I've posted before about this, and I don't want to harp on about it or be negative. I just want to be realistic. My personal experience of the M8 was three faulty bodies, all displaying / having different faults. After the third bummed out I decided to pull out and I'm happy I did. Having experience in the camera retail end of things as well, I can say that from the stories I hear, ignoring the internet stuff, people seem to be relatively happy with the M8. Most of the converts from film M's won't touch the camera, or if they have they've regretted buying it. If it isn't faulty it's the magenta issue and if it's not the magenta issue it's the shutter noise, battery dependance, lack of weather sealing, random shutdowns or "feel." To others it seems a revelation, the whole RF thing has got some people genuinely excited. When I look at some files from other digi's like the 5D I wonder why they look so artificial in comparison to what I saw in my M8 DNG's. The bottom line for me is that I could have learnt to live with the magenta issue. I don't really have the whole set of skills to masterfully process RAW files and I loath editing and selecting digital images. Infact the whole digital process is not for me. But I would have gotten used to it. Time was all I needed to come up with a workflow and process that suited me. Battery life was a bummer but easy to work around. I experienced every type of banding under the sun, the first being the type found in first gen camera's and another type caused by strong point sources of light on the edges of the frame (I saw this A LOT!) This has now become a well documented issue but back then I was told that they'd never heard of such a problem and because it mainly happened in mid to high ISO situations (Like 90% of my work is,) I was told it was "beyond the limits of any camera" and not to expect too much from the camera. This got me thinking and reasearching, as is often the result of being told to live with some defect like this in a product that you've literally invested all your lifes savings into. Sure enough, other examples like mine had been posted on the net but there was still no word from Leica or it's reps on if this issue could be fixed in firmware if at all. (To my knowledge it still isn't fixed?)
I tried to ignore this fault but I came to a blinding realisation. The realisation was this: I had stopped shooting the photo's I wanted to because I was afraid I was going to get ruined shots, perfect photos except for massive unfixable green streaks cutting through the most important parts of the picutures. I realised I had no confidence in the product and this lack of confidence was sapping my concentration and undermining my vision. I had been nominated for a place in the World Press Masterclass and if they gave me the nod (they didn't) I would have to use something I could rely on to produce a large story to take with me to Amsterdam for assessment. I lost a lot of money in the process but I've now re-found film.
The M8 is a quirky product and has had massive problems but I've also been told that a Canon L series lens that was less than six years old was impossilble to repair by the Canon Service Dept. It was just a faulty USM motor, or some such seemingly minor thing. That's not exactly good service or inspiring of confidence in a significant investment either, is it?
No, I'll never buy another M8. Although I respect other peoples opinions (except blinded, crazy nutters on the LUF) I'll definatly look forward to the next digi M Leica bring out. It might just be a redemption product. Bring on the M9! (Just don't count on me being first in line to get it!)
Sorry for the ramble in such an inappropriate thread.
