Digital Dude said:
The D3 looks fantastic and it will run circles around my M8 but I wanted a good quality camera with outstanding optics,
What do you mean "run corcles around"? I doubt it. In terms of versatility yes, D3 can do pretty much anything exept being unobstrusive and light to carry in a small bag.
But M8 with a good lens at 10MP is much likely not worse than the 12MP Nikon. For color it may be a matter of taste, I personally never liked the Nikon color too much, for weight and size I took my Canon 5d (lighter than D3) on a trip to Paris last year, with 3 additional lenses. That was a mild form of torture to schlepp that gear around all day long. I calculated the exact weight for 5d + 4 lenses versus M8 + 4 lenses: It was 3,1kg versus 1,4kg for the Leica system, larger bag for the Canon not yet included. People who never actually saw a Leica M with lens attached in real should have a look: It is shocking how small they are. Specially those high quality lenses. My best lens is the Canon 135L, it is huge and litterally shouts "PRO GEAR" everyone stares at you in the streets. I don't like that.
I had the opportunity to shoot the M8 for a few hours last week (loaner from local Leica shop), I was in the forest and at ISO 640 (which is ISO800 really) I had shots at 1/90th second that displayed sharp well defined fine detail (small leafs on the forest ground at a distance) I don't see that in my 5d files everything is more fuzzy and needs sharpening.
The lack of AA filter is quite a difference, and several experienced pros on l-user forum found that the M8 files enlarge better than the 5d to big sizes.
Somehow people love myths and big stories, and everyone expects the D3 to be like the second coming. It is just a 12MP FF camera with very good (apparently) high ISO performance.
I don't know about you, but I generally avoid higher ISO speeds than ISO 800 (that would be 640 on the Leica). I dont shoot at night, do you really?
Long speech, short message: I believe that the IQ of the M8 can - inside it's range of use - hold its own against any DSLR on the market. I don't know about 1ds III but noone knows that one yet...
regards, Bernie