How many Leica M8's do you currently own?

How many Leica M8's do you currently own?

  • Total voters
    536
Pretty useful to have backup if you are out in the bush with no easy access to any camerastores. Twice the same body is more practical than one of one kind and one of the other. In an ideal world the backup would be a digital CL, provided it takes the same batteries. And of course, different focal lengths as you say, but a bit extravagant to have two for just that reason imo.
 
jaapv said:
I'm a bit puzzled at al the alledgedly "funny posts" here. I have two, I use them to make photographs, about 10.000 up to now, they gave me minimal to no trouble and I only had to have one have the standard recall in December 2006 and the other I crashed in October last year so it had to be repaired.- Oh yes - and I am an amateur so I don't have any clients to answer to. What is all the silly hoohah in this thread about?
Click to expand...

If you had a National newspaper holding a space for a pic from a major incident then you would realise this is not silly 'hoohah'. I used to carry an M6 with a 35 just incase my Nikons 'failed' And they sometimes did......2 brand new F90xs in 1996 in the middle of a riot both died. I phoned Nikon from the incident and all I got was the usual automated answering so I held up the phone to record the noise going on around me and told the recording machine at Nikon UK what manure their new cameras were. (They biked two new ones down to me the next morning thankfully) but without the M6 I wouldn't have had any pics at all Can't see anybody trusting an M8 in that way now.
 
sorry folks, I felt it is too much of a showing-off poll so I voted for 4.
In reality i own no m8.
If i would own 4 m8's i would sell them all (and buy a mamiya 6 sistem e.g., + with lifetime supply of film and developer. And a few nice holidays.)
 
parsec1 said:
If you had a National newspaper holding a space for a pic from a major incident then you would realise this is not silly 'hoohah'. I used to carry an M6 with a 35 just incase my Nikons 'failed' And they sometimes did......2 brand new F90xs in 1996 in the middle of a riot both died. I phoned Nikon from the incident and all I got was the usual automated answering so I held up the phone to record the noise going on around me and told the recording machine at Nikon UK what manure their new cameras were. (They biked two new ones down to me the next morning thankfully) but without the M6 I wouldn't have had any pics at all Can't see anybody trusting an M8 in that way now.
Click to expand...


Read again, mate, I did not say having backup is silly hoohah, just the opposite - I said all the ridiculing comments on multiple M8-s were....
 
jaap: no no🙂 dont misunderstand me
i have no problem with people who have M8('s). I'm glad some can afford and are passionate enough about it so they buy them.
Especially since i got a pack of free film from you when you "went M8ital" 😀 (i still have a few sensia's and they still work fine!)
 
There is a higher than average percentage of rich on this forum.
I can't afford such an expensive piece of machinery.
And in my humble view high cost is not its only fault.
 
Very strange...

Very strange...

I've been reading this forum for a few days now. I've read here that the M8 is an amateur camera for rich people. I personally would think that the majority of M8 users would be professionals, with a few rich enthusiasts mixed in.

It seems that if people are asking why someone would need more than one M8, they are probably in the rich enthusiast crowd. It surprises me that the rich enthusiasts seem to be dominant here. The only people I know personally that use Leica are pros.

A professional will always have more than one body on hand, and usually three or more.

For me, that means that I have 2 Canon 5Ds, a 20D, and my new M8 with me on the job. I've got backup lenses, flashes, batteries, memory cards.. I wish I could have a backup car with me too. (maybe I should think about buying a tow truck!) Heck, I even carry a backup photographer with me on the job.

And I'm not even a big time professional. Just one of many local struggling professionals.

As far as being reliable.. Okay, maybe statistically it has issues, but so do my 5Ds, and the 1DIII, and probably the 1DsIII, which were my second choice after the M8. Lately everyone is screaming about the mirrors falling out of the 5Ds! But I saw one poll here about sending the M8 out for "repairs" and the vast majority never had a problem. I'd guess most of those "repairs" were simply calibrating the focus after reading this forum. I'd do that myself.

Many of you guys are spoiled by Leica. The same people that think the Noctilux is too big and heavy.. Try lugging around a 1Ds with a 50 1.2 on it. Imagine me with 2 5Ds around my neck with a 4 and a half pound 70-200 2.8 and a half ton 28-70 2.8. At the end of the day my back is killing me!

Shoot and be happy. Make up your own mind about owning an M8, and realize that your own mind is the only place your decision is valid.
 
I wish I could justify having two, because that's how I always used to go with my film M's. But the # of occasions I actually wore both at once was negligible, and half the reason for doing so (different film type) is moot with digital. I don't travel that often or that far from civilization to justify sinking $5-5.5K into a backup. Maybe at some point down the road, if there is no really-improved new model on the horizon and I can pick up a used one for say $2K and then have it upgraded and get a year's warranty, I might give it some thought. Perhaps I should've kept my R-D1 as a backup, but I was skeptical it would be any more reliable than the M8. So I make do with a DLux-3 backup.
 
Ben Z said:
half the reason for doing so (different film type) is moot with digital.
Click to expand...

Of course, when I moved to digital several years ago, I immediately found another reason to have multiple bodies:

Sensor dust.

One body for each lens would be great if I could afford/carry it.

I spend a bunch of time blowing dust out of my 5Ds, just from changing a lens a couple times a month in a controlled environment.

In the "old" days with film, my backup bodies would be in a bag somewhere, and I just swapped lenses as desired.

Digital was what made me carry multiple bodies around my neck.

(Of course, I didn't vary my film stock on a job..)
 
edrodgers731 said:
That's very interesting. But wouldn't advanced amateurs who are the backbone of sales prefer to buy some other Leica, such as a Digi-Lux? With Canon, which I am more familiar with, there is a camera model for every market. Advanced amateurs will not buy Canon's flagship, which is I guess now the 1DsIII, they will buy a Rebel, or a 40D. I'm sure Canon makes a fortune on the Rebels, and not so much on the 1DsIII.

I guess with Leica, the customers just want the best, price be darned. There just won't be as many customers.
Click to expand...

I doubt they would like to buy Panaleica's .Speaking for myself, the only reason I bought a Digilux2 (a very nice camera btw, which I cannot persuade myself to sell) was because there was no digital M on the market.
There are three main reasons to buy an M8:
1. Because one wants to use a rangefinder camera and wants to be digital
2. Because one wants to use Leica M lenses in the digital world
3. Because one is wedded/attracted to the M type of camera and its ergonomics, feel and looks and wants to shoot digital.
Usually these reasons are interwoven.
Whether a Leica is "the best" is open to debate. That depends to a large extent on the expectations and needs of the user. Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, Sony, Leica, all of those are pretty good cameras, and which one is "the best" for a certain use and user is for each of us to decide for himself.
 
edrodgers731 said:
Of course, when I moved to digital several years ago, I immediately found another reason to have multiple bodies:

Sensor dust.

One body for each lens would be great if I could afford/carry it.

I spend a bunch of time blowing dust out of my 5Ds, just from changing a lens a couple times a month in a controlled environment.
Click to expand...

That's interesting, because I've never had that problem. My first interchangable-lensed digital was a Fuji S1-PRO, followed by Canon D30, D60. 1D and finally 20D bodies (all bought used, one generation behind) and now the M8. Believe it or not I have never cleaned the sensors on any of them, in fact I can count on the fingers of one hand the # of times I've even used a blower bulb , and I do not have dust specks on my shots. Most of my photography is out doors also. Admittedly there isn't as much lens-changing with the dslr's because of zooms but I use Pentax primes with adaptors also. One thing I have always done religiously was turn the camera off before removing the lens. I'm not sure if that helps but I was told it did. It does slow things down some, but I'm not a pro who has to swap lenses in a hurry to catch a fleeting shot.
 
Ben Z said:
I do not have dust specks on my shots.
Click to expand...

I like to shoot wide angle into the sun a lot to show off my nice L lenses, and that often leads to f16, f22, etc. Shots of the sky at small apertures will always reveal SOMETHING on the sensor. And also, admittedly, most of the time I'm trying to blow out sticky dust in the corners that never knocks loose. I will never stop trying though! 🙂

I guess I won't have to worry about it with my M8 because I only have the one Leica lens, and that will be shot at f1.0 as much as possible!
 
Also, yes, you are absolutely correct about shutting down the camera before swapping lenses. A charged sensor is like an electro-dust-magnet.

Of course, my 5Ds are very finicky about changing lenses with the power on. The software in the 5D is not extremely robust IMO. I've had flashes go wacky on me too which required a "reboot".

I am hooked on digital, but at the same time I like simplicity, control, and quality. That's why I'm attracted to the M8. I doubt it will be more than an auxiliary camera in the midst of a wedding, just for a couple of portraits and a few shots in available dark receptions, but I know I will obsess over it for personal use. In a year, who knows? Maybe I'll just bring 4 M8s to a wedding! 🙂
 
Keith said:
12000 M8's ... wow that's not not many cameras over the period they've been on sale. It's hard to classify the M8 as a success based on those figures if you're being abjective
Click to expand...
Yes, if you're being abjective, probably. 😉

But if you're being objective, you could see how 12,000 of a nonmainstream, not-for-the-masses SLR or P&S Era high-end/cost camera is not too shabby.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom