Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/04/09
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I've been shooting a reasonable chunk of film, almost all of it color, through my R8 since I got it. Mostly exploring the capabilities of that 100mm macro lens. WHEW! I have a few reactions that were immediate: The camera just fits me. With the motor drive it's heavy compared to either the D30 or especially the M6's, but the handgrip and the strap work together very well to give me a stable shooting platform. The ergonomics of the camera seem perfect. This is in contrast to the D30 which I use but continue to dislike. The D30 is just LOADED with controls, so much so that it has to use TWO different display screens to deal with all its features. I feel like I should connect it to my computer in order to set it up. This would be funny if it weren't for the fact that some digital cameras out there require you to do just that! The metering of the R8 has worked very well for me. I use the matrix metering almost exclusively and the result has been well exposed negatives on three different speeds of Porta film. I was at Hangtown for the first time shooting the young grandson of a friend this weekend, using Porta 800, and was really happy with the results. I'll post some images from that later. The metering of the D30 has not been as good. I suspect that I'm comparing apples and oranges here though. To judge how well the R8's exposure control has been against that of the D30 I should probably use transparency film which is almost as touchy as the D30's digital chip. The D30 does well where there's good light. But when things get contrasty its decision making process seems to go awry. The R8 has no autofocus. Good! The D30's autofocus sucks -- bigtime. The new round of pro digitals from Canon and Nikon seem to be as fast as their film equivalants now - but as the light gets worse the D30 just sorta hunts around, sometimes for seconds. Unfortunately the zoom lens I have for the D30 doesn't have a good "feel" when manually focusing -- it reminds me of one of my servo-controlled video cameras where the focus ring isn't connected to anything - - it just tells the electronics to move the lens. So you can't find a stop in any direction. There IS a stop at the near and infinite focus for the D30 - but focusing it feels disconnected. Used manually the R8 just works - the aparture and shutter speed are easy to adjust and the settings are displayed well in the viewfinder. It took me a moment or two to learn how to interpret the display but now I find it really useful for determining the degree of under and over exposure. In manual mode the D30 uses a control wheel ON THE BACK OF THE CAMERA to adjust aparature! Which makes for a finger in the eye if my thumb slips. Digital cameras, I suspect, especially the pro cameras, will have a wealth of controls since the designers will be unable to retrain themselves by adding every possible feature. Maybe they will come with a little remote control unit like some telescopes! The D30 can take some pretty nice photographs! But it is high maintenance in terms of the thought process required to run the camera. The R8 can take some pretty nice photographs also. But the designers seem to have thought out what you NEED and made it available and easy to use. The MANUAL for the R8 however...well...that's a different story. Thanks for listening. Adam Bridge - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html