The M8

jlw said:
Yes, of course we can, but that's not the point.

I'm sure all the major industry publications (print and online) already have complete press kits with beautifully detailed photos of the actual camera -- but those will be embargoed until the official release date around Photokina-time. And those publications will hold to that date, too -- if they weren't trustworthy, they wouldn't have gotten the press kit in the first place.

So that leaves the intriguing question of exactly what it IS that we're looking at: someone's do-it-yourself fake, or an "unofficial" official leak.
Click to expand...
A similar thing happed to Nikon, a publication designer's draft version of an announcement got out. Judging from the original picture/screen shot, that is what this looks like. The original was a zoomed in look at a PDF and the pictures were very small & compressed on the PDF page. Artifacts that we see in the screen capture seem to be compression problems from resizing. When I fooled with it there were some other artifacts around the red dot on the black body, otherwise it just looked like a photo mangled by the route it took to get to us. That said, Leica may have given the publication designers some prototype pictures to use in desgn and they would be replaced by regular product images nearer publication date. The other data in the original about a 28mm f/2.8 Asph and the wide tri-elmar and its viewfinder did look authentic. That Jorge asked that the original screen capture version be deleted, sounds like he is protecting his source and rightfully so.
Bob
 
Nachkebia said:
What the heck is this then? 🙂 normaly they don`t put logos like this 🙂

Look at the color jpg artefacts around the logo, this is funny 🙂


m8.jpg
Click to expand...

What's wrong with the logo? So it's a preproduction-model. Not like they're ALL perfect.

And what's funny about the artefacts? That's what you get when you first make an image, then make a .pdf out of it (a jpg-compressed one, no less), extract it from that, take it through photoshop once more, and save it again so it fits in your forum. And then someone takes the pic and upsizes it some hundred percent. So yeah, I'd be more suspicious if it were perfect.
 
Lol BOB, we were typing that furiously at the same time... And yeah, Nikon did spill the beans on the D2X, the pdf got out from a swiss(? iirc) print-house. It didn't even contain all the text, just the layout, pics and techspecs.
And that was not planned, let me tell you that. Nikon tould us that people got fired, in several places.
 
Nachkebia said:
skarpia : Possibly maybe, actualy 🙂 sorry 🙂
Click to expand...

Oh, just for the record, I'm having a terribly hard time accepting these as real... Somehow the back just looks wrong. I don't know. I'm actually hoping that the control wheel gets placed somewhere else. That just doesn't look ergonomic somehow. IDK.
 
John Shriver said:
Doesn't look exactly like the one I saw in the flesh. I don't remember seeing any "compass rose" button on the lower right rear. I also think the top was flat (no step), and the control around the shutter button was chrome. There was no red dot on the one I saw, either. So this may indeed be a careful fake.

I didn't get much of a chance to really look at the camera, it was in someone else's hands, and he couldn't talk about it...

I can't imagine that the review units would be different from the production units.
Click to expand...

i hope you're right!
 
When I first saw the picture I was elated, because the camera was so clean, which was what I'd been hoping for (I've pre-ordered.)

Now, I'm coming around to think that these shots are concept shots, or models used for planning ad layouts, or something similar.

I come to that conclusion because I'm sitting here looking at an M7 and an R-D1. Neither one -- not even the M7 -- is as "clean" as the supposed M8. And the R-D1, which was widely greeted as a really interesting design -- clean, functional -- is quite a bit more complicated-looking than the M8 photos. And all the stuff on the top of the R-D1 I consider necessary for rapid function: it has a frame selector for 50-28-35; it has an analog dial that shows the state of the battery, how many shot remain, what quality of shot you're using (Raw or two different jpgs), and white balance setting. It has a shutter-speed dial with AE slot, compensation marks, and ISO setting, an on-off switch, a shutter cocking level, and a lock-release button. It also has a jog dial for paging through shots on the LCD screen. The back has an AE lock button, the photo-quality/white balance lever, the LCD on-off, Menu, Enter, Cancel and User-select buttons, along with the LCD display. I don't think any of that is unnecessary, at least not on a digital camera. So where is it on this M8? If they buried it all in a menu, we've got problems.

So. I would bet dollars-to-donuts (or, really going out on a limb, euros-to-donuts) that Sean Reid has been working with one of these things. He doesn't have to break any NDA; All he has to do is say, "Yes," or "No."

SEAN, WHERE ARE YOU?

JC
 
John, I agree with you; in addition to shutter speed/AE, we need to know, at a glance:

- Quality
- ISO
- EV +/-
- Memory
- Battery
- WB

I'd expect there to be a secondary LCD display somewhere with this information, preferably viewable from the top of the camera.

We know from the leaflet that comes back with coded lenses that the lens in use (if it's coded) is displayed "on the camera monitor", so I'm wondering whether they are using the LCD for this information, which raises worries about battery life and is still not convenient if you can't see it instantly without turning the LCD monitor on.
 
FrankS said:
For all those who think this is a fake image: Jorge has stated that he himself took the photographs of this camera. I've got to believe him.
Click to expand...

Frank, I can't seem to find anywhere that Jorge says he actually photographed these cameras himself. Do you got a link to that?
If that's the case then yes, I will also believe that these are real.

Thanks,
Rich
 
skarpia said:
I'm actually hoping that the control wheel gets placed somewhere else. That just doesn't look ergonomic somehow. IDK.
Click to expand...


It's in the same spot as it is on almost every other digi-cam on the planet, so why is that so strange? Most people are right-handed and it will fall directly under your thumb. Unless you are left-handed there really is no other place to put it.
 
John Camp said:
I come to that conclusion because I'm sitting here looking at an M7 and an R-D1. Neither one -- not even the M7 -- is as "clean" as the supposed M8. And the R-D1, which was widely greeted as a really interesting design -- clean, functional -- is quite a bit more complicated-looking than the M8 photos. And all the stuff on the top of the R-D1 I consider necessary for rapid function: it has a frame selector for 50-28-35; it has an analog dial that shows the state of the battery, how many shot remain, what quality of shot you're using (Raw or two different jpgs), and white balance setting. It has a shutter-speed dial with AE slot, compensation marks, and ISO setting, an on-off switch, a shutter cocking level, and a lock-release button. It also has a jog dial for paging through shots on the LCD screen. The back has an AE lock button, the photo-quality/white balance lever, the LCD on-off, Menu, Enter, Cancel and User-select buttons, along with the LCD display. I don't think any of that is unnecessary, at least not on a digital camera. So where is it on this M8? If they buried it all in a menu, we've got problems.
Click to expand...

Agreed, the R-D1 is an ergonomic marvel. The only thing I'd prefer to be different on it is better control over AE lock (or rather, a better idea of what the meter is doing.) Then again I come from the DSLR world where these things are taken for granted. The analogue dials and jog wheel are right up there design wise with the very best of modern industrial design...
 
Mark: Exactly.
Turning on a full-sized LCD will gobble up a battery. It would be odd to be required to turn on a full 2.5-inch display so you could see one ant-sized number that could be easily displayed on a cheap, super energy-efficient display of the type used on throw-away watches, conveniently located on top of the camera. Even the M7 displays "shots remaining" on top, and there is no such display shown on these photographs. My D2x actually has two small displays, in order to save energy with info that needs to be constantly displayed (the F5 also has two small displays, and that's a film camera.) I think there may be a problem with these photos.

Rich Silfver -- Jorge answered Frank somewhat further up the thread and said he did not take the photos himself.

JC
 
I’m not commented on whether these photos are real or not but would it be possible for some of the info (i.e. quality, iso, wb etc.) to be placed inside the view finder? I’ve seen some DSLR's that do this. It may make for a crowded view with the frame lines. Just my thoughts
 
John Camp said:
Rich Silfver -- Jorge answered Frank somewhat further up the thread and said he did not take the photos himself.

JC
Click to expand...

Thanks John.
 
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