M8 Experts: Testing A Used M8

[Lss]

Ok, I ran the continuous shooting test earlier today to see if I can make my camera to lock up. It worked just fine through the experiment. My camera is an M8 with all the upgrades. The firmware version is 2.014. It seems to me the problem may be limited to M8 cameras with the original shutter, it has been fixed through firmware updates, or there are problems with the units that manifest the lock up. This, of course, does not mean that it is necessarily an uncommon problem.

Test procedure:

I first used a Leica battery and a Sandisk SD card. Formatted the card, and switched to continuous. I had the camera make more than 15 exposures to fill the buffer and then let it clear it. I repeated this twice. I then shot about 15 exposures, waited a few seconds, and shot a few more, and only then let it clear the buffer. I repeated this once. No problems.

I then switched to a non-brand battery, took a Transcend SD card from a Panasonic P&S, and proceeded to use it without formatting in the M8. I repeated the above experiments. Three times buffer full and let it clear, two times buffer full, clear a couple of frames, fill again, then let clear. No problems.

Neither battery was freshly charged. Both SD cards had plenty of free capacity at the beginning of the experiment.

 

[Ronald M]

I think the lock up comes from continuous shooting rather than single exposure. Do not turn camera off until all exposures are written to card like any digital camera.


To get proper colors including greens outside, UV/IR filter is required.

Noise is best handled by under exposure native 160, then clean up noise you see at 100%, then push exposure in LR or PS.

 

[user237428934]

Noise is best handled by under exposure native 160, then clean up noise you see at 100%, then push exposure in LR or PS.

The problem with this technique is, that you lose the ability to see something in preview. Then the push exposure is limited. My experience was max. 2 stops with an M8 and 3.5 stops with an M9. Pushing more brings up artifacts. When you use base Iso all the time you can pus up to Iso 640 but not more. I used Iso 640 on the M8 regularly and still think that this is very usable.

 

[Lss]

I think the lock up comes from continuous shooting rather than single exposure.

The experiment above is continuous shooting only, as fast as the camera is capable of making exposures. No lock ups.

 

[jaapv]

That sounds fine! Mine and my friend's frequently locked up after 15 or so images! It might be because ours were early production cameras: perhaps this was fixed in later-manufactured cameras?

Never a big deal, as "rebooting" the camera always worked, and "machine gunning" a Leica sort of goes against raison d'etre!

I had a November 2006 one. It never locked up, just slowed down after 12 shots.

 

[willie_901]

The problem with this technique is, that you lose the ability to see something in preview. Then the push exposure is limited. My experience was max. 2 stops with an M8 and 3.5 stops with an M9. Pushing more brings up artifacts. When you use base Iso all the time you can pus up to Iso 640 but not more. I used Iso 640 on the M8 regularly and still think that this is very usable.

Yes.

What you describe is entirely consistent with signal-to-noise ratio vs. ISO estimates from statistical analyses of unrendered M8 and M9 raw-file data.

While I never owned a M8 I owned quite a few digital bodies that had similar ISO SNR limits (~640 to 800) before things fell apart. In general, conversion to B&W is practical at higher post-production pushes just before banding ruins everything.

Using base ISO and pushing global brightness in post mimics one aspect of film cameras... in-camera image review is greatly compromised. This (lack of image review) is considered desirable with the new Leica M-D (Typ 262) where review is physically impossible.