley at gmail.com>wrote: > > Well, I made it out there. My train got into Penn Station at 8PM. Once I > got settled into my hotel and had some dinner, I set out to try my new > (used) M8. Wow, what a difference from my Canon DSLR. I love the sound of > the shutter. I feel like I am making something substantial with each click. > Like there is work involved, lots of hard work, and then someone blows the > whistle. > > My biggest problem seems to be with getting my eyes to focus in the > viewfinder. I normally wear glasses, so those had to come off. The LED > numbers seem blurry in there. And oftentimes, I found that the focusing > screen just never seemed to be crisp. What do you guys do? Wear contacts? > Get a corrective attachment? > > So, I tried shooting everything. It was dark, very dark. And it was cold, > verrrrrrry cold. So, my enthusiasm wasn?t at 100%. Anything that was > moving? ended up being blurry. I fiddled with the ISO settings, etc. But it > was just dark. Plain ole lack-o-light. Now that I have to focus on (err) > focusing, I have been trying to gestimate which focal setting to put the > lens at before aiming. I was practicing getting faster at getting my > subject in focus. To no avail? Most times, when I would bring the camera to > my eye, I was hunting back and forth trying to find the right direction to > rotate the focus ring at all. I was always headed in the wrong direction. > So, that will take some practice. Static objects seemed to work a bit > better. > > Of the 45 pictures I managed, only these 3 seemed to be acceptable enough > to share: > > http://www.flickr.com/photos/rsbardsley/sets/72157628934782221/show/ > > I?ll try again in the daylight. Hopefully some light will help me learn > what I am doing wrong. > > All in all, I am very happy with my new, and first, M8. Anyone got any > tips on how to get the damn thing into ?Picture? mode so I can tweak the > ISO settings? I don?t understand the menu well enough to do it > consistently. It feels like I need to click my heels, face NorthNortheast, > pray, and then the Menu button will bring it up. I don?t get it. > > Click. Click. Smile. > > Ryan > Boston, MA > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > -- Tina Manley, ASMP www.tinamanley.com