Hard decision about the future of my M8 ... maybe you feel the same way?

Keith said:
I swore I wouldn't sell this camera because there seems little point in doing so ... it does nothing wrong and never really has and the cost, which seemed extrordinary at the time, is long forgotten, but ... it now seems to have taken up permanent residence in the cupboard with little chance of that status changing...

My head hurts! 😱
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Nothing to agonise over, except the low prices that the the M8s are fetching. I never really took to my M8.2 and didn't like the crop factor either.

Last October, when I got the M9 and returned to Bangkok, I left the M8.2 in Paris for a friend to sell. But my M9 had problems, first a cracked sensor glass and then a processing fault. Leica Solms dealt well with the sensor glass crack (three weeks) but not so well with the processing fault (almost three months), and by the time I got the camera back I had lost confidence in it, and sold it for what I had paid — it still had 18 months on the warranty. At that point I had been to back to Paris and picked up the M8.2, which hadn't sold because of the low prices offered.

Back in Bangkok I sold the M8.2 without any hesitation , taking only a US$1,000 loss on it because I had bought it in the UK in January 2009m for US$4,500, when the GBP was weak against the US$ and the euro and when Leica hadn't yet raised its UK prices. Chalk it up to experience. BTW, I'm not into buying and selling cameras.

Now I'm left with an M6 that I never use as I no longer shoot film and six Leica-M lenses, waiting to see what Leica will after the M9.

—Mitch/Pak Nam Pran
Tropical Light
 
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-doomed- said:
Keith,
The offer of donating to me still stands....
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Oh you're a tryer! 😀

This is all so sad now ... my M8 got me my fiirst ever published shots in a magazine and now she's in imminent danger of being shown the door!

Life's hard for a Leica. 😱
 
malland said:
Nothing to agonise over, except the low prices that the the M8s are fetching. I never really took to my M8.2 and didn't like the crop factor either.

Last October, when I got the M9 and returned to Bangkok, I left the M8.2 in Paris for a friend to sell. But my M9 had problems, first a cracked sensor glass and then a processing fault. Leica Solms dealt well with the sensor glass crack (three weeks) but not so well with the processing fault (almost three months), and by the time I got the camera back I had lost confidence in it, and sold it for what I had paid — it still had 18 months on the warranty. At that point I had been to back to Paris and picked up the M8.2, which hadn't sold because of the low prices offered.

Back in Bangkok I sold the M8.2 without any hesitation , taking only a US$1,000 loss on it because I had bought it in the UK in January 2009m for US$4,500, when the GBP was weak against the US$ and the euro and when Leica hadn't yet raised its UK prices. Chalk it up to experience. BTW, I'm not into buying and selling cameras.

Now I'm left with an M6 that I never use as I no longer shoot film and six Leica-M lenses, waiting to see what Leica will after the M9.

—Mitch/Pak Nam Pran
Tropical Light
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I hadn't realised you'd had these issues with the digital M's Mitch ... hopefully as you say the next effort may suit your needs better.

I will miss my M8 ... looking through some files I shot with it a year or so ago made feel a little nostalgic. A rangefinder is still the best option for the gallery work I do in terms of focusing and being able to see things outside the field of view but sensor performance is very important to me in this environment also!

My M8 with the dynamic range and ISO capability of my D700 would be a godsend ... maybe this will be the M10 ... who knows?
 
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Keith said:
...A rangefinder is still the best option for the gallery work I do in terms of focusing and being able to see things outside the field of view but sensor performance is very important to me in this environment also!

My M8 with the dynamic range and ISO capability of my D700 would be a godsend ... maybe this will be the M10 ... who knows?
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Focusing is an issue with large sensor non-RF cameras. I'm now using a Ricoh GRD3 (small-sensor) and a Ricoh GXR/A12 (APS-C sensor). With the GRD3 the DOF is huge and there is no focusing issue. With the GXR/A12, I use a variation of zone focusing by using Spot AF and then pressing one of the programmable function buttons to switct to manual focus, which fixes the plane of focus and is good for street photography. With a 900,000 pixel LCD, I can see enough on even a bight sunny day in Thailand to establish the edges of the frame.

One the other hand, for seeing things outside the field of view of the sensor, I'm a "radical" as I have gotten to like using Live View more than the viewfinder: what I do is to look at the LCD on the back of the camera to establish roughly the edges of the frame and then look directly at the subject when pressing the shutter. This leads to a "fluid" style that I value for street photography.

On the M10, it had better be based on the M9 (full frame) rather than the M8.

—Mitch/Pak Nam Pran
Pak Nam Pran
 
Keith,
You could always "park" your M8 in a good home in Pensacola, Florida. I will take photos of my girls with it. When you miss the M8, I will mail it back to you!
 
raid said:
Keith,
You could always "park" your M8 in a good home in Pensacola, Florida. I will take photos of my girls with it. When you miss the M8, I will mail it back to you!
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No I don't think so raid ... sorry! 😀

Anyway I think I have a solution ... a mate of mine who used to repair TVs and videos reckons he can get the sensor from the D700 to fit into the M8. I'm going over to his place this weekend and were going to have few beers and give it a shot! :angel:
 
Keith said:
No I don't think so raid ... sorry! 😀

Anyway I think I have a solution ... a mate of mine who used to repair TVs and videos reckons he can get the sensor from the D700 to fit into the M8. I'm going over to his place this weekend and were going to have few beers and give it a shot! :angel:
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You could call it an M9😱
 
Keith said:
No I don't think so raid ... sorry! 😀

Anyway I think I have a solution ... a mate of mine who used to repair TVs and videos reckons he can get the sensor from the D700 to fit into the M8. I'm going over to his place this weekend and were going to have few beers and give it a shot! :angel:
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That would be awesome, Keith. Let us know in detail how things will progress.
 
Sell it! Lifes too short for such a long thread just about this!
If you miss it buy another when you need to. It will be less expensive than what you sold!
Ive been through 4 Hasselblads! No regrets. If its not being used and gathering dust flog it and buy something you do use. If you miss it its time to change!You can only use one camera at once! Im not sentimental and I enjoy the process of photography itself with pretty much any camera film and digital. The fun is learning how to get the best from something and this keeps me interested. (could say focused he he!)

Best wishes

Richard
 
Keith said:
...Anyway I think I have a solution ... a mate of mine who used to repair TVs and videos reckons he can get the sensor from the D700 to fit into the M8. I'm going over to his place this weekend and were going to have few beers and give it a shot! :angel:
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And then you'll set up a company for transferring each of the microlenses from the M8 sensor to the D700 sensor, and have enough money in three months to by a complete Leica S2 outfit...

—Mitch/Pak Nam Pran
Pak Nam Pran
 
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tlitody said:
I rekon it's all a ruse to justify updating to an M9 which has better ISO performance.😉
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Man! ... I am financially so far from being able to buy an M9 it's tragic. Ten big ones here in Oz! 😱

I do like the way a rangefinder works in that gallery situation though ... I noticed the other night that shooting into a subject that has a black background with an SLR gives you little clue as to where the edge of the frame is. What I really want is dramatically increased dynamic range ... it's very obvious that the EV range of my subject material which goes from video screens to dark holes with people in them, falls outside the capabilities of digital's twelve or so stops! The higher you go up the ISO scale with the D700, as good as it is, the less flexibilty you have in this area.

I was looking at some charts on the site that tests camera sensors and it was really noticable how much this window reduces once you move away from ISO 400. This is where digital still has a long way to go IMO!
 
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Keith said:
No I don't think so raid ... sorry! 😀

Anyway I think I have a solution ... a mate of mine who used to repair TVs and videos reckons he can get the sensor from the D700 to fit into the M8. I'm going over to his place this weekend and were going to have few beers and give it a shot! :angel:
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i hope you're kidding about this or won't miss the $$ of selling it.

sell it to avotius...
 
Keith said:
Man! ... I am financially so far from being able to buy an M9 it's tragic. Ten big ones here in Oz! 😱

I do like the way a rangefinder works in that gallery situation though ... I noticed the other night that shooting into a subject that has a black background with an SLR gives you little clue as to where the edge of the frame is. What I really want is dramatically increased dynamic range ... it's very obvious that the EV range of my subject material which goes from video screens to dark holes with people in them, falls outside the capabilities of digital's twelve or so stops! The higher you go up the ISO scale with the D700, as good as it is, the less flexibilty you have in this area.

I was looking at some charts on the site that tests camera sensors and it was really noticable how much this window reduces once you move away from ISO 400. This is where digital still has a long way to go IMO!
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Thats a tricky one. I don't think you will find any sensor, or film that can do it. The thing is that as the light gets dimmer, the contrast range drops off. Which is one reason landscape photographers using trannies shoot at dusk and dawn. I noticed the same when looking at dxomark. I figured that its logical for them to do that.
But it's not true for all situations. Church interiors for one. They can be very dark in some areas but shafts of bright light in others creating big contrast range. Sounds like your gallery situations are similar. Not much ambient light about so low contrast range for some areas with very bright areas elsewhere. You need film with compensating development to deal with that.
For me I would just say expose for the highlights and to hell with the shadows but I use mostly black and white. Not sure that would work with colour.
 
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