Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/09/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Henning, Thanks for this--my keyboard is all wet with drool. One little detail: what kind of storage does the M8 use? Compact Flash? Cheers, Nathan Henning Wulff wrote: > Well, DPReview has said that Leica has now officially announced the > M8, posted pictures and spec so there's no point in being quiet any more. > > Tom Abrahamsson got hold of an M8 about a month ago, and shortly after > let me use it for about 10 days so that I could evaluate it and do a > write up. > > Firmware version was 0.23 so final image quality and some electronic > operational items are certainly going to be different than what I got > to use. Reasonably, I was asked not to post pictures from this camera. > Various family members have gotten prints from it, but they really > couldn't care much about which camera they came from. I took about > 1600 pictures. > > I had a couple of interesting moments w.r.t. other people's reactions. > A couple of times while walking around downtown someone came up and > said 'nice camera' while sporting their own late model Leica's. I > slipped my fingers over the 'M8' logo and held the camera back against > my body, went into grumpy mode, grunted and walked past. Then we had a > gathering at our house, and among others the neighbours were there. A > friend of their son came to our door, asking for Christoph; I let him > in and he saw the M8 on the counter and immediately oohed and aahed. > Turn's out he's a photographer and while born in Vancouver now lives > over the LeicaShop in Vienna. After that I 'disguised' it, but it > still was recognized at times. > > So - the camera. It handles like an M, except your hands miss the grip > that the wind level gave you. The extra thickness is easy to get used > to, and the responsiveness is very good. Because of the firmware > issue, the testing I did on it is meaningless, but there was nothing > negative to my perception. The shutter, while certainly different than > the rubber-curtained one on the film camera, is not particularly loud, > either in firing or winding. I think the dampening they did on the > transplanted R9 shutter had some effect. It doesn't have a high frame > rate, but neither do the film M's and that's not important to me. The > shutter travel includes a detent for locking the exposure that was a > bit hard to find, but a lot better with one of Tom's softies. > > The covering is fine grained and a bit too slippery, especially since > I missed the wind lever for holding the camera with the right hand. > Some kind of molded bump like on the Hexar RF would be nice, but I'm > not sure right now how that could be implemented in line with the > desire to retain the 'classic' look. > > Frame lines were bright and useable, and came up in the pairs that you > would expect due to the traditional lens mount activation. The frame > for the 24 is reasonably visible with glasses. It works with the > Visoflex III, and it worked fine on the Aristophot I got recently, and > I shot some pictures with the various Photars. I also put on my 17mm > fisheye, and it looks like this: > > http://www.archiphoto.com/Various/Incognito.jpg > > All lenses that I tried, including 12, 15 and 21 CV; 21, 35/1.4, 50 > and 90 ASPH, and older 35/2, new 50/2.8, 50/1, 75/1.4 and 135/4 > worked, and worked well. I wouldn't hesitate to use any of them and > there was no vignetting that wasn't visible on film as well. Those > angled microlenses do their job, and erase one of the main objections > I had re the RD-1, which was really not useable with lenses beyond the > range of 24 to (slow) 75. Image quality was outstanding in general, > the best were easily on a par or, in the case of wideangle shots, > readily exceeded that of the best on the Canon 5D. My favourite lenses > on the M8 were the 21 and 35/1.4 ASPH and 75/1.4, but I wouldn't > hesitate to use any lens. > > Menus were fine, and quite direct. There is no 'dedicated' button for > ISO (full stops from 160 to 2500), but since you can get at two > different menus by pushing two different buttons, changing ISO's was > very fast and efficient. There are also good user parameter save > options, so after you set them up you can go from low ISO with -1/3 > compensation, colour, colour histogram, bright LCD screen, high > resolution with DNG and fine jpeg with medium sharpening and low > saturation to high ISO, not compensation, B&W, dim LCD screen and > regular jpeg with higher sharpening in a very few button pushes. The > dial that's concentric with the arrow pad is also very nice and works > well. > > The little door to the left of the screen just has a connector for a > dedicated cable, which I didn't have so don't know whether it's USB2 > or 1394. > > Mainly, it felt like an M, and within a couple of minutes of picking > it up you could shoot with it like an M, and except for the sound, > lack of winding and having more than 36 shots, it really wasn't > different than an M. > > And that's good. > > -- Nathan Wajsman Almere, The Netherlands SUPPORT FREEDOM OF SPEECH, BUY DANISH PRODUCTS! General photography: http://www.nathanfoto.com Picture-A-Week: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws Seville photography: http://www.fotosevilla.com Stock photography: http://www.alamy.com/search-results.asp?qt=wajsman http://myloupe.com/home/found_photographer.php?photographer=507 Prints for sale: http://www.photodeluge.com Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog