First video of the M8: the sound of music

[Marc-A.]

Yes, you read correctly, the first video of the M8 is available on a French site. It is of bad quality, in order to protect the author (humm), but we see it and most importantly, we HEAR IT!


Video of the M8


The article says that the M8 has been introduced to selected journalists and major press agency at the Visa pour l'image in Perpignan (France), even if the official release will take place at the Photokina. It is also stated that the M8 is a louder than the M7 and it confirmes the specifications previously announced by Jorge.

Now, make your own opinion!

Marc

 

[ghost]

sounds like a game of dice. 😀

 

[egpj]

Wonder if that really was the sound of the shutter or it is a shutter sound played by the camera when you press the capture button. Without a lever to cock the shutter it makes me wonder that there is no shutter curtain at all.

 

[irees]

egpj,

Not all CCDs have electronic shutters. Only interline-transfer types.

 

[jlw]

For fans of Google French, the blog page reads as follows:

The gratin of the specialized press was there. Normally the early product is kept for Cologne and its Photokina, but Perpignan is an event quite as important for Leica. Logic. One often presents to it under the coat of the prototypes (your servant discovered Eos DS3 month there before the exit) because the large accounts (agencies photographs) there is present and can thus plan the purchases of the following year and thus give indicators to the manufacturers.
The unconditional one of the leica drives its chart. What it seeks it is a feeling, a touch, a discretion and a technique of framing which is specific to the apparatuses with the red pastille. It is also sensitive to the timeless character of the object which if varied little since its origins of the Fifties. M8 is in a certain manner a worthy heir to a line of which it will mark the rupture…
The feeling is well the same one. Admittedly, the right inch can be bored, but the weight, the touch of the matters to see the sensitivity of the button, resembles to mistake there with those of M7. As regards discretion, one is certainly far… very far from the row from a professional numerical reflex camera. But the aficionados of the “noise of the egg shell which breaks” will be there for their expenses. M8 is noisier than its predecessor, without any doubt. The telemetric aiming is of setting, and in spite of a refitting of the “RF” the composition of your framing will be done EXACTLY as with any M with the difference which you will be tried by a control of the screen which is with the back As regards the coef of focal distance and thus of the size of the sensor you will certainly be disappointed. Not, which grains me but as a note of hope it gives me is as this M8 is numerical and that with title late will early or have been judged by the pangs of marketing as “have-not-enough-of-million-of-pixels” whereas just like when one evokes the engine output of Rolls Royce, the number of pixels is “amply sufficient”. For the timeless character thus, you will pass by again or remain faithful to M7 or MP which remain with the catalogue. Then while waiting for on September 15, enjoy small a video just voluntarily pixelized…

 

[Marc-A.]

Wow, fast translation! Impressed.

 

[Matthew]

The shutter sounds pretty good to me. Sort of like the sound a film M makes at low shutter speeds. The clip was shot very close to the camera as well so that's pretty much as loud as it will ever be heard by anyone other than the photographer.

Even though you can't see it too well, the lens on the camera (based on what the man is saying) is the new 28mm.

 

[Nemo]

Thanks for the link.

 

[IGMeanwell]

What is the problem?
Why you don't give us the link?

It was a little hidden but here you go

blog of M8

 

[Nachkebia]

What`s up with french and photography (leica) ? 😀
Pixelation effect is nice 🙂

 

[Nemo]

A higher resolution frame taken from the video:

http://www.macandphoto.com/2006/09/le_leica_m8_prs.html

(Jorge's pictures were accurate).

R.

 

[greggebhardt]

The video is horrible, how could we expect the sound to be accurate. Remember that a motor is re-cocking the shutter so we are not just hearing the shutter.

I do not care what it sounds like if it takes good images.

 

[Skinny McGee]

Bigfoot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[David Murphy]

OK guys I've been watching this M8 discusion for a few weeks now and I have to ask: what's all the excitement about ? Leica is a film camera company. How can they seriously expect to turn it around and compete with the likes of Canon which has been a player in optics since the 30's and and a pioneer in automating cameras with electronics since the 60's. For that matter how can they even compete with Kodak, which is reborn into the world of advanced digital cameras thanks to their extensive legacy of research in the field of electronic image sensors.

Why is Leica even trying ? This is the same company that won't even build a film camera with such a modern convenience feaure as a swing open back and did not put a TTL meter in a camera until 1984.

Leica has reveled in their ultra conservative retro approach to cameras. I think that is fine -- I own a Leica III in fact, and I appreciate it for what it is, but I can't help but feel that the writing is on the wall for Leica and the M8 will be their swan song. Leica's are by definition *the* miniature film cameras, and film cameras are rapidly passing from the world of the mass consumer into the world of the specialist and collector.

I actually think Leica could survive a while longer by following the Cosina/Voigtlander business model of making solid modern film camera/lens products that delight the hobbyist and are offered at moderate prices. Instead they seem to have chosen to take-on some of the corporate titans of consumer electronics.

 

[LCT]

...How can they seriously expect to turn it around and compete with the likes of Canon... how can they even compete with Kodak...

What do Canon and Kodak have to do with rangefinders?

 

[telenous]

Leica provides a further option to the rangefinder user and that's a good thing even if it is a radical departure from its familiar philosophy. Some people will buy the camera because they want it; some because they need it; but, most important of all, the digital M gives the rangefinder user some sort of psychological assurance that rangefinders will still be there even if film isn't. I cannot empasize how important this bit may be. One can go on buying the new lenses without fear that the line will be abandoned as film becomes ever more expensive, scarce etc. So, introducing a digital M is a tactical move of the utmost importance from a camera maker that remains analogue at heart.

P.S. I thought the shutter was a bit loud - or perhaps louder than what I expected. But then that's what it is to be spoilt by the analogue M.

 

[Matthew]

The video is horrible, how could we expect the sound to be accurate. Remember that a motor is re-cocking the shutter so we are not just hearing the shutter.

I do not care what it sounds like if it takes good images.

The video suffers from severe compression and pixelation, which we can assume has been done to protect the identity of the person handling the camera and probably violating a contract they had to sign prior to being shown it that they would not publish anything until later in the month. You can compress the video track and audio track separately. As the audio of both the camera sound and the man speaking are clear, that is what seems to have been done.

If you do not care what a Leica M sounds like that is fine, but many people do. The near-silent cloth shutter provides a distinct advantage in a number of shooting situations. For my use, it has allowed me to shoot on film sets while sound is rolling. In any situation causing less noise with your photography seems a good thing. In fact I believe there was a regulation, in I believe Vermont, that allowed for photographing court scenes provided that the camera made no more noise than a Leica M.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

The video suffers from severe compression and pixelation

I know, Matthew -- (looking up): Veuillez-les pardonner, parce que des c*ns ne savent pas ce qu'ils disent.

It's not a MPEG, it's an IDPG (Illuminati Disinformation Protocol Group) 🙄

(merci pour le link, Marc)

 

[thelovecollect]

heh, this looks like michel gondry's lego video.. 😀

 

[Matthew]

I know, Matthew -- (looking up): Veuillez-les pardonner, parce que des c*ns ne savent pas ce qu'ils disent.

Well, pardon me then, but assuming that the audio wasn't accurate based on an obvious video effect didn't make it sound as if you did know the difference. My apologies...