Could the M8 become a "classic?"

[MCTuomey]

digital cameras i've used and think of as classics (fondly for their use and times):

Canon 1D
Canon 1Ds
Canon 5D
Leica M8
Epson R-D1

All fine tools that in their way impressed and I'll remember well.

 

[leicapixie]

It will never become a "classic" even as Leica-M, 1st digital camera.
The CCD, the wonderful B/W, the look of Kodachrome all are plus.
I have used a friend's M8.
The colors with "those" filters helped greatly.
Many of my 90mm Summicron wide open a total disaster..
Then we "learned a new word". FOCUS-DRIFT.
The negative.
No Leica service as parts and sensors are no longer made available.
Leica AG need to sell more cameras, not service old ones..
Electronics have never become collectible, as users, maybe paperweights.

 

[FrankS]

I'd hesitate into call any digital camera a future classic, but if I were to pick one, it'd be the epson R-D1.

 

[Kwesi]

The M8 has a well deserved place in Leica history. That alone will make it collectible. does that make it a classic? IMHO, no. The M3, M6 and M9 are classics.

 

[FrankS]

I just can't see digital cameras as being collect able. It's like collecting old computers. I guess a "select" few do, but ....

 

[Monochrom]

It won´t be a classic.

Sensors will keep improving long after the m8 gets unrepairable.

Not every Leica is a classic or a collector item, maybe they are all expensive but this doesn´t turn leicas into collection items.

 

[uhoh7]

It's another M5, though doesn't deserve such treatment.

Today, this minute, M8 is one of the best bodies on earth, with it's ultra thin stack over sensor. The crop is slight compared to APS-C, and brings many lenses into their best zones.

Most of the shots which opened my eyes to digital leicas were taken with M8s. They don't look worse 5 years later.

The good news is: anybody can have one 🙂 I see them as low as 1200 now.

 

[Doug]

Is a classic necessarily collectible, and vice versa? I don't think I'd consider the M8 collectible, but it surely has some kind of historical status as Leica's first digital.

 

[pepeguitarra]

Maybe

Maybe

I sold my M8, bought an M9, sent it for sensor replacement, bought an M8-u. Used it a lot, and I am very happy with it. I got the M9 back, and keeping the M8-u too, I got used to it. No bs from internet influenced me. Not sure what classic means nowadays!

 

[pepeguitarra]

Samples of my lovable M8-u

Samples of my lovable M8-u

M8.u + Summicron 50/2 Collapsibe:

Otra Mandarina Mojada by Pepe Guitarra, on Flickr


GreenFairPhotos-008 by Pepe Guitarra, on Flickr


UltimoTestCollapsible-027 by Pepe Guitarra, on Flickr

 

[Lss]

And it's no longer repairable a few years after its discontinuation due to lack of parts.

The M8 is still today serviceable by Leica. The LCD screen is the component that cannot be replaced due to lack of parts.

 

[Keith]

This concept of "classic" is all wrong.

Its price will never start to go up, suddenly, because it's a "classic".

2022: "Hey look, the M8 is now officially a Classic. It'll start selling for 450$ instead of the current 385$ mark"

Classic as a noun or verb has nothing to do with perceived value .... more to do with an item that has enduring respect and longevity.

That said ... the M8 fails on both those counts for me! 🙂

 

[RichC]

Depends what you mean by "classic".

I owned one for 6 years, from 2007 to 2013, and as time went on found it a seriously flawed camera.

First, it was unreliable: the firmware froze on occasion, and you had to remove the battery to "reboot" the camera like a crappy computer; and it had to go back to Leica twice to fix faults - the shutter jammed, and the viewfinder read-out stopped working. It got to the stage where I was afraid to use the camera for important jobs in case it failed! No other camera I've ever used was so worryingly fragile!

Secondly, the sensor was pretty average despite tales to the contrary. It was quickly surpassed in quality by many newer cameras. Also, it had a major problem: the "magenta blacks" owing to infrared contamination. This was massively worse than other cameras, and without filters on each lens, certain objects would appear red (black artificial fabric and certain plants especially). Not only were the filters expensive but they caused reflections in some of my photographs.

The above are wholly unnacceptable in a camera for "serious" use, and stem I suspect from poor R&D and lack of money within Leica at the time. No Korean or Japanese company would release such a fragile, badly designed and flawed camera.

The Leica M9 is the camera the M8 should have been. And I can see the M9 becoming a usable classic.

However, if by "classic" you mean "collectable", then yes, it will become sought after by collectors - one day. I have a Sinclair calculator from the 1970s I found in a drawer, and they sell for over £100 on eBay, despite it being awful to use (batteries last milliseconds, and you have to type in a peculiar order).

 

[Keith]

Come to think of it the Ford Edsel has probably become a classic in spite of being nominated as one of the worst cars ever made.

Definitely an opening there for the M8. 😀

 

[RichC]

@ Keith <like>

The Epson R-D1, on the other hand, the world's first digital rangefinder, is both a usable and collectable classic. I owned one from 2004 to 2007, and despite its measly (by today's standards) 6 MP sensor, I still miss it and have thought about buying one for fun and casual use. Of all the digital cameras I've owned, it's the only one I feel nostalgia for. Considering how well this camera has kept its value, I'm not alone!

 

[sevo]

Fifty years on, barely any digital camera will still work - they will not even be restorable. So there will be a different approach to all of them - if some of them will grow collectible, it will be a museum type collection (for display of its shell design or historical relevance) rather than the user-collectors that accounted for most of the collectible film camera ownership.

 

[leicapixie]

"The look of kodachrome" is totally internet bs. There's nothing kodachromey about the M8. Just like the myth about the noctilux glass being cooled for 10 years before it is manufactured.

Leica BS at its best.

The M8 was a beta product, 2 generations behind as soon as it got into the market.

Sadly you are wrong!
I also use an older Kodak digital camera and the colors are different from modern sensors..Old now measured in weeks..😱
It really resembles color transparencies, Kodachrome in particular. It has the same magenta in blacks, great in shadows!
You try "Photoshop" that! I used Kodachrome professionally, which had some interesting results..Green coat coming out BROWN. Not good in Fashion.
Nope! Kodak asked for a sample of coat.
"They" said on spectrometer it was indeed a brown..
Everybody saw a dark green..:bang:
Ektachrome to the rescue.
No those filters used by Leica M8 were not available.
My Kodak digital is a finicky as the M8..Unreliable.
So it is not Leica BS, about the color.
The Kodak sensor (when it works) is simply beautiful.
If one likes Kodachrome..😀
I use Leica-M and have never been awed.
It's nice sized but heavy bodies, the older lenses, small and neat.
Ya want sharp, get Nikon or Canon.

 

[ray*j*gun]

Crop factor be damned.... best B&W digi for anywhere near the money and if the RD1 is classic the M8 surely is.

 

[Freakscene]

Just like the myth about the noctilux glass being cooled for 10 years before it is manufactured.

Leica BS at its best.

Except it is 100% true. Glass with high refraction indices of that era often had very long cooling times. The cool down time for that glass was 10 years, and it had to sit for that long prior to being macined into a lens. Glass often takes a long time to become dimensionally stable after production. When supplies of that glass type ran out, Leica had shut down heir glass lab and manufacturing facility and the f1 Noctilux and the 75 Summilux were discontinued.

It was marketing, from the perspective that other manufacturers did this sort of thing too, so it wasn't unique, but it was true.

Marty

 

[burancap]

Classic as a noun or verb has nothing to do with perceived value .... more to do with an item that has enduring respect and longevity.

Thanks Keith! You said it better than I could. Now on to the difference between classic and collectible.