Leica New (to me) M8

[johng99]

I just found and joined this forum. i have been looking at Leica for a long time, and finally pulled the trigger on an M8 - it arrived last week.
So far, I cannot believe how good this camera is.
I have had rangefinders many, many years ago, and recently have been shooting with a Sony A7. While I like the A7, and especially it's ability to adapt to many lenses and low light, I haven't been completely satisfied - it usually takes a lot of post editing to get what i am looking for.
And then comes the M8 and I am hooked! I bought it from a reputable dealer with a 2 year warranty. Yes, I know about some potential reliability issues and am willing to take the risk.
So far, my photos have been in daylight, and I have not used the cut IR filters (I have them, but so far, I don't feel that I have needed them). I will try them soon.
I have several older Leica lenses, 50mm Summicron, 50mm Summilux, 90mm Elmarit, but what I am most pleased with (so far) are the Minolta M-Rokkors that I have - the 40mm and the 28mm. Both in mint condition, no white spots, etc. They just seem to fit so well with the M8.
I am going to try the 16 bit RAW file option, but so far I am very pleased with the color and sharpness of the photos I have taken.
I am keeping the Sony - it is great when I need low light photos and/or auto focus. But I have a feeling I will be using the Leica quite a bit more than the Sony.
Anyway, just want to say Hello and I enjoy reading the forum!

 

[rbelyell]

much of photography, from 'feel' to user experience to impressiveness of results, is subjective. having used many different sensors, including ccd like the m8 and the sony a7, i personally agree with you. i find ccd to offer much more pleasing, non digital (or 'processed') looking results. i generally find the sony results to look more 'processed', less like what my eye saw. not as extreme imo as fujis xtrans, but nonetheless noticeable.

at the end of the day, its not about megapixels, or tech, or whatever else, its about what we see. enjoy your m8 and your leica glass, you really cant do much better than that!

 

[johng99]

Agreed, and I have seen great photos taken with a Sony A7, and have taken photos with mine that I am very happy with as well.

 

[Brian]

Welcome to Leicaplace, I'm owned my M8 since Jan 2010. It's better than ever with the availability of 16-bit raw mode. I've used it quite a bit.

It's one of the few cameras available that can shoot "color-Infrared". Use it with an Orange filter to cut out Blue; the blue channel becomes IR only. You can use Lightroom for Photoshop, or other software- boost the Blue channel to equalize green and red.

I wrote up some notes on High-ISO with the M8, and using 16-bit raw in general. Send me an Email address if you want it.

Brian

 

[johng99]

I haven't been able to get the software to work. No problem downloading, no problem getting the RAW files, but I can't seem to make it convert. I have a Mac, and am not really good with the text editor and the command line.

 

[Brian]

M8raw2dng – Tool to convert Leica M8 RAW files to DNG » Download

Have you tried the "droplet" version of the software?

I've not tried the droplets, go with the command line. The .exe file is so small that I copy it to the SD card and run off the card from the command prompt.

 

[johng99]

M8raw2dng – Tool to convert Leica M8 RAW files to DNG » Download

Have you tried the "droplet" version of the software?

I've not tried the droplets, go with the command line. The .exe file is so small that I copy it to the SD card and run off the card from the command prompt.

I will check it out.