soeren_engelbrecht1

<p>Finally: The crop factor of 1.33 is acceptable. My 21 is now 28 (I use an external finder, that I already had for the 28), my 28 is a 35, my 40 is a 53, and my 50 becomes a slightly short portrait lens.<br /><br />In summary, if I compare the M8 to my film cameras (I also use Nikon, Contax, and Olympus SLRs), it offers the classic camera User Experience (which i really love), a "satisfactory" digital experience, and really great image quality with my existing lenses. But I would not be happy with it as a primary camera system.</p><div></div>

<p>I generally don't go any higher than ISO 640 - another major difference from "modern "digitals. Again, compared to my film cameras, that's perfectly fine.</p><div></div>

<p>I mostly shoot in B/W mode to get the B/W preview on-screen, and then convert the DNG files in Capture One to B/W according to my taste. Works well - I don't have any UV/IR filters, and have noticed the "purple fabric" phenomenon on a few colour pictures.</p><div></div>

<p>I just bought a black, low mileage M8 three months ago. For the same amount of money, I could have bought a brand new Sony A7 with kit lens. I chose not to, since (1) I already have a "primary" digital system that I am happy with (2) I absolutely love the Rangefinder experience - I have an M3 and a IIIa. Would my two reasons apply to you ??<br /><br />Other than that, I love the M8, even though it's awfully slow in image review, and the screen is low resolution. After all, it will be ten years old this autumn (!!). But compared to my film Leicas, it's just as nice to operate (apart from the "winder" noise), and turnaround time as well as processing costs have been eliminated. The two latter elements mean that my Leica-mount lenses are now seeing much more use than before.<br /><br />I enclose a few of my shots so far.<br /><br />Hope this helps :-)</p><div></div>

<p>I just splurged myself - three weeks ago I got a low mileage M8. Must be around 8 years old now. Haven't had a second's regret :-)<br /><br />If you have the 40 mm Summicron for your CL, you should consider having it modified to bring up the 35 mm frame lines instead of 50. I haven't got that far yet with my 40, but just pull the frame preview lever out towards my left while shooting.</p><div></div>

<p>I have been enjoying the Voigtländer 28/3.5 Color-Skopar for about a decade now - small, cheap and plenty sharp. All of the pictures in my China Travel gallery (22 pictures - http://www.imagepro.dk/China_2012/) were taken with it. Below, you will find one of my favourite shots of all times - also taken with that lens.</p><div></div>

Since I am currently recovering from a disk crash (everything safely backed up, fortunately) I cannot post pictures from my archive. But here is a small collection of FE shots from our summer holidays of 2013. http://www.imagepro.dk/Denmark_2013/ I absolutely do agree that the FE is a wonderful little machine. Soeren

Similar story here :-) My first SLR was a used OM 20 back in 1994. Then I went Nikon AF, then Nikon DSLR (same D70 for 10 years). My digital SLR is now an OM-D 10, and my best friend Richard gifted me his OM 10 about a year ago. So far, the first roll looks great - I have complemented the 50/1.8 with a 200/4.0 and hope to get a wide for my birthday. Really nice camera. Please share some pictures, Bruce - I will do so myself, when I can scan again in a couple of weeks...

Great to see that the film was still serviceable, Mike :-) And how ironic that just weeks after I give away all my silver-based B/W film, Kodak discontinues what I use instead... Anyway, I'll have to get a stash of BW400CN, and then it's on to XP2.<div></div>

Definitely :-)

Sorry, the Olympus VF-1 is not usable - it covers the right diagonal angle of view, but has a 4:3 aspect ratio and not the 3:2 ratio of the X2. Apologies for any inconvenience :-(

Yes, the VF-1 from Olympus will work. Voigtlaender also does viewfinders - I have the 35mm metal version, but they also do/did them in plastic. Finally, there is a russian plastic one (Helios or Zorki) which is OK, but more like 40mm view.

<p>Very nice catch, Rick - I paid about the same for my RTS with the 1.7 Planar. I particularly like the Real Time Shutter (which RTS is an abbreviation for) which is amazingly responsive.<br> I never look much at the aperture readout, but I just checked mine by looking at something which varied in brightness across the frame. It appears to me that the readout was made by making the finder slightly higher than necessary, then masking it off at the top with a band having aperture number cut-outs. So all there is to illuminate the aperture numbers is the image coming through the lens. Makes sense ??<br> Congrats again :-)<br> Soeren</p><div></div>

<p>António,<br> I honestly only see advantages in using the C41 films - wide exposure latiitude, great tonality, and easy scanning. I often overexpose a couple of stops (a side effect of using ISO 400 film in cameras that often don't go beyond 1/1000), but that doesn't seem to hurt at all. And I do, occasionally, fit an ND or polarizer. A separate thread might be an idea :-)<br> Soeren</p> <div></div>

Will do. Great :-)