No New M9 but M8-2 - Leica Announcement

[back alley]

Let us pause a moment to remember the R-D1s - still available new from Matsuiyastore on eBay.

/T

new, OLD STOCK.

not currently in production.

 

[Tuolumne]

new, OLD STOCK.

not currently in production.

I guess you could say that about all of the Barnacks, M2s, M3s, M4s, M5s, and M6s happily owned by most on this list. 😀

You, too, could be a happy owner of an R-D1s. I am. No GAS for an M8 here. 🙂

/T

 

[aizan]

off topic, but what was the setup for that pic?

 

[amin_sabet]

I think this has to be BS. A joke perhaps?

 

[MikeL]

Everybody STFU or else I start killing kittens!

Great post endustry.😀

 

[retow]

And such a bargain at 1200 euros!

new screen + slower shutter = 1200 Euros = 1800 USD = D300 = E3 +lens = Pentax D20+lens
I hope for Leica this is a joke.

😀

 

[Faintandfuzzy]

That's fine. You are entitled to your opinion. Let's just wait and see, eh?

In the meantime, referring to David Stevens as a "nut" because you don't read what you want to read is, I think, a tad petulant.

Regards,

Bill

Maybe, but upgrading the shutter to 1/4000 from 1/8000 doesn't sound like a great deal to me.....does it to you?

 

[sirius]

I am in Cardiac Arrest!
There is no pulse.



TR

Ha ha, take deep breaths Tony...boy you sure landed on this forum thread fast. Rumours spread quickly...I was just singing your praise on flickr where someone was bemoaning the lack of GRD dealers in the US...

 

[xayraa33]

M8 alla carte eh?
I want my M8 to look like my Canon IIF2.

 

[Ascender]

Well said Bill

Well said Bill

That's fine. You are entitled to your opinion. Let's just wait and see, eh?

In the meantime, referring to David Stevens as a "nut" because you don't read what you want to read is, I think, a tad petulant.

Regards,

Bill

I agree with you Bill. I remember when I first posted to this forum over a year ago, I had just received the very first M8 in the USA direct form my dear friends at Leica in Solms. I was asked by them not to post any images from it so I honoured their request. Instead, I posted my experiences with the camera to this site and was immediately met with negative and borderline, offensive responses. Even after I posted a picture of me with the camera taken with a pocket Canon, people still discredited my integrity.

Though it may seem unfair to some which I completely understand, I applaud Leica for going against conventional operendai and instead following in the tradition of the Leica brand by making a 'Camera for Life' so to speak, making it modular so that it keeps up with the times whilst allowing it to develop sentimental value and become an extension of you.

Assuming that this 'Upgrade Package' concept is true, one might ask, what would be the logical upgrade in lets say.... a year from now ;-)

- charlie

 

[CameraQuest]

Not a Rumor

Not a Rumor

Folks,

I am not sure the guy in the UK got all the details right
-- but maybe he did.

But I do have it from a reliable source this info is substantially fact,
not rumor.

Hello M8 Upgrade Dept.

Stephen

 

[jvr]

I guess you could say that about all of the Barnacks, M2s, M3s, M4s, M5s, and M6s happily owned by most on this list. 😀

You, too, could be a happy owner of an R-D1s. I am. No GAS for an M8 here. 🙂

/T

Well, I own both and the reason I'm still keeping the Epson is precisely the reason why I would like this rumour to be true. Not because of the shutter noise (I got used to it. Sigh...) but because of camera shake. I posted my experience with the M8 after a couple of months and some thousands of photos after buying it and that was one of my complaints. Stilll is.

I was used to handhold the Epson (and the M3. and the Konica Hexar) to "ridiculously" low shutter speeds (I have sharp photos from the Epson with shutter speeds as low as 1/4th with the 35/1.2 Nokton). Unfortunately, I'm not able to do the same with the M8, unless I hold the camera very carefully and use all support (including my face!) I can get. Part of the problem could be ergonomics, part of it the shutter button (the "click" after pressing down to read light is worse, in this respect, than the continuous, smooth action of the M3 or the Epson). But part of it is really shutter-induced shake.

Now, I don't know enough about shutters to say that a higher top-speed implies a "faster" shutter. It could just mean a narrower "gap" between curtains. But a top sync-speed of 1/250 means the M8's shutter CAN be fast. And, probably, the actual travelling speed of the curtains is always the same for every exposure time: what changes is the delay between curtains (until the sync-speed, then becomes a travelling "gap"). If that's true, than it will be harder to quickly stop the curtains and that energy will go somewhere. It goes to the body and it shakes more than what I would like (and expect and hope).

Although the M8 is a RF and does not have a mirror, the first times I used it I could swear I had gone back to my Nikon FM2n times (I mention the FM2n because all my other SLRs, including D-SLRs, have very controlled mirror-shake).

So... I would be a much happier user of a M8-2 with a top-speed of 1/4000 (and probably also a top sync-speed of 1/125) or even a M8-3 that tops at 1/2000, if that means a "gentler" shutter. BTW, I have one of those: I call it a "Epson RD-1s" and that's the reason why I still keep it (I'm lucky enough to be able to keep both. But, hey, I'm lucky enough to drive a Mercedes. And , for as long as I have the money, I'll keep driving one).

If it wasn't for that, I would sell the Epson; image-wise, I clearly prefer the M8 allround, especially when going to "extreme" focals; on teles, focusing is much more reliable with the M8, on wide-angles, image quality is better in the corners, not to mention much less vignetting (even without lens-correction enabled).

But I still do a lot of work on low light and it's very frustrating when 50% of the pictures come out _slightly_ blurred because of camera shake. I learned to be very careful, so hit rate is getting better but as soon as I "relax" a bit, it gets worse again. I'm even buying a ThumbsUp to help me on this. And frustration grows when I pick-up the Epson and photos _DO NOT_ come out slightly blurred, although some of them will now suffer from focusing error.

Would I pay 1200£ for this upgrade (and it should be clear by now that I would consider this an upgrade. After all, it would enabe me to _gain_ at least one stop on the lower end)? No... I think Leica shoulf offer it for free.

BTW, probably this could be done by firmware, if the shutter is controllable by software and the M8 has all the links in palce. As a software engineer by training (and a low light photographer by hobby 🙂) I would have considered the trade-off on an electronic shutter, such as the one used on the M8.

So, let's hope there is some fundament on this rumour and that Leica will enable people like me to have the shutter adjusted without the "Saphire VF"...

 

[amateriat]

Folks,

I am not sure the guy in the UK got all the details right
-- but maybe he did.

But I do have it from a reliable source this info is substantially fact,
not rumor.

Hello M8 Upgrade Dept.

Stephen

Sigh...think I'll go buy a Canon G9....(when my Casio breaks).


- Barrett

 

[Chyn]

Perhaps this is an intentional leak to test the waters?

Is there an option for non-chimpers to forgo the LCD screen upgrade? That might save a few hundred Euros...

Then again, I suppose the word 'frugal' and Leica digital rangefinders don't go well together.

 

[raid]

Regardless whether the news are real or false, I would hope to see Leica [and other companies] include upgrades for five years into the selling price of the M8. This way, more people will take the plunge into the digital professional camera arena if upgrades ensure that the expensively purchased camera will stay uptodate for five years. Why not?

 

[kevin m]

Your words seem pretty clear to me, nice and short too, no problem here in reading them...

There is a difference between reading and comprehension, however. If you're looking for insults, I suppose they're easy enough to find.

And I wish Leica all the luck in the world with their new marketing strategy.

 

[MP Guy]

I see no real added value to replacing the shutter. Here is what I think. Shutter replacement to accommodate different sensor. I would suspect that Leica has more up their sleeves than just a shutter and lcd screen.

As for me, my only Leica now is an MP . My digital now consists of a new D3 which quite honestly does everything you would expect from a 5k camera.

 

[RIVI1969]

This is even more crazy than my RD2 post... (but not as passionate)

 

[splitimageview]

I'll wait to see the official press release, then comment. 😉

 

[sirius]

If the price is $1200 euros...that means $2400 for us Canadians and US residents. That is rather crazy when it comes out to be half the price of a new one (well it may be more now I haven't looked recently).