[Leica] Leica M8 hands on

[kididdoc at cox.net (Steve Barbour)]

thanks Henning...very nice review...Steve


On Sep 14, 2006, at 10:31 AM, 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.
>
>
> -- 
>    *            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