Latest Update on Leica M8 or Digital M

[Dave Matison]

Ocham?

Ocham?

So, how is William of "Ocam's" surname spelled?

 

[fgianni]

The more details get released the less attractive thiss M8 looks.
Electronic frame selection, what's next, electronic rangefinder, maybe with automatic setting of the lens at the correct distance? 😀

 

[jlw]

So, how is William of "Ocam's" surname spelled?

"Occam" or "Ockham" -- see this link. Keep in mind that English spelling never was really standardized, until upstart colonial Noah Webster first published his "The First Part of the Grammatical Institute of the English Language" -- aka the blue-back speller -- in 1783.

 

[John Camp]

"Electronic frame selection, what's next, electronic rangefinder, maybe with automatic setting of the lens at the correct distance?"

Whoa! That'd be awesome!

JC

 

[plummerl]

Whoa, sounds like my Contax G2!
larry

 

[snaggs]

My guess is that it won't have an LCD on the back.. I'm happy with that, theyre just a distraction. At least then the camera will LOOK like a Leica.

Daniel.

 

[Avotius]

I think this camera should have a button/menu option for changing the framelines at will, some sort of electronic over ride/preveiw type thing. That would be super. I manual line selector would be welcome too but it would seem this camera is going to be more electronic then mechanical so what the heck eh?

 

[sf]

My guess is that it won't have an LCD on the back.. I'm happy with that, theyre just a distraction. At least then the camera will LOOK like a Leica.

Daniel.

I would hope not to have any LCDs or other digital styling on the body at all. It should look like an M7. Better yet, like an MP. Maybe, if they want to, they can do what Epson did - only better - and put the LCD on the back on a swivel that when closed, looks like the normal back with only a slight mod for the mechanics. With a nice big LCD screen, that would not be a bad thing.

Bottom line : don't stray from the classic styling, or you'll lose a large chunk of your potential market (because those guys are Leicaphiles for a reason besides only the name . . . .most of them).

 

[sdai]

I guess Leica will offer the no-LCD option in their a-la-carte program ... or introduce it as a LHSA variation etc ... I would't mind shell out an extra 500 dollars ... in order to get LESS from them. 😀

 

[ch1]

I've been waiting breathlessly for the new M8 and in preparing for it, I've spent, mmmm ~ $14,000-$16,000 on lenses in the last 6-8 months, which I'm now happily using on an R-D1. If there is not a mechanical link to bring up framelines on the new M8, I'm going to be massively p.o.ed. But even as I write this, it occurs to me that it wouldn't make sense not to have at least that much backward compatibility -- it would mean that everybody with a full M system would be looking at a bunch of useless glass without paying $125 each to have them fixed...or in my case, almost $900 dollars. So the more faithful a user you were, the more heavily you'd be screwed.

Therefore: there IS a mechanical link, and the chip probably is just a way to provide exif information that you can't get without it. Exif is nice; on my Nikon I enjoyed having it both times I looked at it.

JC

John,

I have a hard time being sympathetic on this. If you've been able to afford to spend b/w $14k-$16k on Leica lenses over the past year I hardly think a $900 aggregate cost for retrofitting is beyond your means.

We have users here who live in very strained financial situations and for whom we've pooled together funds and film donations so they can keep shooting.

Count your blessings, man. Count your blessings.

 

[Mark Norton]

There's little space to do anything inside the lenses and, with a cost of $125, I can't see them doing much more than replacing the lens mount, a few screws on most lenses. Maybe there will be sprung contacts on the face of the camera lens mount and a pattern of DX-style coded lands set into the rear of the lens mount. Maybe there will be a set of contacts around the lens throat like on a Nikon lens.

Either way, old and new camera and lenses have got to work together and I'd expect an element of future proofing to allow future developments to be incorporated into the lens mount design.

Leica's heritage - people using lenses decades old - is also its Achilles heel, they have to have a base-line solution for unmodified lenses.

I've bought 3 lenses in the last month thinking I'd be doing well. Of the three I bought (21, 35 lux, 50 lux), two are going back to Solms, the 50 focussing is too stiff and the 21 had cosmetic defects out of the box. The final inspection does not exclude, apparently, nicks in the black anodising and since they were "grey" imports, I'll end up paying for the contacts.

 

[J. Borger]

Confusing .... can somebody tell me if there will also be a way to select the framelines manual?
Because i really do not care AT ALL about electronic selection or passing lens info to the exif file.

 

[fgianni]

Whoa, sounds like my Contax G2!
larry

Exactly, a digital G2, only bigger.

 

[Mark Norton]

There's got to be a way of selecting the frames manually for older or uncoverted lenses. Depending on the frames they have, there may be a switch like the R-D1, a push pull lever replacing the existing one to toggle through the available ones or, worst, a menu item on the LCD.

Been looking at Leica Camera's patents and theres one which clearly relates to the eyepiece magnifier available for the M which describes the compromises of different viewfinder magnifications. Sadly, no more recent ones giving us any pointers as to what the M8 may have.

 

[RML]

Digital photographers expect and benefit from text data stored with the image.

Do digital photogs really expect that? And do they really benefit from it? How? I know which lens I have on my R-D1, or I can deduce it from the photo or the situation (I was there and I shot it, didn't I?). The R-D1 also doesn't pass on any information set on the lens itself. How would I benefit from having that info passed on to the camera? I never expected it would be passed on, just like it doesn't get passed on to the film in my Bessa R or Leica M2.

IMO, the whole idea is BS.

 

[Mark Norton]

I think JC was saying that tongue-in-cheek. He did say he's only looked at it twice.

I think an LCD screen is a certainty, no digital camera could be sold without it but we would not expect to have to use it to take pictures. Battery life is an issue, so you want to be able to work without it on.

There would have to be other indicators for the most commonly needed information on the camera at a glance, hopefully without having to switch on the LCD:

- Manual Shutter Speed + AE value set in the viewfinder
- Battery State
- Memory Capacity
- WB
- ISO
- Frame Line selected
- EV Compensation +/-
- Image Size/Quality

Leica will be hard pressed to come up with as neat a solution as the dials on an R-D1 for 4 of those items.

 

[matt fury]

Do digital photogs really expect that? And do they really benefit from it? How? I know which lens I have on my R-D1, or I can deduce it from the photo or the situation (I was there and I shot it, didn't I?). The R-D1 also doesn't pass on any information set on the lens itself. How would I benefit from having that info passed on to the camera? I never expected it would be passed on, just like it doesn't get passed on to the film in my Bessa R or Leica M2.

IMO, the whole idea is BS.

Sure, your M2 doesn't do it now, but if you ask me, it's one of the cooler benefits of having a digital camera. Things like shutter speed, lens, aperture, etc are useful to have, and you won't always remember exactly what you used. I'm not saying they'll be able to get complete EXIF data, especially on retrofitted lenses, but whatever they can get would be nice.

 

[ghost]

i bet leica will put af in the m9.

 

[Mark Norton]

How much.....?

 

[egpj]

If the M8 continues to come into focus like it is now then I think this thing will bomb out like the M5.