M8 -- the likely best M digital choice for the next few years

[jaapv]

I still hold out hope despite the naysayers here that Zeiss has a camera up their sleeve and that we may see it at the big camera show coming up next year (the one that launched the M8). I also hold out hope that the M8 will be my DRF for the next two to three years and when they become available I will give one a try and share my images and impressions here on RFf.

You may well be right -Zeiss doth protest too much- But you'll have to wait one year longer. The Photokina is a biannual event 😉

 

[Ben Z]

Well, early this morning I snagged an Epson RD-1 refurb for $1395 with the discount code. I can adjust the rangefinder myself when it needs it, that doesn't concern me. As for the rest of it, it has a 1 year warranty and it will have easily paid for itself in film/developing cost by then. If by then Leica does not have a filter-free M9 and they are still in business I'll revisit the idea of getting an M8.

 

[jaapv]

Seems like a good buy Ben, congratulations! Happy shooting 🙂

 

[kbg32]

While I've seen many fine images taken with the Rd-1, I'd rather shoot with a camera that I know is reliable. If it has some quirks and requires the use of a filter, so be it. I have heard about the many problems with the RD-1 and associated customer service issues that keep me from buying one. The M8 will be around for years, no matter how many upgraded M9s, M10s, follow. I can't really see that with the Epson.

 

[Ben Z]

While I've seen many fine images taken with the Rd-1, I'd rather shoot with a camera that I know is reliable. If it has some quirks and requires the use of a filter, so be it. I have heard about the many problems with the RD-1 and associated customer service issues that keep me from buying one. The M8 will be around for years, no matter how many upgraded M9s, M10s, follow. I can't really see that with the Epson.

Aside from the filter situation reports still keep coming up of other M8 bugs and glitches, no one has actually used it more than a month, so it's a little early to say how how reliable it is. Aside from the rangefinder misalignment which is common, there have been a few shutter failures in the RD-1 but not that many, and virtually no electronic/digital-type malfunctions. I know four people who have had RD-1's since day one and have had no problems with them at all, after tens of thousands of shots. If I get a lemon it's got a one year warranty, I don't care if Epson fixes it or swaps me another one. And at $1395 it cost me about what I would have had to spend on filters alone for the M8, so if in a year when it's out of warranty there is no recourse for repairs and something happens to it, it will have paid for itself in film/developing and I will throw it in the trash and move on.

 

[Olsen]

My rant was unrelated to your previous remarks... I was just going off on a tangent

My point was that there is a call for a digital rangefinder, that is somewhat affordable (or at least more so than the M8), reliable, and basically most everything you have in a DSLR except it needs to be near silent and rangefinder.

I figure if there is enough demand for something of that nature in Japan then the Japanese companies would most likely look into manufacturer such a camera. Who's yelling tends to be the loudest, your neighbor 4 houses down or the one that is right next door? If there is a call for a rangefinder in Japan, the camera is produced, and they find significant numbers being exported to other parts of the world.... then they produce enough for the rest of the world.

The more I think about it the more I think Sony would most likely the company to go into rangefinder's than canon or Nikon ... only because they are a company that could take that kind of leap and be able to absorb the impact; if the camera were to flop.

Sony is in deep economical problems and totally unlikely to benefit from any D-RF venture. Notice that Canon goes away with 80% of the profit in the digital camera market place. Nikon is for sale.

Regardless, just any of these producers would have to face the same problems as Leica and make the same compromizes; do this and get that wrong, or do that and get this wrong. The sensors of today are not suited for RF cameras,- hardly for D-SLRs either, many would argue. It is several years ahead before we will see any better.

 

[Harry Lime]

Oddly enough, when people see my R-D1 (which is basically a digital Bessa) they assume it's film....

j

Oddly enough when ever someone sees one of my M's they think it's an antique and suspect I am pulling their leg, when I tell them that they are still being made.
🙄