First Photos with the M8

Mudman

Mudman

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Alrighty, a brief hands on thoughts of the m8. First photo above with my Summicron collapsible, f4 ISO 160.

It's exceedingly intuitive to use coming from my M6TTL and M3. Everything makes sense. Minor quirks - half stops on the speeds are nice but was unexpected, and the stupid base plate has the lever on the wrong side. Image quality is fantastic so far. Including high ISO. I was super worried that shots at ISO 1250 were going to be unusable. I think they have less grain then my D300, definitely less than my D2x. Example below.

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There's grain, but it's negligible. ISO 1250, 1/30, F2. I love it. Much better than most high iso films that I've used. Framelines. I've got to get used to them. I'm having a bit of trouble of accuracy with the 35mm, but I think that's just me not knowing the camera well. They seem on par with my M6TTL, not as nice as the M3. The focusing patch is better on the M8 than my M6TTL so far though.

B&W ISO 1250 Shot below. I love it. Again no problem with grain. I think the B&W conversions from this camera are fantastic. Converted in LR2
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1/90th, F2, Summicron collapsible.
It's a joy to shoot at a 1/12th of a second and get sharp shots again.

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ISO 640, 35mm Summaron, 1/12th of a second. Messed up the framing a bit. Just need to get used to the camera.
Auto WB isn't great, but I applied auto WB in import in LR2 and it worked wonders on 90% of the shots.

One more for the road. ISO 640, f2.8 Summicron Collapsible.
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So that's my first test run with the M8. Only shot with it for about 2, 3 hours so far. And I was meeting with friends so actual shoot time was less than an hour. This camera makes me feel how I felt when I switched from Pentax to Nikon - relieved and exhilarated to find something that fits how I work. One weird niggle - the camera wouldn't respond for a moment when I went to take the above shot of the tobacco shop. I could review images, but the remaining shots and the battery symbol weren't displaying. It started working after I moved the dial on and off a couple of times. Might have been the battery needing a charge; I hadn't charged it before I left, and it was about half empty (according to the read out) when I took this photo. I'm going to keep using it and see if I can make that happen again. I also need a second IR filter, it was a pain switching between the summaron and summicron. Does anyone have a source for the B&W 39mm?? B&H is special order and it's a six week wait.
 
haha, why argh? The cost of the camera? They've come down quite a bit. I think it's worth saving up for.
 
Mudman,
So glad you got an M8...it seems to be in very capable hands. It was great to see 9 Maple first up...I was just there over the holidays meeting a few old friends out. I kept expecting to see people I know in the photos below it, and I kinda do, Saratoga faces just like there are Rochester faces, I've found. Anyway, enjoy it!
cheers
Doug
 
Thanks Doug. Would have been nice to have worked out a deal on yours, but This ended up being better for me. Bit less money and I traded my M3 too boot, so it was much more in my budget.
 
Congrats on the M8! I just got one 2 days ago as well, and maybe have shot same amount of time you have had.
I also notice the menu is a tad... peaceful.
And it look me more hours to 'code' my lens than actually shooting yet.. haha.
 
Nice seeing some photos & nice short review. I love how the M8 renders in b&w. Color looks good too...enjoy!!:)
 
Update: I figured out why the camera locked up on me - it was the auto off feature. I've turned the feature off.
 
Wonderful work in such a short time with the M8!

That may be one of the greatest strengths of the M8/9 that goes unaccounted for... that is: the familial handling of it.

If you are an M film shooter, the M8/9 is like a comfy pair of old shoes.

I miss it, but it is clearly in very capable hands. Enjoy!
 
Here are a few photos from today in some better light. The detail is nuts. I really think my lenses are out resolving the 10 MP sensor though; there seems to be a lot of information at 100%. I just want to keep going and going up past there. A few "cityscapes" with Summicron 50mm. Also my first time processing with LR4. It's kind of weird to see these files; I'm not used to seeing my Leica signature without the mask of film.

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Below is the 35mm Summaron @ F11
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i'm starting to seriously enjoy the iso 160 shots taken outdoors, in bright light. i'm also using a 50mm summicron, and the detail at 100% in insane. i'm not use to seeing photos that sharp (when in focus). i like your photos, i took very similar shots this afternoon myself, and the results in lightroom just blew me away. i can't ask for anything better at low iso. i'm beginning to like my m8 more and more each day!
 
wasn't long ago this camera was roundly disparaged for its crop factor, shutter noise, need for filters, and on and on. nice to see it's getting its props here. that AA filter-free sensor in the M8 kicks a**. wait until you print a few.

expose and set WB properly, learn to do basic noise reduction (esp in LR), and the higher iso files will also impress.
 
MCTuomey said:
wasn't long ago this camera was roundly disparaged for its crop factor, shutter noise, need for filters, and on and on. nice to see it's getting its props here. that AA filter-free sensor in the M8 kicks a**. wait until you print a few.

expose and set WB properly, learn to do basic noise reduction (esp in LR), and the higher iso files will also impress.
Click to expand...


I'm giving it a sound testing in High ISO tonight at a music venue. Horrible low light there. Here's one from a chowder festival today. I found that it didn't want to meter as well with my 35mm Color Skopar as it does with my Summaron or the 50mm summicron. I'm not sure why, but it was underexposing by about a stop with the 35mm CV on most of my photos today if I left it in aperture priority mode. Also the 35mm framelines are way out of wack. Does anyone else find that true? If I line the top line up with where I want the subject, there's a lot more room up there than I anticipated, and not as much at the bottom of the frame. Is there any way for this to be adjusted by a repairman, or is this the frameline issue that is brought up about the M8 versus M8.2?

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Yes, I often needed to do some cropping when using a 35. My least favored FL on the camera. I preferred 18/24-25/28/50 lenses on my M8. 28mm is a frameline sweetspot and 24 isn't bad either.

I don't shoot auto-exposure much, can't comment. To me it's hit-or-miss with any of the Leica M's, especially shooting digital which is a lot like shooting slide film from an exposure point of view.
 
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