[Leica] IMG: M8 1st Shots and impressions.

[ricc at mindspring.com (Ric Carter)]

The african violet really impresses me!

Ric


On Jan 18, 2007, at 11:20 AM, Leonard Taupier wrote:

> I received my new M8 late yesterday afternoon. By the time the  
> battery charged, it was already dark and pretty cold out. So I  
> played around in the house experimenting with different lighting,  
> lenses, and Ultra Violet photos.
>
> First impression. If you're shooting in tungsten lighting you  
> better get the WB right for color or shoot b&w. My first color  
> shots in my living room (WB tungsten) turned my blue chair purple.  
> I expected that. So I took the same shot with a Tiffen hot mirror  
> filter on the lens. The blue/purple chair turned brown. That I  
> didn't expect so I took the same shot with my D200. Same tungsten  
> WB, no filtering. The color came out exactly like the M8 hot mirror  
> shot, brown chair. My only conclusion is I have some pretty screwy  
> lighting in that room.
>
> I then decided to have a little fun. Put my Visoflex III and  
> bellows II on the M8. Put an EL Nikkor 135 on the bellows and the  
> whole thing on a tripod.  Pretty kludgy but everything fits  
> perfectly. Didn't have anything to shoot except the leaves on my  
> African Violet. No flowers in a couple months. Here it is. Black  
> light and B+W UV bandpass filter.
>
> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/LeonardT/M8/M8_UV1.jpg.html>
>
> I then spent the rest of the night trying to figure out why I  
> couldn't put my photos on my computer. I thought I had a bad SD  
> card. It was on Leica's list. Should work. It turned out my multi  
> everything card reader doesn't like SD very much. I ended up using  
> a little SD only reader I bought for my cell phone. Works like a  
> champ.
>
> I then went to bed knowing at least that my camera works. Slept  
> like a baby.
>
> This morning, after coffee, I went out to my cold, frosty backyard  
> and looked for something to shoot in daylight. Took a few boring  
> shots of hibernating shrubs and stuff but the sky looked pretty  
> interesting so I shot that.
>
> <ISO 160, 21mm Elmarit ASPH, about f11>
>
> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/LeonardT/M8/Dawn.jpg.html>
>
> A few impressions about the M8.
>
> It's an extremely well made camera. Mechanics and esthetics A+
>
> Capable of very fine images given the right lighting and camera setup.
>
> Purple problem doesn't bother me.
>
> Uses Leica glass. No vignetting with any lens I tried including the  
> Noctilux at f1.
>
> Don't like jpg photos. Kinda dark in comparison to raw taken at the  
> same time. Most noticeable on flash photos ( SF20 in A mode). RAW  
> shots nicely lit. SF24D on order but I don't think that's the problem.
>
> Operation (mostly firmware dependent) not nearly as refined as any  
> C or N digital I have ever used. (Many models, mostly N).
>
> I'm able to use CS2 to process raw files in exactly the same way as  
> my C and N files. I did not install any other software on my Mac.
>
> I'm definitely not sorry I bought it. Need more time to learn it's  
> idiosyncrasies. Like most of you I couldn't find a spare battery.
>
> Sorry for being so long winded but it's cold outside and I'm not  
> going anywhere for awhile. Now to catch up with the last 100 or so  
> LUG e-mails.
>
> Len
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