Thanks for all the advice
Thanks for all the advice
A big thank you to all who responded to my dilemma.
First an apology for creating the impression that I was considering using an M8 for an assignment. I shoot fast action indoor sport where ISO 1600 is a normal requisite, and 3200 is often needed so I will not be giving up my Canons for an M8. The M8 is under consideration simply as a carry around camera for pleasure shooting, and would be an addition to my gear.
I do actually have a Canon 40D that I use for candids at the events, and I had thought about using it for a carry around. The trouble is that it encourages you to take the same shot as you would with the 1Ds, but doesn't let you do it so well. So if you only want to take snapshots then why not just carry a point and shoot, on the other hand, if you want to be serious, and you have a 1Ds, it is difficult not to take it with you rather than the 40D. The attraction of the Leica is that it is SO different that it presumably makes you think about the photograph in a different way, and so is not competing with the 1Ds.
The suggestions that a rental is the way to go, make the most sense, and it was hugely helpful to learn of the rental / loaner program. I e-mailed my salesman at Adorama to see if he could help with a rental, but not surprisingly have to date not heard anything back from him. A Google search brought up Popflash. I had seen them mentioned in glowing tones in some posts, so decided to give them a call. I have to say that DaveB's experience with the big name dealers mirrors mine. Maybe they get calls all day long from people who are seriously interested in spending ten to twenty thousand dollars on a body and some lenses, and that is why they can't spend more than 30 seconds on the phone with you, but I doubt it! Popflash is the absolute antithesis of these dealers. Tony was as helpful as could be, and was quite happy to talk me through the rental program and answer my, what to him must have been really dumb, questions about how the camera actually worked. He ran through what I needed to do to set up the rental (which is actually more of a loaner program provided you get it back to them in a week) and even offered to send it out last night!
Needless to say, I was delighted to get the deal set up, and am now, courtesy of Fedex, the happy possessor of a rental M8 together with 35mm and 75mm Summarit lenses!! So far I have just unpacked it and gone through the basic setup, and haven't even read the manual.
First thoughts on the M8 are :-
How can the lenses be so tiny and still be F2.5! As I understand it, these lenses have the coverage to work with a full frame sensor, so should be compared for bulk to my Canon EF lenses, not the EF-S ones.
Very, very glad that the lens mount works in the same direction as the Canon one, and not like Nikon which was always counter-intuitive for me.
Not at all sure how I will get used to a viewfinder that sort of shows you the image area with the inner marks, but actually includes an area between the inner and outer markings as well. Is this just so that you can be sure that if there is any viewfinder error, you are still assured of getting everything within the inner markings recorded?
Refreshingly simple camera setup and menu structure compared to the mutli tabbed 1Ds menus, let alone the Canon's 57 custom settings!!
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I'll try taking some shots with the M8 over the next couple of days, and if I get anything that is vaguely presentable I'll post it, possibly with a comparison from the 1Ds.
Based on my experience so far, I can not recommend Tony and Popflash too highly. Just the sort of buying experience one would hope for, helpful, knowledgeable and they actually have the stuff.
Once again thanks to everyone for getting me to this point.
David.
