Last news on the Leica M8 from my SOLMS reliable source (and great friend !)

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Luigi Crescenzi
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Sep 24, 2005
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Hi to all by Luigi.

The M8 has been recently shown to some, few dealers and experts.
NONE of them was allowed to take pictures, due to severe forbidding
by Leica Co., but here the (probably right) camera details:

The M8 will be introduced at Photokina (Sept 26th):
10.5 Mio Pixel, sensor X1.33 factor, traditional M-rangefinder.
Camera body 2mm more "thick", so new bottom plate also,
which opens the bottom side of the camera for accu, SD-card,etc.,
lock only 90° and tripod-thread in the middle, chrome and black available.
No advance lever:
About the shutter I really do not know how it will work.
Monitor size as on Digilux2, no life-view (ok, the cameras "heart"
is the M-rangefinder, for which use a monitor for taking would be
ideologically same forbidden as an autofocus).
Camera bayonet flange has an integrated sensor to scan 6-bit
code on rearside of lens flange.
Actual lenses will be delivered with such a code, which gives
information to the camera, which lens type is used and to activate
a camera internal software setting specificly for this type of lens.
So the camera knows if you use a 2.8/28 or a 2.0/28 CURRENT models.
All former M-lenses which have the bayonet flange with the 6 holding screws
can be transformed. BUT, Leica officially says that all M-lenses can be used.
A new TRI-Elmar 16/18/21, which covers the full 24X36 circle and
can be used on any M3-M7 also, the first shorter than 21mm
focal length M-lens in history made by Leica.
On the M8 it will be 21/24/28mm.
Camera EUR 4.300, GERMAN 16% VAT INCLUDED
Lens with finder EUR 3.500 - GERMAN 16% VAT INCLUDED
The camera, although it is really an "M", does look a little different,
as for noo advance-lever and rewind.
The top plate is shaped "closed", so the first view remembers
more to a C1, C2, C3 compact, than to an M.

I hope that those details may be useful (and correct!).

Let me say a last thing: I STRONGLY suggested to Leica, and even
more to the Italian Official Leica distributor "Leica Brand Manager"
that was NECESSARY for Leica and for Leica enthusiasts to design
and to MAKE a fine Leica Digital M camera... since the year
1998/99 ! For years, I got this response: "It is NOT possible to
make it !" - Well... finally, after a couple of years, seem that the
idea was not so wrong.

Greetings to all, Luigi
 
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Thank you Luigi.

But the most important question is, will your straps fit the new camera and will you design a case for it? :)

Ron
 
Yes... how will a half-case work with all the monitor and buttons, etc. on the back? I hope you are hard at work perfecting this...
 
Ted Witcher said:
What does this expression "chimping," "to chimp," "chimper" mean? To work the controls, is that it?
Click to expand...

"Chimping" means using a digital camera's LCD monitor to review your take while you're in the process of shooting. In other words, it's a slang term for what the instruction manuals usually call "instant review."

The story I was told is that it is called "chimping" because of some photographers' habit of making chimpanzee-like noises as they alternately enthuse and despair over the photos they've just taken: "Oooh, oooh, oooh, ahhh, ahhh, ahhh!"
 
Ted Witcher said:
What does this expression "chimping," "to chimp," "chimper" mean? To work the controls, is that it?
Click to expand...

CHIMP verb As related to digital photography, to take a photo and immediately look at the rear LCD screen to see the photo you have just taken. Generally used in a pejorative manner, on the assumption that a good photographer knows what they've just photographed and are confident in their timing and exposure are correct.
 
I see. The perjorative part, which I read often on this forum, is something I don't quite understand. Instant review, to me, is a key advantage of digital -- why wouldn't one "chimp"? If it's not going to look quite as good as film, you should at least get something for your money! Seriously, film cams are film cams and dig cams are dig cams, to me; they are two different tools and I try to maximize the strengths of each one. I just don't see the point in being dogmatic.
 
most details sound fine but I would miss the advance lever :(
couldn't they just make a "mechanical digital rf"? well, who knows, maybe the M8 is going to be a blas (I'm sure it will) :)
 
The reaon that Leica said that a digital M was not possible was because they were thinking in terms of a full frame sensor and the problems inherent with some of their lenses with such a beast - this is still an issue. Once they accepted the possibility of a cropped sensor things became much simpler.
 
Ted Witcher said:
I see. The perjorative part, which I read often on this forum, is something I don't quite understand. Instant review, to me, is a key advantage of digital -- why wouldn't one "chimp"? If it's not going to look quite as good as film, you should at least get something for your money! Seriously, film cams are film cams and dig cams are dig cams, to me; they are two different tools and I try to maximize the strengths of each one. I just don't see the point in being dogmatic.
Click to expand...

For me constantly looking at the LCD after shooting just slows me down and takes me out of the moment. If I'm not certain of the lighting conditions I'll check the screen after the first image, but from there on out I shoot as I would if I couldn't review the images. That's just my working method though; if always reviewing shots works for you, more power to you.

It is sort of funny to watch though at a touristy place with tons of people photographing--quite reminiscent of monkeys playing with a new toy, which is what I always assumed was the phrase origin.
 
I have always believed that the term "Chimping " originated from the way a photographer looks when he is hunched forward looking at his little screen, body bent forward to block the sun to make it possible to see the pic.
 
JohanV said:
I have always believed that the term "Chimping " originated from the way a photographer looks when he is hunched forward looking at his little screen, body bent forward to block the sun to make it possible to see the pic.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Hilarious en masse.
 
Thanks forvthe information Luigi but as always prices cause confusion. It's not clear whether the prices you quote include VAT. That varies across Europe (16% in Germany - for now, 17.5% in the UK, 19% in France) so we don't really know. That €3500 sounds as though VAT is included and would make it the most expensive M-lens.
 
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Top plate "closed"? Flat? :eek:
That is like a M5, but even worse.

I don't want experiments when I go to pay 4300 euros.
The top plate has a step for a good reason: the shutter button and the shutter speed wheel must to equalize the height of the camera. A flat plate means sunk buttons, little displays... We will have a thicker AND taller camera with hidden top buttons for a flat roof... this is a monster brick.

That is NOT a Leica M. That is a C1/2/3 or CM Digital, in which I am not interested in...

I will not pay 4300 euros for that thing. Quite simple.

Very bad (and sad) news for me. :( :bang:

.
 
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I still view it all as conjecture and speculation. Whilst I am impatient, I will wait for the final release to view and then pass judment on the 'reality' rather than anything else.

Thankfully, in a couple of weeks I will be travelling and have my mind taken off it, I hope.:D
 
Ted Witcher said:
I see. The perjorative part, which I read often on this forum, is something I don't quite understand. Instant review, to me, is a key advantage of digital -- why wouldn't one "chimp"? If it's not going to look quite as good as film, you should at least get something for your money! Seriously, film cams are film cams and dig cams are dig cams, to me; they are two different tools and I try to maximize the strengths of each one. I just don't see the point in being dogmatic.
Click to expand...
For one thing, all that on-the-fly "chimping" would disrupt the "flow" I experience when in the midst of photographing. Even when I was shooting with SLRs, I had a good idea of whether a given shot was a keeper or a stinker, or somewhere in-between. With rangrfinders, I get an even better sense of what's actually on-film. When I've shot with a digital camera, there would always be time to take stock of my "take" en masse afterward; the nature of most of my photography being transitory, I rarely if ever get a second chance at a muffed shot, so chimping makes little sense for me in general.

Secondly, that little screen only tells you so much; i'm often rather surprised when I open an image in PS on the 22" monitor and see things that just didn't seem all that clear on that little camera screen. Sometimes the "surprise" is pleasing, other times not. Yet another reason for not editing from the camera. To twist a Joni Mitchell lyric, you won't know just what you've got till you're home.


- Barrett
 
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