S
Stan98103
Guest
I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a little over an hour playing with an M8 at Kenmore Camera in Seattle last Saturday. The camera had firmware version 1.06, and I used uncoded lenses: a 21mm elmarit, a 35mm cron and a 50mm lux.
The camera feels wonderful. I really can’t add much to the comments in the reviews by Sean and Michael Reichmann.
I believe the concerns about viewing the current ISO or changing the ISO setting will prove to be a non-issue.
There are six parameters in the SET menu and the ISO value is the only one that I would routinely change. If the ISO value was the last parameter viewed or changed, it will be the one that comes up when you press the SET button. In order to see the current ISO value all you need to do is push the SET button once, assuming that the ISO setting is the last of the six parameters that you viewed in the SET menu, and the ISO pops up on the LCD. If you half-press the shutter, the LCD screen clears. Yes you have to look at the back of the camera, but you would need to do the same thing to check your film ISO setting on any M camera. My D200 displays the ISO setting in the viewfinder, but I’m sure nobody would want the M8 to do that.
In order to change the ISO setting, again assuming that ISO was the last parameter viewed or changed, all you need to do is push the SET button once, then push the down-scroll button once to increase the ISO by one stop or the up-scroll button once to decrease the ISO setting by one stop. When the new ISO is selected, you need to press the SET button again. If you don’t press the SET button a second time and press the shutter release instead, the ISO value is not changed. Again, this is not much different than changing the ISO on my D200, where I need to press the dedicated ISO button and then turn the command dial.
I tried changing the ISO on the M8 without taking my eye from the viewfinder, and I think that with a little practice it should be fairly easy to master. Incidentally, you actually do get ISO setting feedback in the M8 viewfinder. If you’re shooting aperture priority and see that your shutter speed is 1/15 sec and you wish to up the ISO by one stop, assuming you have the no-peek technique mastered, you’ll see the shutter speed change to 1/30 sec. The one bad feature about the scrolling arrow buttons for changing ISO without peeking is that they roll over both up or down to the next value in a loop. (2500 <-> 160 <-> 320 <-> 640 <-> 1250 <-> 2500 <-> 160 -> . . . ). For example if your ISO is set at 160 and you push the down-scroll button twice the new ISO value will be 640, but if your ISO is set at 1250 and you push the down-scroll button twice, the new ISO value will be 160. If your ISO setting is 320 and you push the up-scroll arrow twice, the ISO rolls over to 2500. Leica should be able to fix this in the firmware easily.
I did some test shots at different ISO values, but the Leica rep asked me not to post them, and I see little point in doing so anyway since we already have some excellent benchmarks. The other interesting thing the Leica rep told me is that the 1.06 firmware is not the version that will ship with the camera.
Now all I need to do is to wait patiently and remain calm.
Cheers,
Stan
The camera feels wonderful. I really can’t add much to the comments in the reviews by Sean and Michael Reichmann.
I believe the concerns about viewing the current ISO or changing the ISO setting will prove to be a non-issue.
There are six parameters in the SET menu and the ISO value is the only one that I would routinely change. If the ISO value was the last parameter viewed or changed, it will be the one that comes up when you press the SET button. In order to see the current ISO value all you need to do is push the SET button once, assuming that the ISO setting is the last of the six parameters that you viewed in the SET menu, and the ISO pops up on the LCD. If you half-press the shutter, the LCD screen clears. Yes you have to look at the back of the camera, but you would need to do the same thing to check your film ISO setting on any M camera. My D200 displays the ISO setting in the viewfinder, but I’m sure nobody would want the M8 to do that.
In order to change the ISO setting, again assuming that ISO was the last parameter viewed or changed, all you need to do is push the SET button once, then push the down-scroll button once to increase the ISO by one stop or the up-scroll button once to decrease the ISO setting by one stop. When the new ISO is selected, you need to press the SET button again. If you don’t press the SET button a second time and press the shutter release instead, the ISO value is not changed. Again, this is not much different than changing the ISO on my D200, where I need to press the dedicated ISO button and then turn the command dial.
I tried changing the ISO on the M8 without taking my eye from the viewfinder, and I think that with a little practice it should be fairly easy to master. Incidentally, you actually do get ISO setting feedback in the M8 viewfinder. If you’re shooting aperture priority and see that your shutter speed is 1/15 sec and you wish to up the ISO by one stop, assuming you have the no-peek technique mastered, you’ll see the shutter speed change to 1/30 sec. The one bad feature about the scrolling arrow buttons for changing ISO without peeking is that they roll over both up or down to the next value in a loop. (2500 <-> 160 <-> 320 <-> 640 <-> 1250 <-> 2500 <-> 160 -> . . . ). For example if your ISO is set at 160 and you push the down-scroll button twice the new ISO value will be 640, but if your ISO is set at 1250 and you push the down-scroll button twice, the new ISO value will be 160. If your ISO setting is 320 and you push the up-scroll arrow twice, the ISO rolls over to 2500. Leica should be able to fix this in the firmware easily.
I did some test shots at different ISO values, but the Leica rep asked me not to post them, and I see little point in doing so anyway since we already have some excellent benchmarks. The other interesting thing the Leica rep told me is that the 1.06 firmware is not the version that will ship with the camera.
Now all I need to do is to wait patiently and remain calm.
Cheers,
Stan