M8's- More Available?

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Sailor Ted

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khanosu said:
A new silver M8 is available at Cord Camera in Columbus, OH, USA. I just talked with the sales person and he will sell it to the first person who calls. Please call 614-299-1441 and ask for Gary. Cord camera is a very reputable dealer and Gary is my friend; I have been buying and selling equipment form him for many years and he has always been honest. You can mention my name (Furrukh from Ohio State University) when you order.

Furrukh
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It seems the backlog on M8's is starting to break? I’ve even noticed a few eBay speculator trying to sell off their M8 stock here on this forum and reports like khanosu's are starting to trickle in regarding availability at Leica stores. Perhaps now the real story begins.

PS. I’m sure not having to wait for an M8 will be fertile ground for some who are always “early adaptors” in all things negative. Still this may be an interesting development to track over the next few months and quite telling as to Leica’s success or failure with this camera and as a company.
 
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Ted,

From the first month ....... it was easily available in smaller shops in Europe!
Problem is a lot of people reserved their copies with larger resellers.
Fortunately i received my copy from Leica Berlin immediately after release in november.
Otherwise i would heve felt very frustrated to have one on order ..... while passing shopping windows with a shining M8 on display on a regular base :)
 
No kidding- it's not been like that here in the States. Are they selling them at suggested retail or marking them up? Also does Leica have extra cameras or are they selling all they can build- I wonder if anyone actually knows?

PS. J. Borger,
I did not get on a waiting list for the M8 either. I figured it would have teething issues and that I'd get mine when the dust settled- glad I did too! Then Tony Rose got on here on Christmas Eve or perhaps the day before and announced (along with our dearly departed Big Cheese) that he had a few for sale first come first serve and the rest as they say is history.
 
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The M8 I posted about today is actually the one I ordered with this dealer back in Sept. 06. I ended up canceling this order (deposit got refunded) and bought one from B&H. This is the only M8 this store has ever received and probably the only one any dealer in Columbus, OH has received :) I think that M8s are still pretty scarce.


Furrukh
 
Still interesting to track- Furrukh please do let us know when he sells it. If M8's are becoming more readily available then I’m sure we’ll be seeing new reports coming in regarding availability.
 
I was lucky and got mine from Amazon. The dealers here in NYC, see them trickle in 1, 2 , or 3 at a time. Originally chrome bodies only were available, and now black ones are. I was on other waiting lists, but Amazon came through first. I did receive a call from Bergen Camera that one was availbale if I wanted it, but I already received one. There was someone on pnet selling his used one for $5300!
 
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Sailor Ted said:
Still interesting to track- Furrukh please do let us know when he sells it.
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Sure, I am going to sell him a Canon body today; I will ask how soon he was able to sell it after I placed my post here and at LUF. I think that a good indication of M8 availability is to see how soon stores like B&H go out of stock after they place the “in stock” sign for an M8 on their web site. Today’s stock at B&H disappeared very quickly; as quickly as the ones before have. As soon as B&H can retain stock of an M8 for one whole day; that would be an indication to me that the supply of M8s is loosening up :)

Furrukh
 
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Sailor Ted said:
No kidding- it's not been like that here in the States. Are they selling them at suggested retail or marking them up? Also does Leica have extra cameras or are they selling all they can build- I wonder if anyone actually knows?
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Ted,

AS far as i know Leica wanted every Leica reseller to have at least one M8.
So the bigger companies had large pre-order lists while getting the camera only in small doses, while the smaller camerashops around the corner had one copy and probably no "fast passing buyers" for it .

I have not seen any real deals with the M8 .. all sell on the suggested retailprice or just a bit below (Euro 4195 or Euro 3999).
I ordered with Leica Berlin .... they did not ask for a down payment.
The day the M8 came in they contacted me if i still wanted the camera .... they send it to me overnight ... they sticked to their word .. and so did I:)
 
endustry,
I hear ya- at first I felt like I was cheating but then I realized- this is the process whereby you load the film for the shot. With "film" photography you need to select your film before hand and hopefully it's correct for the light and or subject matter, and then it's off to the color lab. That said we don't have the film choices we once did...

With digital you load the film after your take your shot so you've always got the perfect film for every subject and lighting condition. If you want maximum resolution and if that suites the subject matter and the light then hold back on the saturation, if it was dimly lit or flat then load your image with Agfa print film (you know what I mean : ) The point is this is the huge advantage digital has over film and something I am just now coming to understand.

See you soon on the M8 side!

tEd

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sailorted/372607506/

PS. I'm a major wide angle guy as evidenced by my work- no issues for me with the 1.3 crop factor so jump in, the waters fine. (I give you 90-days max)
 
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endustry said:
I'm hesitant about needing to enhance my shots too much on the computer. I grew up fiddling with Photoshop and now I'm trying to be more of a purist (emphasis on the word "trying.") I fiddled with Fred Miranda's Velvia plugin for Photoshop and just felt weird about using it. I dunno why.
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There I can put your mind at rest- the M8 needs hardly any to no photoshop work in general. C1 conversion,with the right profile just some small tweaks and a crop, maybe WB or exposure correction sometimes, - photoshop only for levels, curves and WB finetuning if you feel like it (mostly not) resize if for the web and final sharpening,convert to 8-bits and that is all really. Much like straight darkroom work on film, certainly less messy.
 
Want to give a forum member a chance for an M8 black new batch (not mine being upgraded at Solms) at cost since more are trickling in.
 
Endustry, I agree with you on this stuff. I am still waiting to see something brilliant from this camera as all I have seen are lots of happy snaps, building mugs, store aisles and photos of people on the street that look like the photographer snuck up and startled the subject rather than recording a worthy moment.

Don't get me wrong, I want to see the M8 make Leica some money so that they can further the cause, but I am waiting to see those knock out images that go beyond the technical. You know, Leica pictures like the ones David Alan Harvey, Alex Webb and Maria Stenzel make.

Personally, I won't be getting an M8 because of the crop factor. For me, that is a huge draw back as the all the thousands of dollars worth of fantastic Leica look gets cropped out of the image. No more stunning peripheral bokeh, gone.

The M8 needs to get Leica into the digital game from a financial standpoint, that is the only way they will ever make the camera I want: The full frame digital M....;-)

endustry said:
For me the wait is good as it fends off impulse. I'm still very much on the fence not so much due to the I/R issue but due to other QC concerns and I want to see more good images taken with the camera.

Don't get me wrong, I've seen some stunning work with the M8 but too many quicky snapshots as well. It's to be expected that initial shots will be rushed but I am hoping to see a little less "I just got my M8 five minutes ago, here's my first shot -- of the box" and a little more careful, composed work now that some people have had their M8s long enough to break them in.

I like your stuff on Flickr, Ted, but I'm hesitant about needing to enhance my shots too much on the computer. I grew up fiddling with Photoshop and now I'm trying to be more of a purist (emphasis on the word "trying.") I fiddled with Fred Miranda's Velvia plugin for Photoshop and just felt weird about using it. I dunno why. I know it makes little sense to even think of an M8 with such an attitude, but when does GAS ever make sense?

I also wish a full-frame sensor had been possible as wide-angle is the most compelling reason to use an RF in the age of dSLR dominance IMHO. I have yet to see an SLR lens as well corrected as most Leica and Zeiss RF glass. For anything beyond 90mm, an SLR is the way to go for me. For anything wider than a 35, I absolutely need an RF. The idea of my 21mm being a 28mm on the M8 is stomach-churning.
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jamriman said:
Want to give a forum member a chance for an M8 black new batch (not mine being upgraded at Solms) at cost since more are trickling in.
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Back OT: How many did you purchase on speculation? Are they getting harder to sell on the bay? What's the story?
 
KM-25 said:
Don't get me wrong, I want to see the M8 make Leica some money so that they can further the cause, but I am waiting to see those knock out images that go beyond the technical. You know, Leica pictures like the ones David Alan Harvey, Alex Webb and Maria Stenzel make.
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iEye KM-25,
First it was let's see photographs that show this camera can create world class IQ, now apparently this is not enough it must also do so in a photographic style that appeals to certain people? Is it any wonder the major players are not developing DRF's for this neurotic niche market?

Sailor Ted said:
Remember this the next time your standing in line at Starbucks and some retentive crank ahead of you is engaged in a heated debate regarding the exact way he wants his coffee with sugar free chocolate, half and half steamed but just so, and sugar in the raw with two and a half shots of espresso- not two, not three, TWO AND A HALF. Oh and wants the poppy seeds picked from his poppy seed muffin as they give him indigestion. :rolleyes:
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khanosu said:
The M8 I posted about today is actually the one I ordered with this dealer back in Sept. 06.I ended up canceling this order (deposit got refunded) and bought one from B&H.
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(from the other thread):
Gary is my friend; I have been buying and selling equipment form him for many years and he has always been honest. You can mention my name (Furrukh from Ohio State University) when you order.
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You cancelled the order with your friend and bought from B&H? :confused:

Is the one you cancelled a first-batch that the new owner will have to send back right away to Solms?
 
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