Fine.. I Caved..

Congratulations, Dave. I'm happy someting positive came from that sad review. Let us know how you and your new lady get on.
 
There are a few 4gb SD cards that aren't HC, I think Transcend has one. I for one haven't worried too much about it as 130-odd photos from one card is enough for me.

Practise that sensor cleaning experience you have gained, especially in the first 3 months (I've heard people say around 1,000 shots but who knows). After years of owning dslr's I caved a few months ago and gave the M8 a wet clean as I was sick of cloning it all out.

I'll also second the Luigi case, it stopped me treating it like a glass ornament and more like a camera.
 
Well... The battery is charging - I'm reading through the manual - I decided to go for two 2GB Extreme III cards as suggested; the serial number is high enough (332XXXX).

I know from reading that some folks had complained about the size of the charger - meh.. to me it's not a big deal - it's made by Ansmann and I've used their rechargeable batteries for years with a very similar charger (for AA batteries) - I'm used to it I guess :)

Now to register and snag a couple of those IR CUT filters.

Cheers,
Dave
 
Dave,

Just an fyi, I received the two free IR cut filters from Germany in under two weeks. I am located in Montreal. I was really surprised at this short turnaround time.

~ Jeff

PS: I'd be real keen on hearing about your M8/ZM 21 combination as this is a lens I am interested in adding at some point in time..
 
jplomley said:
Dave,

Just an fyi, I received the two free IR cut filters from Germany in under two weeks. I am located in Montreal. I was really surprised at this short turnaround time.

~ Jeff

PS: I'd be real keen on hearing about your M8/ZM 21 combination as this is a lens I am interested in adding at some point in time..
Click to expand...

Thanks Jeff - I haven't registered it yet - I will shortly though.
I have a 28mm finder to approximate the ZM 21mm framing on the M8. I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm slowly perusing the User Manual. I'm reading through it and noting that there are a lot of things in here that may address some of the issues I've been reading about. I wonder if people just didn't bother to RTFM with this camera? The battery is still charging :)

Dave
 
dcsang said:
Thanks guys...

There's a checklist of stuff I'm thinking of already after talking to Steven Miric last night (he purchased my Minolta Dimage scanner) - a second battery (minimum), a decent GB card (does the M8 take 4GB now??), maybe some filters (I'll try the lenses without them first since I want to shoot B&W - I'll order one or two if necessary) - anything else you can think of?

Dave
Click to expand...
Regarding 4GB SD cards. The M8 will not take SDHC cards yet, which is what most of the 4GB cards are now. We're hoping for a firmware upgrade to address this. In the meantime I have been using 8 Transcend 4GB 150X TS4GSD150 SD cards as have many other people without problems. The cards use a variant of the SD spec to accommodate the 4GB. They're not as fast as 2GB cards such as Sandisk Ultra II or Extreme III in the M8 but have the additional capacity which can be very useful if you're shooting performance in a dark theatre.

Good luck with the camera and I hope you enjoy using it.

Bob.
 
Bob

Can you provide a link of what the 4gb card looks like. I've known about it for some time but have not wanted to buy the wrong one.
 
dcsang said:
I'm slowly perusing the User Manual. I'm reading through it and noting that there are a lot of things in here that may address some of the issues I've been reading about. I wonder if people just didn't bother to RTFM with this camera? The battery is still charging :)
Click to expand...

Don't bother. The manual is as thorough as a car stereo manual.

One issue that I was trying to look up took me forever to find; things aren't indexed logically. You can see a total "who cares" shift from reading their previous, very detailed, simple yet effective manuals of their film cameras.

Just play around with the settings; only way to learn. Or ask "us". :D
 
Bob Parsons said:
Regarding 4GB SD cards. The M8 will not take SDHC cards yet.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure I've been using my 4GB SDHC card since the very first day I took my M8 out of its box.

There are, however, a lot of cards out there that don't abide by strict standards that apparently (I'm speculating here, by empirical observation) Leica ran by. Manufacturers usually "patch" their cameras with hacks and bypasses. Apparently Leica doesn't want to do that.

It's painful to be a self-respecting engineer. ;)
 
Gabriel M.A. said:
Don't bother. The manual is as thorough as a car stereo manual.

One issue that I was trying to look up took me forever to find; things aren't indexed logically. You can see a total "who cares" shift from reading their previous, very detailed, simple yet effective manuals of their film cameras.

Just play around with the settings; only way to learn. Or ask "us". :D
Click to expand...

Ya.. there's no logical order to the way they've put stuff into that manual. It's just a tad confusing, at least to me, I had to refer to it a couple of times just to make sure things that I have done are done correctly.

Dave
 
hehe.. I wish I actually had TIME to freaking take a few shots - I'm on call this week so there's been very little "me time" - once I'm home it's "The Boy" (my dog), dinner, and post processing approx 275 photos from a wedding a weekend or so ago. Hopefully I'll catch a break tomorrow at work and have some time to play.

Then, of course, I still have to post process those too :D

Sheesh.. I thought the workflow would be "easier" (then again, I've got 2 rolls of tri-x sitting waiting development for the last couple of months...)

Dave
 
dcsang said:
Ya.. there's no logical order to the way they've put stuff into that manual. It's just a tad confusing, at least to me, I had to refer to it a couple of times just to make sure things that I have done are done correctly.

Dave
Click to expand...

Manuals... :D The star of my collection is a Dutch Canon 10D manual, translated from Japanese into English by a non-English speaker and from English into Dutch by a non-Dutch speaker.
A gem: "set the camera to the Lamp setting".

(Long ago there were pneumatic cable releases which used a blower bulb. The B setting for exposure is thus "bulb" translates to Lightbulb translates to Lamp...)
 
m8 manual

m8 manual

oddly, i have found the m8 manual to be darn refreshing. because dslrs have so many darn functions, their manuals are naturally long, detailed and complex. moving to the simpler m8 and related manual has been a pleasure.
 
What I've Noted So Far

What I've Noted So Far

I haven't had much time with the camera so far but here's my initial take on various things:
  1. The "Purple Blacks" have yet to show their face - I'm using Firmware 1.201 - I thought that would be the first thing I'd see
  2. The resolving power of the lenses is pretty cool.. I've now had a chance to just shoot "crap" with my 15mm CV, 21mm ZM, 35mm Cron ASPH and 50mm Lux pre-ASPH and all of them are pretty sharp on their own
  3. The AWB, while "ok" is still far from perfect. In "reflected late day sun" - that is, no sunlight but just reflected light off of buildings, concrete etc. it shows up way too blue imho. It looks like a value of about 2800 when it should be closer to something like 3900 imho
  4. The whole "overexposure" thing is, so far, a non issue imho. Any of you who've used the M7 or who've used a center weighted slr (K1000) or you know how/where your camera is exposing (particular focus point etc.) then you should have NO issue with exposure with this camera. SERIOUSLY
  5. ISO1250 ain't half bad - haven't really looked at ISO2500 - again, like others have said, you have to know how you're exposing - that is, NOT just the subject but also the light sources around the subject.
  6. I think, but still have more tests to do, may be one of the first digital cameras that accurately (this is all my opinion mind you) captures motion at slower shutter speeds - that is, it's very much like using a film RF / film M - I wish I could describe what I'm trying to say exactly but maybe I'll have to take some shots to show you (and some to either help me understand it better)
  7. The wide angle lenses do still "look" like their original focal lengths but they definitely "feel" different due to the crop - again, I wish I could explain that better
  8. The hot shoe is a bit "tight" with external finders - just seems a bit of a struggle to get either the Zeiss 21mm or the CV 28mm on and off of that thing..
  9. I still have to test it more but I can't say that the files are "better" than the 5D but I think, based on the minimal stuff I've done so far, that they're equal to the 5D
  10. My only concern is just how robust the camera may (or may not) be - and that's merely based on the "horror" stories I've read here and on the Leica Camera Forum.

Cheers,
Dave

P.S. - yes.. I promise.. some photos soon..
 
dcsang said:
I haven't had much time with the camera so far but here's my initial take on various things:
  1. The "Purple Blacks" have yet to show their face - I'm using Firmware 1.201 - I thought that would be the first thing I'd see
  2. The resolving power of the lenses is pretty cool.. I've now had a chance to just shoot "crap" with my 15mm CV, 21mm ZM, 35mm Cron ASPH and 50mm Lux pre-ASPH and all of them are pretty sharp on their own
  3. The AWB, while "ok" is still far from perfect. In "reflected late day sun" - that is, no sunlight but just reflected light off of buildings, concrete etc. it shows up way too blue imho. It looks like a value of about 2800 when it should be closer to something like 3900 imho
  4. The whole "overexposure" thing is, so far, a non issue imho. Any of you who've used the M7 or who've used a center weighted slr (K1000) or you know how/where your camera is exposing (particular focus point etc.) then you should have NO issue with exposure with this camera. SERIOUSLY
  5. ISO1250 ain't half bad - haven't really looked at ISO2500 - again, like others have said, you have to know how you're exposing - that is, NOT just the subject but also the light sources around the subject.
  6. I think, but still have more tests to do, may be one of the first digital cameras that accurately (this is all my opinion mind you) captures motion at slower shutter speeds - that is, it's very much like using a film RF / film M - I wish I could describe what I'm trying to say exactly but maybe I'll have to take some shots to show you (and some to either help me understand it better)
  7. The wide angle lenses do still "look" like their original focal lengths but they definitely "feel" different due to the crop - again, I wish I could explain that better
  8. The hot shoe is a bit "tight" with external finders - just seems a bit of a struggle to get either the Zeiss 21mm or the CV 28mm on and off of that thing..
  9. I still have to test it more but I can't say that the files are "better" than the 5D but I think, based on the minimal stuff I've done so far, that they're equal to the 5D
  10. My only concern is just how robust the camera may (or may not) be - and that's merely based on the "horror" stories I've read here and on the Leica Camera Forum.
Cheers,
Dave

P.S. - yes.. I promise.. some photos soon..
Click to expand...
Dave Great to hear you are up and running.
Regarding the AWB Im guessing that you are looking at the monitor and have not had a chance to print anything just yet. You might be pleasantly suprised as to how things actually end up in Capture 1.

Enjoy

Richard
 
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