M8 Photokina Report (+ smidge on ZI and CV)

[Mark Norton]

I was at Photokina on the opening day as well and the M8 met all my expectations. I like the sound of the shutter; it's different from the film cameras, of course it is, but being different doesn't make it bad. Sounds precise and controlled to me.

The blue dot was explained to me for use in flash metering and setting the viewfinder LED brightness, no mention of estimating the working aperture, so there's still confusion on this.

Liked the new Tri-Elmar very much, about the same size as the first version of the existing one; Sure the hood/filter arrangement is unusual but it is too for other lenses of such short focal lengths. That front element does look vulnerable though.

The new Elmarit is not on my shopping list but I can see it will be the entry lens of choice for M8 users. Compact size, excellent focussing feel.

As for the finder, well, no one likes it. I might buy it with the Tri-Elmar as a part of the package but I think the existing tele-scoping one will fit the bill better on the M8. The new one looks worse in reality than in pictures, made worse by it's need to support 16mm FF. The example I tried showed horrendous barrel distortion.

Still out of 4 M products, 3 excellent and 1 poor, not a bad grade average.

 

[egpj]

Has anyone verified that the M8 will use SDHC cards?

 

[Mark Norton]

Yes, up to 4Gb.

 

[stefdnk]

Originally Posted by DaveSee
Huh? The M8 saves its "raw files" as Adobe DNG, a move to escape the h/w lock-in of other camera "raw" files. Now if your favorite, non-Adobe app doesn't support DNG, then you've traded h/w lock-in with s/w lock-in


I suppose it's possible that the M8's DNG files are somehow "generic" enough that Aperture will swallow them without complaint, but I wouldn't want to invest in the software without trying it first. Maybe someone here will...

Actually Aperture will only see the thumbnail and a small preview of M8 dng files. And if you try to develop it, it only "develops" the preview.

Lightroom b4 shows thumbs and develops M8 dng,s as does ACR.

And yes, i have tried. :angel:

 

[yoshimura]

Shutter noise

Shutter noise

Coming back to the shutter noise question, I saw on a French retailer's site a Photokina leaflet which shows the internals of the M8: the shutter is a Copal, which means that basically it is akin to millions of Japanese SLRs, DSLRs, and Cosina's rangefinders ...plus the R-D1 . No wonder the M8 shutter noise rings a bell...Follow the link:
http://www.photosuffren.com/leica/leica m8.htm

 

[DaveSee]

Actually Aperture will only see the thumbnail and a small preview of M8 dng files. And if you try to develop it, it only "develops" the preview.

Lightroom b4 shows thumbs and develops M8 dng,s as does ACR.

And yes, i have tried. :angel:

Well, well... curiouser and curiouser... so these other Adobe products accept the M8 files, and Adobe's Aperture just the tumbs/preview? Maybe that "save as linear" aspect jlw mentioned is the catch. Thanks for making this clearer.

And thanks AusDLK for the original thread! Sorry to mildly hijack it 😉

 

[J. Borger]

Coming back to the shutter noise question, I saw on a French retailer's site a Photokina leaflet which shows the internals of the M8: the shutter is a Copal, which means that basically it is akin to millions of Japanese SLRs, DSLRs, and Cosina's rangefinders ...plus the R-D1 . No wonder the M8 shutter noise rings a bell...Follow the link:
http://www.photosuffren.com/leica/leica m8.htm

The shutter does not sound at all like the one in the R-D1 .. nor as the shutters in any of the Canon DSLR's i used to own.

 

[IGMeanwell]

It wouldn't sound like a DSLR since it has no mirror... I guess thats the most obvious part

to me its sounds pretty darn subtle... DP review has the soundbyte of the M7 verses the M8 ... you can hear the difference

Its slightly louder and has that little buzz to it... were talking cloth versus metal


If you want ... compare the sound above (the 2nd is the M8) to this clip of a D80 in continuous shotting mode
... thats a D80 doing about 50 pictures at 3 FPS

 

[jaapv]

Actually Aperture will only see the thumbnail and a small preview of M8 dng files. And if you try to develop it, it only "develops" the preview.

Lightroom b4 shows thumbs and develops M8 dng,s as does ACR.

And yes, i have tried. :angel:

Leica told me that they fine-tuned their files to give the best results with Capture One, which comes bundled with the camera. They specifically mentioned that the results with Adobe were not as good.

 

[AusDLK]

I returned to the M System table again in Day 2 of Photokina.

My disappointment runs unabated so far.

It's more than the shutter at issue here for me but I'll stick to that for now.

The shutter does not sound anything like the R-D1 or any other camera I have been close to. Even my Hexar RF (which has motorized shutter and film advance), I don't know, sounds like what the camera looks like it should sound like -- if that makes any sense. The M8 is just dead and hollow sounding.

The word precise has been used to describe the sound but what I hear hardly conjures up that word.

I know that a lot of people think that my gripe about the sound of a camera's shutter is a lot to do about nothing -- and if so, ever onward -- but this lone voice in the M8 excitement wilderness just shakes his head slowly about what could have been.

 

[EmilGil]

Well, well... curiouser and curiouser... so these other Adobe products accept the M8 files, and Adobe's Aperture just the tumbs/preview? Maybe that "save as linear" aspect jlw mentioned is the catch. Thanks for making this clearer.

And thanks AusDLK for the original thread! Sorry to mildly hijack it 😉

Adobe introduced DNG and is preparing the launch of Lightroom. It is Apple that makes Aperture...

 

[stefdnk]

Yes, Capture One will of course develop the M8 dng,s .
It is slow, but wait until you see C1 v.4
That is blazing fast.

 

[DaveSee]

Adobe introduced DNG and is preparing the launch of Lightroom. It is Apple that makes Aperture...

Ooops... got my Apples and Adobes mixed up... thanks.

Incidentally, I just "scanned" one of the M8 DNG files posted at this URL
with VueScan... very quick, am very pleased!

http://tinyurl.com/pjyt5

rgds,
Dave

 

[halabar]

I know that a lot of people think that my gripe about the sound of a camera's shutter is a lot to do about nothing -- and if so, ever onward -- but this lone voice in the M8 excitement wilderness just shakes his head slowly about what could have been.

Ummm... no offense, but what did you want? a trumpet herald announcing that light had been captured and processed through that heavenly glass?...

It would be years before I could afford the camera, but the only thing about the shutter sound that I would worry about is how loud it is....

 

[newyorkone]

I know that a lot of people think that my gripe about the sound of a camera's shutter is a lot to do about nothing -- and if so, ever onward -- but this lone voice in the M8 excitement wilderness just shakes his head slowly about what could have been.

Does anybody else hear the sound of a broken record? Wait, that's analogue...I meant broken CD.

 

[ghost]

another case of granovski syndrome?

 

[AusDLK]

>another case of granovski syndrome?

I don´t know what this is but I wonder if I should feel insulted...