Finally I love the M8

[user237428934]

After one year without M8 i'm back and now I really love it. Colors and high-iso performance were the main reasons for selling it (of course I used a filter). The need for rangefinder feeling + digital and lack of money for M9 were the reasons to come back.

Now I know how to get colors right and really enjoy it. The main reason for bad colors before was the constant dialed in exposure compensation of -2/3. I once read this in a forum (maybe here) that this is a must to prevent from blown highlights. That may be true but constant reduction of -2/3 has a negative impact on colors, everything is a little dull and flat. Now I don't use this. Next thing is that I enabled the option "lens detection + IR" although I don't have a coded lens. I tested it and colors without that option are not as good. Third thing is that I personally think that the Aperture 3 colors work best for me. My proof for colors is always my daughter. Her skin tone and slightly red hair is always a challenge and all those three things give me a natural looking daughter directly out of the software. I'm happy right now.

 

[masterkin]

I also set my exp to -1/3 to -2/3 on my m8. I'm going to play with this more today.

Either way, I'm a happy M8 user.

 

[jarski]

have fun, I know am enjoying mine.

D700 and 5DmkII owners are probably laughing, but to me M8's ISO640 pretty darn fast, after getting used to it and adjust your shooting habits to it. consider people managed for most part of last century with ISO's 20-100 😱

 

[ramosa]

I normally set exp comp at -1/3. Maybe I should experiment. Also, I will soon have Ap 3 for some other experimentation.

 

[user237428934]

If you shoot RAW you can easily be one stop under exposed and end up with a perfect exposure. If you are one stop over exposed your highlights are gone, unrecoverable. Bottom line for me, only shoot RAW and never over expose. I convert in Adobe PS3 (with DNG convertor). Works for me.

When I had the setting of -2/3 I discovered that I had to apply a +2/3 correction in the RAW converter all the time to be happy with the results. So I thought this is stupid and stopped using the correction in the camera. And I'm not so critical about blown highlights. I expose for the main subject most of the time because that's what I care about. In postprocessing I even correct the levels by pulling the higlights up a little to get more punch in the colors. And yes, I lose some highlights with that but I like the results.

 

[user237428934]

have fun, I know am enjoying mine.

D700 and 5DmkII owners are probably laughing, but to me M8's ISO640 pretty darn fast, after getting used to it and adjust your shooting habits to it. consider people managed for most part of last century with ISO's 20-100 😱

But the nice thing about technological improvements is that it helps people doing new things. I discovered the night with artificial lights as a playground for photography. And ISO640 is sometimes not enough for this. But developing film for a while got me to the point that ISO1250 from the M8 is not really bad 😉

 

[fiatlux]

I only have my M8 for a week but currently stopped underexposing by 2/3.

Underexposing was the recommendation of the previous owner - a pro reporter -, and might be safer to avoid highlight clipping in the heat of a news coverage, but I'm trying to get the grips of the metering system and adjust only when necessary.

 

[agricola]

>>But developing film for a while got me to the point that ISO1250 from the M8 is not really bad<<

Ah, so true.

 

[gilpen123]

Are most M8 owners setting lens detection on + uvir on a non coded lens?

 

[Vickko]

I love my M9 more. But really really enjoyed the M8. I mostly didn't use coded lenses, but always UV/IR filters.

 

[fiatlux]

All my lenses got coded, either by milling the mount (previous owner did it), by using an appropriate LTM-M adapter or simply by using a permanent pen.

By activating lens detection without a coded lens, you run the risk of inconsistent lens detection if there is some dirt, a screw head... in front of the optical sensor. But I guess the risk is pretty low.

 

[dfoo]

.... And yes, I lose some highlights with that but I like the results.

You can use highlight recovery to sort that problem out 🙂 I'm not sure how much latitude the M8 has though...

 

[jarski]

I discovered the night with artificial lights as a playground for photography. And ISO640 is sometimes not enough for this.

been managing most of the time ISO640 and f2.8 lens at night, as long as there are street lights, shop lights etc. recently got f1.7 lens, havent put it yet into true test at night time.

I love my M9 more.

yes 9 is what 8 should have been in first place. but prices currently are what they are.

 

[MCTuomey]

geez, i feel like an outsider. i use exposure compensation of -1/3 and often find myself desaturating while processing. i tend to think contrast is stronger with -1/3 EC (also preserving highlights of course). i ignore my raw converter's auto indication to add back 1/3 stop - again, because i think overall contrast suffers if i accept the converter's prompt.

 

[Mcary]

Still getting use to shooting with the M8 but so far I much prefer shooting in manual vs aperture priority as this allows me to quickly adjust for varied lighting condition, such as shooting down a sidewalk with an open background to one minute too shooting against a dark building the next, without having to access any menu's.

 

[JoeV]

In high-key light like sunny daylight a minus exposure compensation is good to prevent blown highlights; but on cloudy or otherwise low-contrast scenes a plus exposure compensation is often needed in order to push the histogram further towards the right, otherwise you'll have under-exposed highlights with poor tonal seperation.

~Joe

 

[Lax Jought]

May I ask a quick question - does exposure compensation directly affect the RAW file or does it only affect JPGs?

 

[jlindstrom]

It does neither and it does both 😀

Exposure compensation changes behaviour of the meter as far as I know. Which then effects how aperture priority or you manually select the suitable shutter speed. This then changes the final output regardles of the chosen output format.

So both and neither!

//Juha

 

[Lax Jought]

haha thanks. So in other words though, it does affect the overall tone of the RAW file.

What was the equivalent of the exposure compensation function back before digital cameras existed?

 

[cfritze]

Setting the iso on your metered camera to something other than box speed to "trick" the meter to over or underexpose.