My friend just handled the M8 !!!

[Dougg]

If there are common problems with the M8, the Passport warranty could be ruinously expensive for Leica, and that must be one among several powerful motivations for them to get it right the first time!

 

[NoTx]

I sure hope it has the passport warranty. Did the DMR have it (not sure)? The Panny-Leicas haven't...

 

[Mark Norton]

And I think they are still learning. There was a bad release of DMR firmware and some months later, I'm not aware of a replacement.

The M8 is likely to be much bigger (factor of 5, 10?) than the DMR so any issues will have a greater impact. They're entirely right to have had such a long period of testing. Jorge's "mole" talks of last minute changes. If the mole is correct (a rash assumption), years of software development tells me that would be bad news.

The great danger of late software changes is that they destabilise the product and destroy your previous investment in testing.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Good luck to Leica in this endeavor! 🙂 I hope the M8 is the goose with the golden eggs for them.

Also, let's hope they don't abandon film altogether...

Other than that... I'll be observing the rapid flow of analog cameras and probably reap some benefits out of it. Who knows?

 

[newyorkone]

Are you saying the 5D has bugs? I haven't heard of or experienced any...

My 5D's LCD started flaking out after 3 months of ownership. It flickers in and out of showing all the colors and only showing what apears to be 8 bit color - like when Windows boots up in safe mode. I've also read stories of lost images and cameras freezing up. Alas this is the digital world.

Hopefully the M8 will be far more reliable.

 

[Terence T]

Might have to junk my R-D1 for one of these...

 

[photogdave]

If there are common problems with the M8, the Passport warranty could be ruinously expensive for Leica, and that must be one among several powerful motivations for them to get it right the first time!

With so many buying grey market these days I wonder if the warranty is an issue for them?😀

 

[equalizer]

Are you sure about the 1/4000 shutter speed?
Then how they can achieve the quietness of the shutter? ...and why M models up to the M7 have 1/1000 maximum?

 

[MP Guy]

no its 1/8000

 

[jlm]

what i heard was leica decided that there was too much stress on the shutter for the M7 at speeds faster than 1/1000. so how are they happy with 1/4000 and 1/8000?

 

[Socke]

what i heard was leica decided that there was too much stress on the shutter for the M7 at speeds faster than 1/1000. so how are they happy with 1/4000 and 1/8000?

It's not a cloth shutter, 1/8000th is no problem for shutters made from metal blades.

 

[Finder]

1/8000 is not a difficult as it sounds. During the time of 1/1000 mechanical shutter duration, the CCD will end or begin the exposure during that interval to create a faster shutter speed. This is already done with a lot of cameras.

 

[Matthew]

what i heard was leica decided that there was too much stress on the shutter for the M7 at speeds faster than 1/1000. so how are they happy with 1/4000 and 1/8000?

From everything I've read the shutter is no longer horizontally moving cloth but rather a shutter derived from the R9, thereby allowing the higher shutter speeds.

 

[equalizer]

From everything I've read the shutter is no longer horizontally moving cloth but rather a shutter derived from the R9, thereby allowing the higher shutter speeds.

yes but this means louder shutter... (?)

 

[Matthew]

yes but this means louder shutter... (?)

In the opening post of this thread, Jorge reports that according to his friend the shutter is still very quiet. If it's near silent, as with film M's, remains to be heard.

Most of the noise from SLR's seems to come from mirror slap and motorized film advance, not specifically the shutter. Voigtlanders have vertical shutter and while not as quiet as a Leica are quiet enough for the vast majority of uses. The sound seems to be made worse by the fact that the Voigtlander's body isn't particularly solid or well dampened, in comparison to Leica. There's a sort of hollow sound that isn't present in the M. The heavier Leica body will likely quiet the shutter a bit.

The only time I might need a dead silent camera is if I wanted to shoot during a take on a film set with sound rolling, which is very much possible with a film M. For all the supposed advantages of having a silent camera for street photography, in my experience most city streets are so loud that even a motorized SLR can't be heard. The size of the camera makes much more of a difference when trying to be unobtrusive on the street.

In any case, I'm not overly worried about the shutter sound.