[Leica] M8 bought with 1,2,3

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 4:27 PM -0500 10/30/06, Afterswift@aol.com wrote:

snip

>You know that FF
>is on the way and the M9 will feature it. Third, in any case it's a Leica, 
>so
>you're going to get your money's worth in just a well made body and lenses
>that you will be able to use with any M -- film or digital. And you'll be 
>able
>to service the M8 for the better part of this century. I'm using an M3 and I
>expect to overhaul it at Leica one of these decades. So we're 
>talking about 100
>years of maintenance on a film Leica. I have a Nikon F following on the 
>heels
>of that M3. I doubt whether digital Nikons will reach that standard of
>longevity.

Yes, I too want the perfect digital camera. And I want it NOW!

Likely not going to happen, though. Life is full of disappointments.

Meanwhile, in the realm of possible, nay even reality, the M8 exists. 
It takes fine pictures, and if one can get over the concept of a 
certain focal length producing a certain angle of view, it works very 
well right now. It won't last like an M3. It might take fine pictures 
for a long time, but keep a supply of batteries, another of SD cards 
and a card reader with all sorts of connections, 'cause all these 
things will pass, even if the sensor life, LCD life, and the life of 
all sorts of other electric components is up there with the life span 
of an M3. Which they aren't, and can't be made from scratch in a 
little machine shop by a formerly factory trained technician.

The M8 (and 9, 10, whatever) might have a lot longer life than a 
Digital Rebel, but it won't have the useable lifespan of an M3.

As for the FF issue, that is something I really can't get too excited 
about. Yes, a 24/1.4 would be nice, but I can live with a 28/2. If 
enough M8's get sold, we might actually get a 24/1.4 for it that 
won't cover 24x36.

I have a 35/4.5 that nearly covers 4x5, and I have a 400mm lens that 
won't cover more than 24x36. I have a 28mm lens that was only 
intended to cover 24x36, and that I now use for 6x17 shooting almost 
exclusively.

So now with an M8 I'll have lenses that have a bit narrower angle of 
view than what I was used to. So I'll use a bit shorter lens. John 
Collier made a good point about images 'popping' due to shallow depth 
of field. True enough, but if that is a big part of what you are 
about, don't use 35mm, or use somewhat longer focal lengths. The 
75/1.4 causes all the 'popping' you could desire.

I have a lot of different equipment, and for money making stuff I 
know what I have to have with me to get what I want. On the other 
hand, if I'm going out for fun, I really never fret about not having 
this or that bit of equipment with me. I shoot the images that are 
available to me, both as far as subject matter and equipment.

Similarly with the M8. It's a really, really good digital camera that 
has a 10mp sensor and a 18x27mm sensor. Go ye forth and shoot the 
pictures that that setup allows. You'll run out of lots of other 
things before you run out of images that you can take with a camera 
of those specifications.

But don't count on it being a viable picture taking setup in 50 years.

-- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
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