Please tell me. Is the M8 any good?

[Ming Rider]

I must know as I am about to either make the greatest/worst decision of my photographic life. If I was to go by all the posts on ALL the forums, I wouldn't bother. I know all the pluses and minuses such as IR sensitivity, crappy menu choices, dead cells etc. But is it any good at the most important thing. Taking photo`s . . ?:bang:

 

[Pablito]

Depends on whether you prefer chocolate of vanilla. Or maybe you're a vegetarian.

 

[tbarker13]

Despite its flaws, I do love mine.
But really, all you will get in this thread is another bunch of opinions posted on an Internet forum. Why not go over to Flickr and search for the M8 photos? If you like what you see, buy one and enjoy.

 

[oldoc]

I'm not making plans at this time to move up.
I love my M8, and would never regret buying it.

 

[hans voralberg]

It turns green foliage into yellow, hate it for that. Everything else is cool, I love mine. The menu is quite nice btw, who say it sucks?

 

[Tom Diaz]

I must know as I am about to either make the greatest/worst decision of my photographic life. If I was to go by all the posts on ALL the forums, I wouldn't bother. I know all the pluses and minuses such as IR sensitivity, crappy menu choices, dead cells etc. But is it any good at the most important thing. Taking photo`s . . ?:bang:

I agree with the idea to look at some photos on Flickr and elsewhere. (Here, for that matter--there are a number of examples shot with M8s and posted in peoples' galleries.)

The M8 was at least a good if not industry leading digital design for its time (2006), is still very good today, and, combined with those excellent lenses, it makes beautiful photographs.

You can even make a virtue of the IR sensitivity, if you like infrared photography at all. Take off the UV/IR blocking filter, put on an IR transmission filter, and fire away. I'm not a huge IR fan but have had a little fun like that and have seen a few interesting images shot that way.

I am one who believes that the price of used M8s will stabilize in a fairly short while, and then you could buy one and try it a bit without the risk of losing a ton of money.

Tom

 

[Ming Rider]

Thanks very much for the encouraging replies. Had half expected a scathing, venom driven machette attack.

I remember reading a review by a photographer working in Iraq that the menu layout was u.s. Still, what does he know 🙂

I would mainly be using it for B&W so no prob's with the magenta cast. My only concern really is the dead cell problem, though if I buy from a dealer do you think it would have been fixed a while ago at the factory?

I currently use a CL and do my own processing/enlarging in a converted chicken shed. Oh how my fellow photographers laughed. Practically exhausted every possible chicken s**t anecdote under the sun.

I also use a Canon G9 and an EOS 350d.

My website is at www.negativeexposures.co.uk There's still plenty of pictures to put up.

It's just a bit of fun and you never know, by the time the site propogates I might make a sale???

 

[f16sunshine]

YeS!
Beautiful files come from the M8. Never mind the crop just work around it with your lenses. Mine had a problem that Leica fixed out of warranty. Good luck getting Canikon to fo the same. It's a sublime digicam but mind you still a digicam 😀
don't hesitate from an IQ standpoint. His camera delivers the goods.

 

[Ming Rider]

Just had a worrying thought. I live deep in the middle of the countryside. The M8 turning greens into yellows could be a bit of a problem round here.😛

 

[Tom Diaz]

YES!!!!
FYI, my 28 Summicron-Asph on my M8.2 gives up NOTHING to my 35 Summicron v4 on my M6.

Like, totally.

 

[hans voralberg]

Just had a worrying thought. I live deep in the middle of the countryside. The M8 turning greens into yellows could be a bit of a problem round here.😛

It takes like 2 seconds to slide the Green up in Lightroom or Capture one to fix that, so don't worry too much. Where about do you live?

 

[mikemyers]

I must know as I am about to either make the greatest/worst decision of my photographic life. If I was to go by all the posts on ALL the forums, I wouldn't bother. I know all the pluses and minuses such as IR sensitivity, crappy menu choices, dead cells etc. But is it any good at the most important thing. Taking photo`s . . ?:bang:

I've got an M8.2 and a Nikon D3. There's no way to answer your question, without knowing what you're going to do with the camera. If you're shooting sports or other kinds of action shots, or if you like using long lenses for wildlife photos, you'll probably not be very happy with the M8. However, for people photos, landscapes, and a lot of other applications, I enjoy using the M8 far more than the larger and heavier D3. The images from the Leica seem much better as well.

To me, it's also important to do infrared and HDR photos; for infrared, the M8 is better than the M9. For HDR, it's the opposite.

I like the menu choices of the M9 more than those on the M8, but it's not that big a deal to me. The price difference on the other hand makes a huge difference to me!

If you like taking the kinds of photos RF cameras are good at, I think you'll be plenty happy with the M8. If not, not.

 

[250swb]

YES!!!!

How many here shot Nikons with their 1.5x crop factor or Canons with their 1.3x or 1.6x crop factors when there was no other choice if one had to shoot digital a few years ago.

A crop factor is just that. If one has spent a quarter century or more shooting film M cameras there is more than a bit of adjustment in simply thinking of using a 28mm to get approximately a 35mm Fov. The imaging of the lenses is so much different with the crop factor.

Errmm, aren't you forgetting a crucial thing here? The change in crop factor for a Nikon and Canon is largely taken care of with easily available zoom lenses that the users probably already have, or can buy cheaply. It is so easy to suggest getting a wider angle lens for a Leica M8 (to get your widest preference back), but harder to justify if you haven't already got one. Add the price of a Lux or even an Elmarit onto the second hand price of an M8 and you are in M9 body territory. Thats the difficulty I have, I don't like super wides, so never bought one, and now I decide to go digital with my Leica equipment its not the cheapness of the M8 that attracts me, but the overall cost that detracts me. The M9 is the same price (give or take a bit) in the overall roundup.

Steve

 

[meven]

Just had a worrying thought. I live deep in the middle of the countryside. The M8 turning greens into yellows could be a bit of a problem round here.😛

I never had this problem, my greens are green and my yellows are yellow!!!

BTW, it is a great camera, I have no intention to upgrade for the M9 at the moment!

 

[JWW]

I really like looking at my MP but for taking thousands of pictures I use my M8. Not as good looking but a more productive, high picture quality tool.

 

[alifil]

Great camera. Beautiful files.




view large

 

[rxmd]

Errmm, aren't you forgetting a crucial thing here? The change in crop factor for a Nikon and Canon is largely taken care of with easily available zoom lenses that the users probably already have, or can buy cheaply. It is so easy to suggest getting a wider angle lens for a Leica M8 (to get your widest preference back), but harder to justify if you haven't already got one.

Well talking about wide angles, this is exactly the same situation with the Canon or Nikon. If you were used to having a wide angle end in your 24-70, you needed a new lens, so people bought 17-40s instead.

In the SLR world everybody complained for years that they had to buy new lenses. Eventually those who weren't bothered by the crop factor were happy with their cameras, and those who were bothered either saved up for full frame cameras or stayed with film. The complaints eventually died down: those who didn't see a problem were happy with their cameras, those who saw a problem decided that it's someone else's problem, and those who just wanted to argue found other things to argue about. I guess with digital rangefinders we are now experiencing the same with a few years delay.

 

[alifil]

Well talking about wide angles, this is exactly the same situation with the Canon or Nikon. If you were used to having a wide angle end in your 24-70, you needed a new lens, so people bought 17-40s instead.

In the SLR world everybody complained for years that they had to buy new lenses. Eventually those who weren't bothered by the crop factor were happy with their cameras, and those who were bothered either saved up for full frame cameras or stayed with film. The complaints eventually died down: those who didn't see a problem were happy with their cameras, those who saw a problem decided that it's someone else's problem, and those who just wanted to argue found other things to argue about. I guess with digital rangefinders we are now experiencing the same with a few years delay.

Good point.

 

[johnastovall]

It turns green foliage into yellow, hate it for that. Everything else is cool, I love mine. The menu is quite nice btw, who say it sucks?

Why aren't you using an IR Cut filter?

 

[Bob Parsons]

Just had a worrying thought. I live deep in the middle of the countryside. The M8 turning greens into yellows could be a bit of a problem round here.😛

I find that only happens if you don't use a UV-IR blocking filter.

If you take a look at this thread http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m9-forum/100636-buying-m9-keeping-m8.html you will see that many people changing to an M9 are keeping their M8s, it's a fine camera. Depending on whether you need the 1/8000 shutter speed an M8.2 or M8 upgraded may be a better bet. It's shutter can be much quieter.

If you do purchase a camera check it's high ISO performance to see that there are no stuck/hot pixels or very thin one (or a few) pixel wide vertical lines in the image. Do this for normal and varying degrees of under exposure of a plain grey or white card. In general hot pixels can be mapped out, a vertical line sometimes but often Leica have had to replace the sensor for this. Also check that there is no brightness difference between the left and right hand halves of the image - particularly at high ISO. The sensor is read out in two halves and any gain/sensitivity mismatch shows up as a "join" in the middle. In most instances Leica can adjust this.

Bob.