Should I stay or should I go?...

[jaapv]

There is a option 4 Didier - Fly Ryanair to Holland, spend an afternoon shooting one of my M8's. Have Patricia overfeed you. Sleep at the nice hotel 1 minute down the road. Visit our local friendly Leica dealer. Fly home minus 4195 Euro....

 

[jaapv]

Then again it will be very tempting to buy someone's barely-used M8 and all their IR filters off them for $2000 😀

You must be a bit of a ghoul...😉I've seen the phrase: "from my dead clammy hands" used too often in this context.😛

 

[Ben Z]

Mark my words folks: as soon as there's an M9 Jaap'll be among the first to sell his M8s😀

 

[jaapv]

Highly unlikely - I tend to hang on to my gear for long periods of time.

 

[rvaubel]

...... I'm blissfully happy for my needs with the RD1 and a 20D, I'll wait and see what's next up on the horizon. 😀

Well I've been waiting for my M8 for so long, I bought myself a a Christmas present of a EFs 17-55/2.8 for my long neglected 20D. It is a terrific lens and has all the bells and whistles that I have forgotten about. I had a lot of fun with the camera and my new lens for about 3 or 4 days. Then last weekend I was up in the wine country doing a little street photography, carrying the camera around like a would a rangefinder. My wife, who is used to the RD1, said "you look like your from the CIA" with that big lens and all. I soon noticed that everywhere I went people noticed the camera. Finally I put it back in the car.

Rex

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

If Epson has trouble providing parts now, think about the issue later down the road.

Unfortunately, this is what drove me away from a new RD-1.

I'd still give it a chance, since you have the opportunity. It is a shame that Epson doesn't have its carp together and dropped this ball royally. The QC for their scanners isn't riding kudos, either, but it's oftentimes the best alternative to the better, more expensive options out there.

 

[Joe Mondello]

Unfortunately, this is what drove me away from a new RD-1.

I'd still give it a chance, since you have the opportunity. It is a shame that Epson doesn't have its carp together and dropped this ball royally.

Agreed. BUT I think we have to consider digital cameras as far more disposable than their film cousins.

These things follow a computer-like life cycle that rarely will exceed a single decade.

I don't have to tell you how many digital cameras and laptops or desktops which retailed for thousands are now essentially doorstops!

Digital cameras are more like that than they are like 50 year old Leicas. 🙁

 

[mountainrivera]

Youprobably want the R-D1s but I would take the refund and wait for a good sample to go on sale here and save $500. I am sure a good opportunity for a good copy willl arise. I was sure they were going to replace your copy but at least they are forking over the $$$$$. Good luck in the hunt.

Mike

 

[LCT]

I recommend every prospective R-D1 buyer to have the sample you're going to buy tested...

Good advice but it worked only once for me.
Despite my seller checked it carefully, my second body's RF was misaligned on delivery...

 

[Didier]

There is a option 4 Didier - Fly Ryanair to Holland, spend an afternoon shooting one of my M8's. Have Patricia overfeed you. Sleep at the nice hotel 1 minute down the road. Visit our local friendly Leica dealer. Fly home minus 4195 Euro....

....and plus a dozen of IR filters.... 😉
Didier

 

[boilerdoc2]

Get the R-D1s from RW and have them test it. M8 is great but very $ to own.
You'll be happier. But go visit Jaapv!
Steve

 

[jaapv]

My Rd-1s is working perfect for now, but if something happens to it again, I will repair it and sell it. I need a camera that I can trust. Im not shure about the M8. I can afford it, but the question is if I want to buy a camera that have errors. It will cost me 6000$ in Norway and that is alot of $ for a camera that needs IR filters, 6bit lenses and other errors. So if my Rd-1s fails me I think I am going for a DSLR and a used M7.

I can understand peolpe not liking the filter thing, altough I would rather call it a quirk or a design decision, but what is the error in six-bit coding? Are the electrical contacts on a Canon EF mount an error? Or the ROM in R-lenses? And what more errors are there in the revised version? Genuinely interested inyour opinion.

 

[Ben Z]

It just that I dont own any lenses with six-bit coding and I will have to buy filters + 231$ for getting each lens a six-bit coding since I dont have it. I have heard that you can use a magic marker to do it, but dont know if I want to do that.

I wouldn't jump to get lenses coded or self-code them. The M8 from all accounts is darn good as-is in terms of not adding to the vignetting already present on film with the same lenses. Certainly a darn sight better in that regard than the RD-1. As far as the cyan corners caused by the IR filters, that only presents a need for correction with 28mm and wider lenses and there is a free Photoshop plug-in that can correct it in one step. I would probably wait to see how well Leica's 1.10 firmware does this before anything else. The camera can't know the working aperture and it might involve another of Leica's famous "compromises" 😀

Maybe I will consider buying it used in a year or so.

That would certainly be what I'd recommend to anyone without the patience of Job. I sure don't have the personality to cope with being an early-adopter, and know better than to let my inner child rush me into a purchase 😀 A lot can change in a year, at the very least all the bugs will be worked out and both the camera and batteries will be readily available. At the very most, there will be a new or revised model with a built-in IR filter, and you could choose that or opt to buy a first-generation M8 and filters for a significant discount 😀

Just check out the dslr´s that came out 4 years ago. They are not worth anything.

Oh I don't know about that. The Canon D60 is still selling for $300-400, the 1DS-mark 1 for >$2000 and even the original 4MP 1D goes for a grand or more. That might be quite a hit for the guy who bought them new (although if he's even a serious amateur he's probably saved more than enough to cover the depreciation by not having to buy film or pay for developing) but for someone who buys his digi's used or as refurbs a couple years after their intro (as I've been doing) the numbers work out very nicely. The days of new digitals costing $12,000 and depreciating to nothing in a year or two (if that ever really happened) are long over. The new offerings today aren't quantum leaps anymore, so if you're not the kind of guy who has to have the newest toy on the block, you can save a bundle buying from the guy who does 😀

 

[jaapv]

As far as the cyan corners caused by the IR filters, that only presents a need for correction with 28mm and wider lenses and there is a free Photoshop plug-in that can correct it in one step.

Which one would that be, Ben? I'm looking for it.

 

[Ben Z]

Which one would that be, Ben? I'm looking for it.

It's called Panorama Tools. You can download the 16-bit version HERE, and there's also a link on that page to the older 8-bit version if you're using an old version of PS. Make sure you download the .dll file too and put it where it says to put it. IIRC you also will need to manually put the files in the plug-in folder in your Photoshop directory as I don't recall it has an auto-install feature but it's been a while (I used if for regular vignetting correction before I got CS2).

Once inside the plug-in there are a list of corrections. The one you want is called Radial Luminance. Open the "Options" dialogue and you will see you can enter numerical values for R, G and B channels separately. Since cyan is a mixture of blue and green you will need to enter a negative number in both. It will be between -1 and -12 I'm sure, and may or may not be the same for both B and G. Once you find the right "dosage" for a lens I believe you can use it for that lens whenever. You could probably write an action for batch processing images from that lens you've grouped together. As an alternate, since cyan's complement is magenta, which is a mixture of R and B, you could use postive values of those and the result will be the same. I tried it on a couple of images I downloaded that people made with the M8+IR filter and it was really a snap.