Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/01/29

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Subject: [Leica] Some time with an M8
From: hoppyman at bigpond.net.au (G Hopkinson)
Date: Mon Jan 29 15:47:02 2007
References: <C1E34A38.E460%heninger@adobe.com>

Wade, I thoroughly enjoyed your gallery. All of the clean compositions and 
rich blacks are inspiring. I think that you have
identified a true strength of the M8 there. Great stuff.
Cheers
Hoppy

-----Original Message-----
FrSubject: [Leica] Some time with an M8

So, post battery-troubles, I finally got to spend some quality time with my
M8.  We were heading to Victoria for a bit of work and some family time, so
I was excited to put the camera thru my normal paces...

I popped in a 4 gig Transcend card, attached my TA soft release, charged all
three batteries and mounted my trusty Summicron 50 (sans IR filter) and
began shooting - on the ferry, on various walks, in the hotel, and at the
various places we visited.

So after about 800 exposures, I can state I'm quite happy with the camera.
It works mostly like I had my M6 in hand, which is more than I can say for
any other digital I've ever had.  I *love* having my summicron back pointing
at the world and I love having an M in hand again.  I pretty much ignored
everything except the shutter aperture and the ISO - what bliss.  It just
feels right in my hand and I'm swooning - its so good to be back shooting an
M after those awful DSLR monsters.  Good riddance (well for 90% of my
shooting anyhow).

Random observations in a quaint "stream of consciousness" fashion:

I do find the shutter a bit different than the M6 - I like the old shutter
sound better, but its nothing to get up tight about.  I completely forgot
about the fact that it is a bit thicker after 2 minutes.  I love the Set
menu for shooting parameters (less clutter for the good stuff).  The buffer
is big and while you can catch up to it, its hard, and you can wait a few
seconds and continue tacking onto the queue. DNG rocks - makes it much
easier to manage the Raw file (and its archival)! I've set it to show the
preview for a few seconds in B/W too (that may be a firmware bug, but I hope
they never fix it).  No problems with the on/off switch getting moved
back/forth.  My frame selector is a bit sticky for some reason, but I'm
going to just ignore it for awhile.  The 50 Summicron is a bit too tight, so
I just ordered a used 35mm Summicron. I'm going to consider Tom's grip when
it comes out as well. The soft release is made for this camera - I got some
sharp shots at 1/8. I can put at least 300 exposures on the card before its
time to change the battery (wish just this one part could be like the
Nikons) but its acceptable.

But here is the best part: when I loaded them into Lightroom and converted
them to b/w (which is mostly what I plan to do) they just popped - it
reminded me again why I use Leica lenses.  Sharp, contrasty, and they
require so little mucking with (unlike the Nikon stuff I've been messing
with while waiting for the M8).  The ISO at 160/320 is fine grained.  640
and 1250 is a bit grainier and totally acceptable.  2500 is hit/miss, but I
didn't usually shoot at that with film, so I'm happy.  Will print a few when
I get back, but I have no reason to doubt they'll look as good on paper as
on screen.  I've not looked at the color at all - probably won't - and as
soon as I can get a "always preview in B/W" option in Lightroom, I'll
probably never see it so the IR and WB issues just are not an issue for me.

Here are a few pictures:

http://www.heninger.org/gallery/victoria/


Enjoy...


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
w a d e  h e n i n g e r
u s e r  e x p e r i e n c e
a d o b e  s y s t e m s ,  i n c




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In reply to: Message from heninger at adobe.com (Wade Heninger) ([Leica] Some time with an M8)