Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/09/14

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Subject: [Leica] Leica M8 hands on
From: Bill at photobynelsch.com (Bill)
Date: Thu Sep 14 12:09:42 2006

What I would like to see are images from the M8.  

Bill in Denver 

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bill=photobynelsch.com@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bill=photobynelsch.com@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Tom
Schofield
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 1:01 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica M8 hands on

Henning, can you comment on high-ISO performance, or you holding back as
firm-ware related?

Tom


On Sep 14, 2006, at 11:56 AM, Henning Wulff wrote:

>> 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
>
> SD cards. I had some Sandisk Ultra II's.
>
> I've also read the spec now, and found out the connector is apparently 
> USB2.
>
> One thing I didn't like and forgot to mention was that after you 
> select an option on the menu, and then go back to shooting mode 
> directly, you don't get what you selected. You have to press the 'set' 
> button after you select an option. But that's fixable in firmware 
> (hope, hope!).
>
>> 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
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>
> -- 
>    *            Henning J. Wulff
>   /|\      Wulff Photography & Design
>  /###\   mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com
>  |[ ]|     http://www.archiphoto.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information


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Replies: Reply from henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff) ([Leica] Leica M8 hands on)
In reply to: Message from leicaluvr at comcast.net (Tom Schofield) ([Leica] Leica M8 hands on)