Lilserenity
Well-known
I have been wondering which forum to post this in, the Leica M8/M8.2 one or this one (the plain Jane Leica M one.) I decided on this one as I am presently an M2 owner and the following are comparisons...
I was invited very kindly by Black & White Photography magazine (in the UK) to take part in a reader workshop today, based in London to play and shoot with a Leica M8 (M8.2 really but hey ho!) which was something of great interest to me. I have no way of affording one at the moment or in the future (never say never) so I was never going to come away and want to part with my M2 and move on to an M8.
I confess I was more interested in the lenses we would be shooting with as aside from my Summar, I don't have any other Leica glass and again in honesty I won't have this year.
Some general impressions of the M8 then from someone who loves working with film. It's a great camera. The Internet is a great place for people with small grievances to blow them up out of all proportion. The M8 however is a great camera, one of the few digital cameras which I could pick up and enjoy shooting, potentially.
It's actually minorly bigger than an M2, and whilst very very well built, I'd still say there was just a slight favouring towards the M2's build. That's not to say the M8 is bad, it's excellent, but the older M's are often regarded as being in class of their own.
The downside for me, was to some degree the reason I have stuck with film, e.g. the fiddling with menus to set things like ISOs and the general navigation of the camera which whilst very good, is something I am so glad I don't have on my M2. The ISO performance however was great, ISO 1250 and 2500 were great - clean but not in a clinical manner. Like having lots of very well developed and less grainy Neopan 1600 on tap 🙂 I was surprised that the ISO's were 'only' 160, 320, 640, 1250 and 2500 (from my playing around) but at 160 you get such clean files, any slower would be unnecessary, especially with a top shutter speed of 1/4000th.
The handling is like any other M, not Canon or Nikon SLR ergonomics but solid, familiar and apart from the advance lever, much the same, in fact identical. Weight wise, I think the M8 was ever so slightly lighter than my M2.
The lens I used most was a 35mm Summicron, great lens. That said, I have a funny feeling I might be the only person ever who says they prefer to focussing of my Ultron (Voigtlander!!) to the tab on the Summicron which I found a little tricky at first, got used to it, but found I snapped into focus quicker with the non-tabbed Ultron.
This might sound like I'm on a self preservation trip, I cannot emphasise enough how much I loved the M8 and if I had that kind of money, yes I would buy one tomorrow without hesitation.
The layout on top is nice and simple, an integrated battery and frame counter, and a nice positive off, single, cotinious and self timer switch, with the shutter release. That took some getting used to, no film to advance!
The M8.2 I was using had the grip which I found excellent and I'd like one for my M2 having now used an M with one.
Overall I thought it was a great bit of kit with a couple of caveats, one which is practice makes perfect and the second might just be me...
1. Exposure. Av mode is great, shoot away e.g. at f/8 and you can get some great shots. That said, I'm very used to how my MR meter meters and the latitude of BW neg film and its clear that you do need to meter diligently and I often ended up in manual mode but the Auto mode was definitely a welcome feature, one I wouldn't baulk at if someone asked if I wanted it on my M2!
2. Rangefinder patch. On the two M8.2's I used, I found the rangefinder patch a bit dimmer than on my M2, and a few times I couldn't pick out whether I had attained focus or not. This might just be me but on a couple of occasions, same spot, tried the M2 and found the patch just that bit clearer where the M8's seemed to be a little more 'vague.'
I'll probably get a kicking for the latter, but it was the one thing I felt a little bit "oh" about with the M8 which is as I say a truly excellent piece of equipment. I'd soon get used to it, but I know what I have with my M2. Maybe I need a fusion of the two. I believe they call it an M7 😀
In all it was a great day and the Leica chaps were lovely. I'm not really all airs and graces, and certainly not the stereotype Leica user I'm sure but they were great and very inspirational. If I worked in a professional capacity, the M8 would probably be my camera.
One thing I was really interested in was the colour output which was very natural. One of the things I will miss when Kodachrome kicks the bucket; but thank goodness for Provia and Portra; but seriously the results out of the M8 were fab. 10 megapixels and 1.3 crop factor or not, it was an impressive camera.
But I still like my M2 more 🙂 The viewfinder is much less cluttered and I like that as well.
I just thought I'd pass on to those who are thinking of going from a film M to an M8 or supplementing their film M, the M8 is very much worth looking at.
Anyway this was my favourite shot from the M8 today:
'Relief' - Covent Garden, London
I was invited very kindly by Black & White Photography magazine (in the UK) to take part in a reader workshop today, based in London to play and shoot with a Leica M8 (M8.2 really but hey ho!) which was something of great interest to me. I have no way of affording one at the moment or in the future (never say never) so I was never going to come away and want to part with my M2 and move on to an M8.
I confess I was more interested in the lenses we would be shooting with as aside from my Summar, I don't have any other Leica glass and again in honesty I won't have this year.
Some general impressions of the M8 then from someone who loves working with film. It's a great camera. The Internet is a great place for people with small grievances to blow them up out of all proportion. The M8 however is a great camera, one of the few digital cameras which I could pick up and enjoy shooting, potentially.
It's actually minorly bigger than an M2, and whilst very very well built, I'd still say there was just a slight favouring towards the M2's build. That's not to say the M8 is bad, it's excellent, but the older M's are often regarded as being in class of their own.
The downside for me, was to some degree the reason I have stuck with film, e.g. the fiddling with menus to set things like ISOs and the general navigation of the camera which whilst very good, is something I am so glad I don't have on my M2. The ISO performance however was great, ISO 1250 and 2500 were great - clean but not in a clinical manner. Like having lots of very well developed and less grainy Neopan 1600 on tap 🙂 I was surprised that the ISO's were 'only' 160, 320, 640, 1250 and 2500 (from my playing around) but at 160 you get such clean files, any slower would be unnecessary, especially with a top shutter speed of 1/4000th.
The handling is like any other M, not Canon or Nikon SLR ergonomics but solid, familiar and apart from the advance lever, much the same, in fact identical. Weight wise, I think the M8 was ever so slightly lighter than my M2.
The lens I used most was a 35mm Summicron, great lens. That said, I have a funny feeling I might be the only person ever who says they prefer to focussing of my Ultron (Voigtlander!!) to the tab on the Summicron which I found a little tricky at first, got used to it, but found I snapped into focus quicker with the non-tabbed Ultron.
This might sound like I'm on a self preservation trip, I cannot emphasise enough how much I loved the M8 and if I had that kind of money, yes I would buy one tomorrow without hesitation.
The layout on top is nice and simple, an integrated battery and frame counter, and a nice positive off, single, cotinious and self timer switch, with the shutter release. That took some getting used to, no film to advance!
The M8.2 I was using had the grip which I found excellent and I'd like one for my M2 having now used an M with one.
Overall I thought it was a great bit of kit with a couple of caveats, one which is practice makes perfect and the second might just be me...
1. Exposure. Av mode is great, shoot away e.g. at f/8 and you can get some great shots. That said, I'm very used to how my MR meter meters and the latitude of BW neg film and its clear that you do need to meter diligently and I often ended up in manual mode but the Auto mode was definitely a welcome feature, one I wouldn't baulk at if someone asked if I wanted it on my M2!
2. Rangefinder patch. On the two M8.2's I used, I found the rangefinder patch a bit dimmer than on my M2, and a few times I couldn't pick out whether I had attained focus or not. This might just be me but on a couple of occasions, same spot, tried the M2 and found the patch just that bit clearer where the M8's seemed to be a little more 'vague.'
I'll probably get a kicking for the latter, but it was the one thing I felt a little bit "oh" about with the M8 which is as I say a truly excellent piece of equipment. I'd soon get used to it, but I know what I have with my M2. Maybe I need a fusion of the two. I believe they call it an M7 😀
In all it was a great day and the Leica chaps were lovely. I'm not really all airs and graces, and certainly not the stereotype Leica user I'm sure but they were great and very inspirational. If I worked in a professional capacity, the M8 would probably be my camera.
One thing I was really interested in was the colour output which was very natural. One of the things I will miss when Kodachrome kicks the bucket; but thank goodness for Provia and Portra; but seriously the results out of the M8 were fab. 10 megapixels and 1.3 crop factor or not, it was an impressive camera.
But I still like my M2 more 🙂 The viewfinder is much less cluttered and I like that as well.
I just thought I'd pass on to those who are thinking of going from a film M to an M8 or supplementing their film M, the M8 is very much worth looking at.
Anyway this was my favourite shot from the M8 today:
'Relief' - Covent Garden, London
