Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/09/23

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Subject: [Leica] Musings on the M8...
From: TTAbrahams at aol.com (TTAbrahams@aol.com)
Date: Sat Sep 23 23:00:40 2006

 
I  was just packing up the M8 for transport back to Solms and this started 
me 
 thinking about what I thought about it. It is very M-like in operation, to 
the  point that the right thumb is forever flailing around for an advance 
lever 
and  every time I opened the baseplate I stopped myself "did I rewind the 
film?" This  particular M8 cycled through Vancouver  and out-laying areas 
for 
about a month and the consensus  seems  to be "how soon can I get one" or " 
how 
can I raise the required $ 4800 for  one". 
In  2004 Epson lent me a RD-1 for an extended trial (3 months) and this was 
my first  foray into the world of Pixels and JPEG/RAW. At the time I thought 
the  experience was interesting, but not sufficiently so to buy the camera. 
Another  two years have passed and even a confirmed Luddite like me is 
getting 
more  interested. I do harbour a suspicion that Leica allotting one of the 
M8 to 
me  for trying could be a way to establish a baseline "if Tom would buy it 
we 
have  the design right".  In my opinion they have succeeded - the M8 does 
feel 
 like a true M. The controls are simple enough and reasonably well laid out. 
The  old "standards" like viewfinder, frame-lines, body-shape is close 
enough 
to the  regular M and the digital part is easy enough to figure out even 
without a  manual. 
The  M8 came along when I went out, but never alone. There was always a M2 
as 
a  companion and I found that I shot as much with the film based camera as 
with the  M8. This could change when I get my own M8, but I know that I 
would 
still use  film primarily. There is process you go through when you shoot 
film,  
composition, exposure, processing and editing that I find changes with the  
digital. The instant "recall" leads to many "corrective" pictures. "Hmm, if  
I 
move over there, would it look different or improve?" With film you have to  
think more clearly and there is a "decisive moment" when to shoot. With the 
M8  
there was many an indecisive moment instead! Part of this has to do with my  
inexperience of this particular medium but part of it is inherent in the  
process. You shoot and it is tempting to instantly look at the image rather 
than  
continue to look at the scene, it is easy to lose the "flow".   
This  afternoon I had coffee with my friend Chris, he borrowed the M8 for 3 
days and  brought some prints to show me. Extreme low light scenes with 
28/1,9 
and 35/1,2  lenses. The quality is amazing, it would be difficult to 
duplicate 
the shots  with film and printing them would have been a nightmare. The 
prints had a  smoothness to them that was disconcerting, at least for 
someone used  
to TRI-X. They were unmanipulated prints - straight from a card, no  
photo-shop magic applied. They had the look of  XP-2 or Tmax C-41 prints,  
with that 
long tonality and lack of grain.  
I  did add up what I shot over the time I had the M8; "keepers" were about 
130  shots which were transferred to a CD and during the same time I shot 
about 
55  rolls of film and looking at the negatives and marking the ones that 
looks 
 interesting I ended up with about 150. About the same ratio and yes, the CD 
is  more compact, but the film stuff can be filed away and I don?t have to 
worry  about long term storage. 
I  am looking forward to "go digital", but there is no way I am giving up on 
film.  At the moment there are more than 2 miles of film in the freezer  and 
 
watching that print pop in the developer tray beats looking at a  computer 
screen anytime. I can see the M8 shine in "Hail Mary" situations. The  
dynamic 
range in low light is nothing short of amazing, the ability to "push"  and 
"pull" at the touch of a button is another bonus and the fact that it can  
use 
lenses that have established performance parameters already on our "regular" 
 
M-mount cameras. It is also a compact system, a M8/a M2 and  the 21/35/50  
kit 
that I use is smaller and faster than most of the DSLR's with their HUGE  
zoom 
lenses and camera bodies the size of SUV's. 
The  M8 is the first camera that got me interested in digital as a picture 
taking  tool. With the RD-1 I never got the same feeling as with the M8 - no 
fault of  the camera, just my perception at the time. Epson deserves much 
credit 
for  it and it does have a film-advance lever and a rewind crank (which is 
more  convenient to "chimp" with than the M8's buttons). Will the M8 make me 
a 
better  photographer? Probably not, but as I mainly take pictures for 
reasons 
only  known to me, it doesn't matter. Photography to me is a way of enjoying 
myself  and the M camera's suits me for that. Hasselblad's,  Sinar's, 
Nikon's, 
etc. were tools  for working and I cant still loose  that feeling that there 
is 
a client or even worse, an AD waiting to pounce upon  my efforts. With the M 
it is for me, by me and if nobody but me ever see the  results that is fine 
too. 
Now  it is off to that Pixel Party known as Photokina - somewhere among the  
halls there will some black/white silver halides hiding for me to fondle. 
Tri-X  and a M2/MP and maybe extend the loan of the M8 another couple of 
days  for 
that low light stuff! 
Tom  A 
------------------------- 
Tom  Abrahamsson 
Vancouver, BC 
Canada 
 (http://www.rapidwinder.com/) rapidwinder.com 


Replies: Reply from luisripoll at telefonica.net (Luis Ripoll) ([Leica] Musings on the M8...)
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