Brand defense!!! Woot woot! These threads are hilarious. Some of youse defend Leica's honor more than you'd defend your wife's. There ARE minimal expectations of cameras. Technology has reached a certain threshold, a certain minimum standard. Leica failed to meet it with the M8. Period. Years prior to the arrival of the M8, an quality/ISO capability standard was set by Nikon and Canon's DSLRs. Leice fell way short of this while at the same time continued to charge Leica prices.
Yet, they still absolutely gouged their "cult" - and that's all that it can be described as. You Leicaphiles are like Moonies, climate change deniers, "birthers" (who believe Obama is not a US citizen) etc. No point in arguing with you.
I have a sibling of the F30, the F20 - same "Super" CCD by Fuji. No problem shooting up to ISO 800. Fine. 1600 is even okay for small prints. That camera cost a couple hundred bucks new when it came out, round the same time as the M8. It is unacceptable that a camera that costs 25X as much as this can't do ISO above 320. Every pro camera can, every cheap consumer DSLR can, and the whole rangefinder thing is all about natural and low light shooting. Add to this the ridiculous fact that you have to slap a filter on the thing because of their IR sensor issue...
Please.
Clearly, you're paying for a little red dot. And that's it. And the M8 is a dog. Beautifully manufactured, sure, but a dog none the less. But a photographic tool isn't about how well the thing is manufactured. It's about capabilities. They manufactured a beautiful "golden slide rule" to the highest manufacturing specifications in the age of cheap graphing algebraic calculators you can get for 1/25th the price. The person who started this thread was only being intellectually honest. Defenders need deprogramming.
|
Thing of it.... In defending this $5000 camera, someone suggested getting a used Fuji Finepix that go for around $100 used and didn't cost more than $200 new - that is to say, buy this cheap consumer point-n-shoot to "fill the gaps" of your $5000 Leica. Please. Quit giving Leica a pass.
Nick,
You are going on the same road than those Moonies you are bashing.....
Yes a Fufjifilm F20 may have better ISO performance than a M8. And your point is ?
The Leica M8 or even the M9 has limitations. First because the M8 was one of the first ( well second behind RD-1 ) groundbreaking designs : a digital rangefinder.
That involved a lot of R&D and things will get better with time.
Groundbreaking designs and technology ( micro lenses in the sensor, IR sensitivity to deal with, etc etc ) , when they are new have lot of issues.
Heck mate, we even had to deal with green lines and God knows what.
But we prevailed. And we have a great camera. Sure, has its limits and limitations but nothing is perfect, otherwise we all would lug a H4D and a trolley of lenses around.
Which by the way, many point and shoots have better high iso performace than most medium format camera which costs in the region of 30 to 40k usd... and I dont see people complaining.
The M8 is just that : a different tool.
Like a digital medium format camera is a different tool.
And they shouldnt be compared to outside their format : but within.
Compare the M8 with the RD-1.
Yap, dSLR's have more fps, better ISO, yadadada. And ? They are AGAIN a different tool.
Horses for Courses my friend.
As far as I recall, no one forced anyone to buy a M8 or a M9.
If you dont like it, sell it. Move on.
Some people, like me, the ability of using my collection of Leica lens on a digital body is simply fastastic, even if that comes with tradeoff's, which are well known.
For you might not be the case. So go on and take pictures with your F20 and I will take with my M8. And we BOTH are happy.
You are a moonie my friend. The type I see everytime I park my car and start mumbling that a super duper Toyota/Nissan/Japanese Car whatever-model-that-is-that-ends-with-lots-of-red-letters-and-Z-or-R has the same or better performance than my car for one third of the price and I'm silly.
Perhaps.
But I'm a happy silly man driving my Porsche.
