[Leica] New M8 + cold fingers + nighttime = a tough first day

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

Ryan,

As for seeing the viewfinder, yes contacts work fine, but I use my glasses 
these days.  i don't really have any problems with them.  Yes you have to 
look to the side when using the wide angle lenses, but for your 50, you 
should have zero problems seeing the 50 mm frame lines, even the 35 and 24 
lines should be easily viewable.

As for setting the Iso , just push the 'SET' button and use the dial/arrow 
control to set the value you want and then push 'SET' again, and away you go.

The rangefinder camera is a different animal from the DSLR you are used to 
so be patient and you will get used it in no time.

Nice first set of photos by the way.

Gene

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ryan Scott Bardsley" <rbardsley at gmail.com>
To: lug at leica-users.org
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 10:40:56 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: [Leica] New M8 + cold fingers + nighttime = a tough first day


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



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