[Leica] M8 High ISO performanace

[cummer at netvigator.com (Howard Cummer)]

Hi Luggers,
I broke down and spent the $26 to subscribe to Sean Reid's review  
site in order to read for myself his two part review on the M8 (which  
overall he likes very much) and obtained from him permission to quote  
this comment on high ISO performance:

> "At ISO 160 and 320, there's little noticeable difference between  
> the noise levels of the M8 and 5D. At ISO 640, the Leica shows  
> slightly more noise than the Canon but it's a minimal difference.  
> At ISO 1250 the M8 clearly shows more noise than the 5D but it's  
> fairly moderate if one allows C1 to do its default "color noise  
> suppression". At ISO 2500/3200 it's clear that no one would mistake  
> ISO 2500 files from the M8 for ISO 3200 files from the 5D. --- The  
> Canon files at maximum ISO are undeniably cleaner and show little  
> of what we might call "digital grain". *But * if one follows the  
> workflow described above, he or she can create very beautiful,  
> somewhat "grainy" files from the M8 at ISO 2500. They will be  
> grittier than those from the Canon but they're not unusable for  
> many kinds of work. It's interesting to note that the fine detail  
> seem in the M8 sample made at ISO 160 can still be seen at ISO  
> 2500; the latter file is gritty but precise. The Canon file seems  
> to show somewhat less detail at ISO 3200 than at ISO 160. Given  
> that both cameras's files were converted in C1 with the "noise  
> suppression"slider at its lowest setting. I'm puzzled as to why the  
> Canon alone seems to have lost some of the detail one might expect  
> to lose from luminance filtering"
>
>

At the end of the review Sean concludes that the M8 is one of a short  
list of very competent digital cameras and that its introduction is a  
commendable accomplishment.
I enjoyed the other articles on the site which have a major focus on  
rangefinders, especially the RD 1, and lenses for digital  
rangefinders and would recommend it to others who want a  
photographer's review of cameras rather than a gearhead's. And no, I  
have received no consideration from Sean for this endorsement, except  
his courtesy in letting me quote from the review above.
Cheers
Howard (in HK)