brianpe
Member
My M8 finally landed a week ago and has been sitting in its bag patiently waiting for a good shooting day. When it arrived I banged off a few shots to make sure it was a keeper. I had no dust or sensor problems and the rangefinder is perfectly aligned. Overall the camera performed flawlessly. The IR sensitivity with tungsten light is much more pronounced than I thought it would be. I will be shooting B&W indoors until my filters arrive.
Compared to my R-D1 the M8 feels much more solid. I miss the wind lever (odd, because the R-D1 was the first camera I've owned with a winder since puberty). I agree with others that the M8 can be a slippery beast. I use an Artisan and Artist hand strap and keep the camera in my hand, and I found that my hand did cramp a bit after holding it for about an hour. I will give myself time to get used to it but I may get the hand grip. The grip on the R-D1 was just enough that I could practically let the camera hang from my fingers.
I like the R-D1's ability to swivel the screen inward to keep it clean. I'm sure that will be a common failure point on that camera, so it's a mixed blessing. Still, I need something to protect the M8's screen. I'm not planning on babying the camera much and a little protection here is going to prevent a lot of scratches. Right now I'm using a matte screen protector from www.pocketpctechs.com. The matte protectors are great because they don't show nose grease and can be cleaned with a simple wipe of the thumb. Plus, they're tough as nails and are easy to remove and reapply. I need to use and abuse this for a bit to see how well it stays on the M8 screen but so far it hasn't peeled.
Anyway, a few amateur samples are attached. All were taken with a 50 summicron. The first was actually out of a moving car the first day I had the camera, but the fog helps hide the motion blur.
The rest are up on Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43151812@N00/tags/m8/
Compared to my R-D1 the M8 feels much more solid. I miss the wind lever (odd, because the R-D1 was the first camera I've owned with a winder since puberty). I agree with others that the M8 can be a slippery beast. I use an Artisan and Artist hand strap and keep the camera in my hand, and I found that my hand did cramp a bit after holding it for about an hour. I will give myself time to get used to it but I may get the hand grip. The grip on the R-D1 was just enough that I could practically let the camera hang from my fingers.
I like the R-D1's ability to swivel the screen inward to keep it clean. I'm sure that will be a common failure point on that camera, so it's a mixed blessing. Still, I need something to protect the M8's screen. I'm not planning on babying the camera much and a little protection here is going to prevent a lot of scratches. Right now I'm using a matte screen protector from www.pocketpctechs.com. The matte protectors are great because they don't show nose grease and can be cleaned with a simple wipe of the thumb. Plus, they're tough as nails and are easy to remove and reapply. I need to use and abuse this for a bit to see how well it stays on the M8 screen but so far it hasn't peeled.
Anyway, a few amateur samples are attached. All were taken with a 50 summicron. The first was actually out of a moving car the first day I had the camera, but the fog helps hide the motion blur.
The rest are up on Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43151812@N00/tags/m8/
