Leica Showcase Leica M8 / M8.2

I never used mine with the filter, I found that colour discrepancies only happened a tiny, tiny percentage of the time. I could live with the odds.

I ordered IR cut filter at least to try it. I’ve already shot pictures where colours just are wrong. And not in a good way. But some frames have wrong colours but actually quite pleasing. One needs to learn to live with odds :D
 
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I spent the 1980s working on multi-color digital Infrared sensors. I just hate it knowing that an image is incorrect with regard to spectral content. I have IR cut filters in 39, 43, 48, 49, 52, 55, 58, and 62 sizes. I sold the 40.5 filters with Sonnars, and use a 40.5 to 43 step up. At one point- over 20 filters. I'm surprised that they cost so much on Ebay these days. I use IR cut filters with the M9 for very fast lenses with Known CA issues. This cuts down on Purple Fringing.
 
I was outing my Leica in -10 Celsius, without any hiccups, with Voigtländer F1.4/35mm Nokton VM

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I would not worry about this level of dust- just think of it as a drying spot on a negative. Impossible to completely eliminate, just reduce to a satisfactory level.

I use a Blower, then a wet cleaner, maybe once in the last two years. Make sure the mount of the lens is clean, especially with Screw Mount lenses on an adapter. Inspect the rear of the lens before mounting, blow dust off of it.

Small dust will show up mostly with lenses stopped down, also with Telephoto lenses where the light is coming in directly to the sensor. With light coming in more off-nadir, the effects due to dust gets spread out.

And- Beautiful Shots. I love my M8, and would grab it on a day like this. Top Shutter Speed of 1/8000 is a good enough reason to never sell it. AND- the CCD is perfect, no bad spots- even when pushed 4 stops using M8RAW2DNG.
 
Now are you going setting up the M8? Did you purposefully set that shutter speed or set it to "A"? That's what I've been doing, but I know I'm really going to have to get a handle on knowing the cmaera's shutter speed better to get the better image.
I can handhold the M8 at 1/15s quite reliably, 1/24s is never a problem. The - by Leica standards - somewhat raucous re-cocking of course happens after the shot. I'd say this is a very nice camera to hold steady. I leave it on A most of the time because in most cases, I can estimate the metering results quite well, but presetting the shutter speed and then adjusting the aperture also works well for me; I'm less comfortable doing it the other way round (presetting the aperture, adjusting shutter speeds manually), though that's probably just me. A mode gives me sufficient control for my needs.

Whatever you do, take care not to blow out the highlights - there's extremely little leeway even in the DNGs to correct for that; shadow recovery is better (though not great). You may have to learn to compromise - but the images from the camera are well worth that. As for ISO, try to stay at or below ISO 640 - everything above is definitely not up to any current standards, though you may get away with b&w conversions; that's because while colour noise from this sensor is really rather ugly, it looks pretty random, translating to something akin to grain in b&w ... which can actually look quite pleasing.

M.
 
I can handhold the M8 at 1/15s quite reliably, 1/24s is never a problem. The - by Leica standards - somewhat raucous re-cocking of course happens after the shot. I'd say this is a very nice camera to hold steady. I leave it on A most of the time because in most cases, I can estimate the metering results quite well, but presetting the shutter speed and then adjusting the aperture also works well for me; I'm less comfortable doing it the other way round (presetting the aperture, adjusting shutter speeds manually), though that's probably just me. A mode gives me sufficient control for my needs.

Whatever you do, take care not to blow out the highlights - there's extremely little leeway even in the DNGs to correct for that; shadow recovery is better (though not great). You may have to learn to compromise - but the images from the camera are well worth that. As for ISO, try to stay at or below ISO 640 - everything above is definitely not up to any current standards, though you may get away with b&w conversions; that's because while colour noise from this sensor is really rather ugly, it looks pretty random, translating to something akin to grain in b&w ... which can actually look quite pleasing.

M.
I've been ok with the highlights so far and have a day and night regime. During the day, it's never more than iso 160. The metering is easy in that respect and the magic is all there in the files at any aperture/ shutter speed, or if it's not it's my fault. The "A" option works it out correctly most times.

During the night, things are a bit more concentrated. I don't even go to iso 800, more likely iso 400 or better still iso 320, with a shutter speed never going above 1/60 and wide open peferably under F2 or F2 if that's the fastest. The magic is generally not there if I go outside these parameters.
 
I’ve been shooting with it so rarely, still, so I use A in shutter speed. Together with exposure adjustment, I’m happy with the results. But looking forward to some leisure time to really tame this camera.

About ISO, I’ve already found out that ISO640 is kind of a max for colour photos. When shooting B&W, one can use higher ISO for special effects.

But one thing for sure, M8 is really fun to use, and it has characteristic colours.
 
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