Musings on a digital M

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popeye

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So after 2 days of having an M8 to shoot with I've noticed a few things that intrigue me...

1) I miss the PC button on the back. I use it on the M6 to steady my
thumb against. I think a small patch of grip stop tape might make a
decent and cheap substitute. Another 125 bones for a Thumbs Up is
just not what I'm interested in throwing down (IR cut filters can you
dig?) right now...

2) On occasion my thumb has searched for the advance lever. I trust this
is common.

3) It's quiet enough and more so than my old consumer dSLR. But the
shutter recocking is weird. I need to shoot in the Continuous mode for
once.

4) Capture One LE is better in some regards than the Pro version I
downloaded and why I dunno but both are worlds away better than
iPhoto with regards to RAW files. I guess I should test out LR and
Aperture as well.
5) I need to improve my technique. My dSLR has made me sloppy with
it's instant feedback gratification whereas the film camera forces me to
consider shots more (yes I get a high yield of crap with the digital...).
 
I've had mine for the last 2 weeks and I can relate to every point you've mentioned.

1) & 2) Having shot with a M2 for the last three years, my first instinct was also to reach for the imaginary advance lever. This has gone down over time, however.

3) I found that using continuous mode seems to produce blurry images. Maybe it's my imagination or just incorrect shooting style, but does the old shutter introduce more vibration? In most cases, I prefer to use the discreet mode.

4) Lightroom 2.0 works quite well for me. I haven't installed Capture One at all.

5) Because of the slow image review on the M8, I hardly use the LCD and simply concentrate more on acquiring the shot and then at the end of the day, import to the computer and review on a large screen monitor. In the beginning I used to check the LCD often as I was concerned about frameline accuracy, but this has more or less taken care of itself as I got consistent results from shooting.
 
Since C1 was free it was the best choice to date, I plan on trying out LR.

I have been using discreet mode only, mostly I'm curious as to the performance of continuous mode. That said I need to stop using A mode in clubs and go use my noggin more when judging exposure. Talk about laziness!
 
I hear you on the cash outlay for IR filters, but I also highly recommend the Thumbs Up. Funny thing is, I never used the advance lever on a film M as steady point, but I do like the balance and control the Thumbs Up provides.
 
Leicagoodies sells the SNOB for your thumb. The results of C1 are clearly superior to LR, though you will have to export from C1 to either LR or Photoshop (elements) to do your final print preparation. C1 Pro is the best RAW converter I know, especially the colour control is superior. And it handles fringing and pseudo-CA like no other RAW converter can.
Btw, the first year I always got a sinking feeling in my stomach when removing the bottom plate without rewinding the film...🙁
 
Last edited:
jaapv said:
Btw, the first year I always got a sinking feeling in my stomach when removing the bottom plate without rewinding the film...🙁
Click to expand...

Imagine the sinking feeling I got not long ago when I decided to shoot a roll in my M4 and took off the bottom plate to change the SD card :bang:
 
Ben Z said:
Imagine the sinking feeling I got not long ago when I decided to shoot a roll in my M4 and took off the bottom plate to change the SD card :bang:
Click to expand...


They should provide a sticker "Be kind, rewind" for your film M's baseplate then. Thinking about it, I guess I should put a note on my baseplate since I've tried removing without rewinding a couple of times (and I don't even own a digital M :O)
 
Let's see it's been a month and I have more musings to post...

1. C1 while it was nice to try, Phase One does not transfer licenses. Boo to you P1 and furthermore after I downloaded LR3b2 I found I liked it best, it has more than I need at the moment but the interface and functionality is more to my liking than C1. I'm not going to bother with Aperture.

2. Dust. WTF!
I've owned a consumer Pentax for 5-6 years and have had the sensor cleaned once because I did something stupid when I thought the nasty speck was crap on the sensor but turned out to be a fleck of paint on the rear element (only shows up in the smaller apertures and against the sky or similar scenes). I've had the lens on that camera off a zillion times and yet I rarely notice any dust. I've had the M8 a month and cleaned the sensor thrice because of huge nasty specks in addition to the smaller ones. I realize the situation with a dSLR, but come on now...

3. Not all SD cards are created equal. I think many here know the drill: Use the 'wrong' card and it'll throw back a 'Card Full' msg from time to time. I toggle the power to make it go away and rock on.

4. M8 magenta issues. I was able in LR to ding out the magenta cast by using these Color slider settings and creating a preset:

Blue -> Hue -> +23
Purple -> hue -> -77

Now this is only a starting point as I have not tested it extensively, but it was simple enough and worked on the image set I experimented on. And I'm sure I could be called out on some faulty use of the color sliders and not properly tweaking an ICC/ICM file and using that (which I tried to set up J.Roberts' ICM files to no avail) as is proper. Oh well so it goes.
 
M8 magenta issues? is this without the IR filters?

I miss the pc socket but only because I actually liked to use it. I now have to use a hot shoe adapter which is annoying.
 
chrishayton said:
M8 magenta issues? is this without the IR filters?

I miss the pc socket but only because I actually liked to use it. I now have to use a hot shoe adapter which is annoying.
Click to expand...

Yes I don't have a cut filter as yet for my 35mm. My others I do, and I need to profile my 15mm so I can use Cornerfix to sort out the cyan.

I haven't had a need yet for the PC socket but I can foresee wanting it and I guess I'll have to use the annoying adapter as well.
 
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