[Leica] Leica M8 hands on

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

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

High ISO was acceptable; not as good as Canon but OK. In low light I 
would probably tend to use the M8 as the operational advantages 
outweigh the noise issues.

Definitely the early firmware makes a real comparison problematic at 
this stage.

>
>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
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>_______________________________________________
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>>>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
>>
>>_______________________________________________
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>>See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>
>_______________________________________________
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>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