[Leica] IMG: Merry Christmas

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

Tina Manley showed:
> Here is a Christmas photo for all of you considering buying the M8.  Maybe 
> I'm learning to use it. It is a wonderful B&W camera ;-)  This is with the 
> Summilux 160 ISO, underexposed by 2 stops.
>
> Full frame: http://www.pbase.com/tinamanley/image/72001307
>
> Crop:  http://www.pbase.com/tinamanley/image/72001374<<<

Hi Tina,
I have stayed out of the M8 discourse simply because it's no different than
all the babbling about the R8 when it came out or was about to. Or any other
bits and pieces of new release.

Fortunately or unfortunately here I am with a comment on the M8 and your
picture with it's cropping quality. It's all positive M8 with superb
lighting, beautiful! Actually it's super!" :-)

Yours is similar to what I've found with the M8, particularly when cropping.
It's quite amazing how much the image "stays to-gether" when blowing it up.
I mean enlarging. ;-) Leica glass, and I must say the C-V apo glass has been
amazing in re-production.

If one looks at the overall picture size area and the amount you cropped
it's rather interesting how little grain effect there is. Like it stays
together, or it certainly appears so on screen.

Yes you changed the exposure method, not that I agree this should be the way
to make it work, ( hopefully this will be improved so when we dial in 1250
the grain effect will be much finer without using the under exposing
method.) Although I've done this with the Digilux 2 on more than one
occasion and it worked quite well in relation to finer grain effect in the
print.

I'm of the opinion the M8 is merely out of the womb and has yet learned, or
maybe I should say..... "photographers" ..... not the techie babble folks,
but photographers  have yet learned to really put it through it's paces.
Obviously you are working it out and thank goodness for some common sense
use.

No question there are some "electronic corrections to be made" in camera
operation and I expect this will be done as soon as possible.  But to
everyone's satisfaction? Not bloody likely. ;-) The whiner's will prevail!
;-)

The bottom line for me as a photojournalist is the camera merely requires
some tweaking, the sooner the better. And for those of us who've earned our
keep working with several M cameras at a time lo these many years, the M8 is
going to be the answer to our prayers in digital equipment! Expensive? Yeah,
but in the long run it'll all work out to our benefit.

Your grand daughter is a poster picture. :-)

ted