I Want Nothing More in a Digital Camera

MartinL said:
A nice piece. Humbling. It won't influence my decision making one bit, but it will certainly temper my rationalizing. Interesting, how my Nikon Coolpix 990 broke major ground a zillion years ago. It's still a very serviceable p&s. My Canon 1D Mk II was likewise a leap . . . . and the Mk III. Leaps coming at us from all directions. I'm on my way to a M8. Looking forward to being around when it's out of date even more than it already is.

(last time I cleaned out my brain, it was immediately occupied by squatters from Saturn).
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Ah stop it. Yeah, I use my old digital cameras too. My wife has a Coolpix 995 that I'd have to pry out of her hands to upgrade her - never happen, she loves it.

But the beat goes on. If you choose to get off the bus somewhere along the line, that's your bidness, but IMHO too bad for you.

I love the neo luddites - OK, I'll do digital, but only THIS MUCH and NO MORE!

Get real. You're in it already, start swimming. Geez.
 
bmattock said:
Ah stop it. Yeah, I use my old digital cameras too. My wife has a Coolpix 995 that I'd have to pry out of her hands to upgrade her - never happen, she loves it.

But the beat goes on. If you choose to get off the bus somewhere along the line, that's your bidness, but IMHO too bad for you.

I love the neo luddites - OK, I'll do digital, but only THIS MUCH and NO MORE!

Get real. You're in it already, start swimming. Geez.
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I'll match my techno creds with most (except those who've replaced their TVs in the last, say, 10 yrs). My M8 decision (if it actually gets made) is not on anti-techno grounds any more than my cotton shirts or oriental rugs are acquired because I've got big issues with petro-synthetics. I just like the way some stuff feels, and if it's efficient-enough or cool enough to meet my modestly-high standards, I'll seriously consider it. My point (the one I was trying to make, if not the one that you read) is that folks are probably getting on and off the bus all the time-----or swimming and landing and swimming again, depending on your chosen metaphor.
 
Why I'll keep my M8, even when its outmoded

Why I'll keep my M8, even when its outmoded

The camera is a tool by which we reveal our imagination. The more gizmos and tricks it has the more we dilute our creative input.

I will keep the camera that puts my dreams on screen one-to-one. Right now the closest I've come to that has been with my 1968 Pentax Spotmatic (ergonomically still one of the best) and more recently, my Leica M8. Everything else, especially the technological wonders from Canon and Nikon, have ultimately disappointed.
 
naos said:
I can be happy with my M8 for the next 20 years (would the electronics last that long?).


Does anyone else feel the same way?
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I feel that way about my M6 and film, and the results I get from my Canon 20D are already perfect for my needs despite the fact everyone has "proven" the 5D is "better". If I get an M8 at some point I'm sure I'll feel the same way, even though the moment the M9 comes out there will be the usual flurry of people pronouncing it "better" and questioning the sanity of anyone "still" using an M8. So it goes. At some point you look yourself in the mirror and have to decide who dictates what satisfies your needs, you or someone else.
 
I agree with the KISS comments. However, I do not want to go so far as to slam everything Canon has done.

In particular, I find the 5D to be a very nicely designed, not overly complex full-frame DSLR that reminds me of the just-before-digital crop of film SLRs of a decade ago.

It seems the entire industry took a huge back-step when digital sensors came out, and now have finally (some 9 years later) gotten back to where we left off in, to coin a word, 'cameraness'.

Could I wish for anything more from the M8? Hell yes! How about a better grip on the damn thing? How about a little less noise from the click-whirrl? I'd love to be able to turn off shutter cocking and instead have a button so I could cock it manually for those extra 'stealth' mode shots.

Also I'm finding I have a 'difference of opinion' about the frame lines vs. the actual framing.

Oh and the bugs, yes even in 103, the bugs.


Tom
 
As someone who owns a 42 years old M3 I can't say I can't live with a camera for 20 years BUT having handled and MP and a M8 yesterday and read the specs.... they are awfully nice.

Now to figure out how tell my wife I want to spend $20k on an MP and M8 and asorted lenses.
 
RML said:
BTW, did you hear they stuck a flash on a Holga?! Things are getting weirder by the minute.
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Heck, they stuck a glass lens on one!
Of course, it didn't sell, as was to be expected, we don't need to steenkin image quality!
 
Morca007 said:
Heck, they stuck a glass lens on one!
Of course, it didn't sell, as was to be expected, we don't need to steenkin image quality!
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Can you define the verb, 'to steenkin'? Its not in the OED.
 
The only two things that got me about my M8's were the sound of the shutter (which is by no means "loud" but not what I expected,) and the blinking big bands that kept occuring when there were point sources of light at the edge of the frame. I constantly saw them as a lot of my work is indoors at high ISO's or with subjects that are backlit. If the banding was fixed or a definate fix was in the works I would have kept the camera. And too be honest I would have been really happy with it, both in its feel and IQ.

Is there any word on a fix for that problem?
 
No it's still there. I believe they fixed the other faint banding that becomes apparant at high ISO, under exposed shots. Personally, I never saw that fault and it didn't bother be. The Banding I'm talking about is really obvious but not everyone has found it a problem either. It was for me because of the conditions I was shooting in at the time.
 
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