[Leica] Plunge into the M8 pond!

[cummer at netvigator.com (Howard Cummer)]

Dear Luggers,
I have been planning to buy an M8 ever since I sold my third and best  
RD 1 to Joe Leung in Vancouver in August after using the demo M8 that  
Leica had provided  to Tom A. and Henning W.. I became more resolved  
to buy one after using another M8 at the Leica Akademi in Wetzlar in  
October. But, availability of M8's in Hong Kong has been very  
limited, and prices have been very firm (HK$40,000 = US$5,125). Most  
units are being sold over the border into China, it seems, and so  
there is no discount for Hong Kong belongers. ;-(. Yesterday I had  
lunch with Joseph Yao and Joe Leung and then we went to the First  
Annual Photo Equipment Flea Market show in Hong Kong. It was held in  
the China Resources Hall in Wan Chai and unlike the dead atmosphere  
at the August Camera show in Kerrisdale, Vancouver, the Hong Kong  
show was bustling with dealers from Russia and Europe as well as the  
usual local suspects offering quite exotic equipment as well as new  
stuff. The Leica Shop from Vienna was present, with very nice used  
but relatively high priced equipment and the sales rep was wearing an  
M8 around his neck. We got to talking - his M8 serial number was  
1000003 - the third prototype he told me - and so I naturally asked  
him if he had any M8's for sale - none were on display. Surprisingly  
he said that they had brought three pieces from Vienna - all of which  
had been delivered to them just before coming to Hong Kong - with  
1.09 firmware in stalled and serial numbers in the 3104500 range  
(updated bodies). He had one black body left - which he dug out from  
behind the booth and I tried it with his M8 battery and my 35 Lux  
Asph that I was using on my M4.  The autowhite balance in the  
fluorescent lit hall was awful - the manual white balance was better  
- but not Canon perfect (Joseph had his Canon Dslr with him for  
comparison) but in the end, after a friendly price negotiation and  
sage advice from Joseph, I ended up buying the camera for about 10%  
less than the Hong Kong price. I will pick it up tomorrow after I get  
to the bank. Now I need to learn to shoot RAW DNG and learn to use  
Capture One so it should be an interesting week with a steep learning  
curve. More later, of course.
Cheers,
Howard
On 14 Jan 2007, at 9:04 AM, lug-request@leica-users.org wrote:

> Message: 28
> Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2007 17:02:04 -0800
> From: Wade Heninger <lists@heninger.org>
> Subject: RE: [Leica] M8 Test
> To: "'Leica Users Group'" <lug@leica-users.org>
> Message-ID: <001b01c73777$9b7991a0$d26cb4e0$@org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>
> All these M8's and me on a waiting list 30 people long.
>
> Where are you all getting these mythic cameras?
>