[Leica] M8 Ultra Violet photography

[LEN-1 at comcast.net (Leonard Taupier)]

Infrared photography with the M8 is well documented and by some  
cursed due to the very high sensitivity to IR of the camera.

What I don't see is any reference to ultraviolet photography. I have  
been experimenting with UV photos with both the Nikon D1 series  
bodies and the M8. It is much easier to shoot UV with the M8. That is  
because the M8 is a rangefinder camera you can put all kinds of  
filters on the lens without blocking your view of the scene you want  
to photograph.

The advantage of UV photos is they are in different colors where the  
sky is blue, foliage can be orange or deep red and man made  
structures like concrete or stucco can come out white. Since the  
color can be in 3 or more channels the color can be easily  
manipulated in Photoshop. IR photos on the other hand will come out  
pink and require desaturation for the photos to come out in black and  
white .

All you need is your M8, almost any lens that can give you fast  
enough shutter speeds, a UV bandpass filter like the B+W 403 and a  
Hot Mirror or Cut filter to eliminate IR from corrupting the UV photo.

A typical setting in sunlight would be ISO 640, f 2.8 and shutter  
speeds between 1/24 and 1/ 90 sec. The M8 meter works just fine with  
this setup.

Here is an example taken today using the 50mm Summilux Asph and the  
above setup.

  <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/LeonardT/UV/L1009821c_UV.jpg.html>

http://tinyurl.com/5dxvbu

Len