Would you buy an M8 or not?

Why would you at that price? I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Leica M user - but there are so many better choices for the money we're talking about. I shoot mainly film, but don't hesitate to shoot digital when the job requires it. I love shooting b&w film - and scanning - with the same, if not better, results than I get in the wet darkroom. Photoshop makes my life much easier when eradicating dust, etc -- not to mention the great tools for traditional darkroom manipulation - without getting my hands dirty :-)

 

If the M8 was priced at 2K -- maybe --

I'd buy a digital Nikon CL.

If it was $1500 I'd grab one and use it with my VC lenses.

I would not buy an M8, new or used, because when I'm not using long lenses I'm using a macro lens. The M8, or any rangefinder, is the wrong camera for me. Would I buy a used digital Leica without a warranty? Yes, I bought my DMR used two years ago. I would not hesitate to do so again. Fear sells a lot of warranties and UV filters.

Tom - Thank God I've managed to disaccumulate most of my camera gear, but I'm still in a quandry of what I can part with. The honest answer is that yes, I do use all my gear, but there is duplication...it just is so hard after half a century of using a variety of things as circumstances demanded, or on a whim, to part with it too quickly. I'm hoping by summer to have whittled it down to about half of what I have now. All said and done, I still wouldn't buy an M8 at current prices. I see a lot of friends using it, some have problems, as anyone might with new equipment, or with using a rangefinder rather than a slr. The M8, as presently configured and designed, just isn't what I would want in a Leica digital rangefinder camera. Huw Finney's designs from a year or so ago, were more to my taste. I would have been delighted if the failed design from a couple of years ago (I've forgotten the name of the company) to produce a film sized cartridge holding the electronics and digital receptor to insert in existing Leica M cameras

had borne fruit. I'm confident that as technology evolves, a better M design will present itself.

"My bet is the M9 will shoot film."

 

Not unless Leica is bound and determined to go out of business.

My M8 has been been M6 + Nikon coolscan even before the M8 appeared, OK it's slow to scan film but it does the job ans does create this terriblke x 1,33 conversion because of sensor size!

Bill,

 

They are out of business but just don't know it. Whoever ends up with company will return it to it's roots - film.

I own an M8 as a replacement for an older camera. If you can afford the camera, and not have to rely on it as your only camera - sure, buy one.

No, i'm very happy with films shooted with my Leicas M.

Ciao.

For the price? No way.

I mean to run my RD-1s into the ground and then pick up an M8, M8Plus, or an M9. I'm probably at 15,000 frames, though, and the RD-1s is a brick. When it's gone, absolutely I'd buy an M8. If a full frame M9 comes before the RD-1 croaks, I'll buy the full frame then for sure.

By the way, Vincenzo, I think my M2's and Bessa R4 are a great reason to continue to shoot film. 50 per cent of my shooting is still film, and I love the smoothness and build of mechnanical Leicas. And I love using Ultrawides. I know one can get good results with ultrawides on the RD-1s and M8, but it's just not the same as using the lens on a full frame camera.

No. If I were given the choice of a new M8 and a Zeiss Ikon SW, I'd take the latter and buy a Biogon f4.5 21mm, a bundle of film, and totally forget that other thing.

I wouldn't buy a new or used M8. I think Leica M's are film cameras. The Digilux 3 / Panasonic L1 are nice Leica-like DSLRs and make more sense to me, as does the Epson RD1 because in either case the electronics are done by electronics companies with a long track record of innovation in that area. I don't know who Leica has do the M8 digital stuff.. if it's in-house that seems a little scary.

 

But maybe I'm missing something..

"They are unlike any other digital files." Could someone explain this statement? How so? Is there somewhere on the web I can see evidence of this?

No. I shoot 'chromes for projection. An M7 plus Leica glass (24, 35, 50) does very well, thank you.

Since buying it in November 2006, the M8 has been my most-used camera ever. Very

expensive, but for me, I think it's been a decent value. I had been using Leica M for a

number of years, so nothing about the rangefinder camera experience came as a shock to

me: The M8 is simply an M that happens to be digital.

 

Detail from the M8 is exceptionally crisp due to the lack of optical antialiasing. This means

you sometimes have to deal with moire effects in post processing, but the reward is

photos that "pop" with little or no additional sharpening.

 

If I could justify owning a 2nd M8, I would have no problems buying one secondhand, but

I would prefer buying from a Leica specialist with a good reputation.

M8 costs 3-4X the better-built, *far* higher-resolution Pentax K20D.

 

Pentax viewfinder equals Leica SLR viewfinders, offers superb manual focus AND autofocus in low light.

 

Pentax has built-in dynamic range controls and RAW that's twice as efficient as DNG (which it also offers).

 

Leica has red dot, is smaller and lighter.

 

Compare prime lens physical construction, prices, resolution, bokeh. Pentax (eg 20/3.2 and 70/2.4).

No. Canon MK xxx for digi and MP for everything else.

No. i will not accept my wides becoming normal to teles..Not at that price.I needed a Digital for pro-work, mostly for internet.

Chose a lowly Pentax Optio that has been a real treat.

Was under$200, a few years ago. If and when I get a DSLR, it will be a Pentax or 2nd choice a Nikon that MUST fit some old Nikkor lenses!

Otherwise its definitely a Pentax!

Sergio --

 

I would only buy a used M8 with the warranty, since you may be getting one of those had problems. Better to be safe, etc.

 

I have had my M8 for about a year now, without any problems, except the early banding issue, which was taken care of for free by the factory.

 

The M8 will provide beautiful, high micro-contrast files with incredible clarity. Just as important, it will make you a photographer again, where YOU choose the focus point, spend more time on framing, and begin to think again about the relationship between aperture and shutter spead. In short, it returns control to you, rather than pushing a button and seeing the the camera does.

 

I have Canon gear and am very happy with it, but the M8 can really shine and makes a much bigger difference, at least in my case, on the photographic art side of things.

 

Steve