Leica M8, I'm Crazy I know!

Hi all,

 

I was on the auction site and purchased a Leica M8 it went pretty

low, not surprised I purchased it from someone in France it seems of

late you can get good buy's from over there. I just didn't want to spend

$3000.00 dollars U.S. for a M6 for me it doesn't pay I don't process my

own film and where I live I don't have any place that does film except

NYC which is a $20.00 round trip Doh! I've seen pictures and they look

good plus I have a Voigtlander 35mm F1.4 lens waiting for it.

 

Thanks

So how much did you pay for a 14 years old 10 mega pixel digital camera?

No, at least not too crazy. I personally own two and they soldier on, many of their images posted here on the W/NW thread. Where it shines, at least for me, are the quality of the B&W images straight out of the camera, especially when shooting infrared, which the M8 easily makes possible handheld. Many people make claims as to the exceptional image characteristics of its CCD sensor. I'd say most of the examples that had sensor/display/shutter problems have been weeded out, and those still in service should hopefully continue on.

 

...or not. It's impossible to predict when one may fail (or any camera for that matter); just enjoy it for as long as it functions and when it doesn't, remember it fondly and move on. No sense worrying about it.

I have a variety of older digital cameras I use regularly in the range from 10 to 12.8 MP. Except for extreme crops or possibly large prints (I don't print larger than 13x19) they still produce fine photos in most genres. I use them both because I enjoy using them and because they still deliver required results. Leica, there is just something about Leica. I have the M3 I learned on and a D Lux a friend gave me. I understand buying an M 8 and using it until it stops. Edited October 21, 2021 by Sandy Vongries

So how much did you pay for a 14 years old 10 mega pixel digital camera?

Less than a 1000 euros.

Less than a 1000 euros.

 

That's actually a really good price these days; most M8s now are selling from around USD1400 to over 2000 (1200 to 1700€).

Why not.

 

Nothing wrong with being crazy.

 

My M

 

No, you are not at all crazy. It's a terrific camera and still good enough for professional work today. You wouldn't rely on it completely, of course.

 

The price you paid is a fair one, too. I used to own one and I kind of wish I had kept it, despite the sensor flaw, which I mostly fixed with the clone and stamp tool in Aperture. And that's another bonus - you don't need the latest RAW converters to use these old cameras.

 

I saw one advertised on eBay Australia for $3K. I offered $2K which was rejected. As much as I love that camera I'm not paying more than $2K for it. I have some cash set aside, just in case...

 

BTW try playing with underexposure instead of boosting ISO. In some cases you might actually prefer underexposure. Also, you can go to higher ISO levels than you think. You should use chrominance NR, if that option is available to you, but you don't need to use luminance NR. Modern NR algorithms in DxO Photo Lab are apparently very good, so maybe the new software is worth it. One of our regular contributors suggests using slower SD cards on these cameras. The slower the better, apparently.

 

I'm a subscriber to Reid Reviews and I can see that a lot of M lenses are terrible on the bigger sensor. Your'e sometimes better off shooting the M8. Dark corners are easily fixed, and are not a problem. But smeared corners are a write-off.

Bad new's today, the seller cancelled the sale because get this the high fees

of ebay, so he relisted it for more money within 15 minutes. My Leica search

continues!

Thank you all for you responses.

That worked out well, you got to enjoy all the drama and anticipation of purchasing a Leica but without actually having to spend any money.

Shouldn't be a problem Link Used Leica M8 Digital SLR Camera - mpb.com

Not the price I got it for.

Bad new's today, the seller cancelled the sale because get this the high fees

of ebay, so he relisted it for more money within 15 minutes.

That's bad business practice. Not illegal, but bad form.

That's bad business practice. Not illegal, but bad form.

The form of English I learned referred to this practice as sleazy.

I agree, it wasn't a class act, ebay annoys me they tell buyers it's a binding contract but Sellers

do what they want.

I think you're crazy. Not so much because it's old or only 10MP but because it doesn't have a full frame sensor. You throw away about half of the images formed by expensive Leica lenses. So the seller changed his mind it's OK. Edited October 26, 2021 by BeBu Lamar

I think you're crazy. Not so much because it's old or only 10MP but because it doesn't have a full frame sensor. You throw away about half of the images formed by expensive Leica lenses. So the seller changed his mind it's OK.

I disagree with this. You do throw away the shitty corner performance that some lenses have, even on the M10. Some merely have dark corners, and you can fix that by either stopping down one stop (which you would do anyway) or adjusting a slider in the RAW converter. But some lenses are just pure failures.

I bought my M8 in Jan 2010 for $2500, 400 clicks. I have it, the M9, and M Monochrom. Sensor replaced on the latter 2.

With the M8- I almost always use it in "RAW" mode doing the button dance. Right now- the M8 has a Jupiter-3+ on it.

 

This is with M8RAW2DNG, 4-stop underexposure and pushed in post.

 

 

I set the exposure using my M Monochrom set to ISO2500, the M8 set to ISO160.

 

M Monochrom ISO2500, then transferred the F-Stop/ shutter speed to the M8.

 

Also a good indicator of the Crop factor. I tend to use the M8 with a 50mm lens with close-focusing to 0.7m or 0.65m. I adapted some classic SLR lenses to RF-Coupled M-Mount for it as well. I could not part with this camera- it has a zero-defect CCD.

Nice pictures guy's!

See below. Edited November 5, 2021 by clark_roberts

Bad seller. I believe you can leave negative feedback however, at least to warn other buyers. Just 1 neg will prevent 100% feedback and affect a sellers placement in search results.

It's back on again, someone put a winning bid on it put never paid, so it's back on again.