Gabriel M.A.
My Red Dot Glows For You
the M8 has very unique B&W capabilities due to its sensitive IR profile. The Nex does not have those characteristics.....the only reason a Nex could be a 'poor man's M8' is because it's easy to adapt Leica lenses for use on them. That's it, really.
I understand that. I've owned an M8 for almost six years, and owned a Sony NEX 5 briefly.
So let me re-estate what I don't understand: the "Is X the poor man's [Leica's latest rangefinder]?" threads keep on rehashing something that misses the point: there are always cheaper alternatives to anything.
Also, the sensor of the M is very different from the M8. It is also easy to adapt Leica lenses on to the NEX (new NEX + adapter = cheaper than used M8). Both the NEX's sensor and M8's sensor are different from the Leica M "Monochrome" sensor.
Hence, it follows that there are cheaper alternatives to B&W photography that use different sensors from the Leica M Monochrome.
If the question were framed as "is the Leica M8 a cheaper alternative to the M?" then, yes, I completely agree. But since the question is "is the Leica M8 the 'poor man's Leica M?", then, no, I don't think it is. Many people would argue that even the R-D1's files converted to B&W challenge the "feel" of M8's files converted to M8 in general. Although with the use of a proper workflow on the same shots taken with both cameras of the same scene, you can produce far better images from the M8 than from the R-D1. But that is a completely different subject.