Interesting article on M8

I don't know if you've read it, but it's quite a treat.

 

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/leica-m8-revisited.shtml

<i>"After you hold those lenses I was just in love....Shooting the Leica is like going out with Pamela

Anderson... but no camera I have ever used has touched me so deeply... It's like every time I shoot something

with the Leica it produces a look of history or better put the photograph looks like it should have historical

merit... I guess someday Nikon or Canon will make one that will probably better the Leica in all aspects, except

one, that is it's a Leica... There are so many wonderful things about this little camera, (including taking the

bottom off to load a card)..."</i>

 

<p>The only "treat" about this article is that it's a perfect demonstration of a man who's so drunk on the Leica

Kool-Aid that he doesn't even realize he's blurting out nonsense. I find it especially revealing that his

defensive "addendum" is just about as long as his original article.</p>

Oh, I don't know; there's nothing wrong with tying one on every so often. You have to remember this article is fairly old as well, and the article was written not long after the M8 was released. Drunk he might be, but I feel the magic everytime I get to shoot with my Leica's. I can only imagine the immediate gratification one would feel seeing the result of a shot through a Leica lens appearing on the LCD.

"James Russell is one of the world's leading commercial photographers,

with offices and studios in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas"- struck me as talented and successful rather than drunk.

Oh, even the successful get drunk at times and waste money on things that add nothing to their business.

Leicas are metal boxes with lenses attached. Photos from Leicas look pretty much like photos from any decent camera.

Whatever "magic" a particular Leica exhibits has little to do with the camera and most to do with the man or woman

shooting with it. I own and shoot Leicas, but I don't understand the cultists who atone that "no camera I have ever used has

touched me so deeply." Cameras are tools, not fetishes.

Jim and Fang, fair enough. But is a Ferrari just a car? A Ducati only a motorcycle? A diamond only carbon? Making love only a biological act? A Leica only a light tight box, a Lux only glass and brass?

 

While I can't get a thrill out of any digital camera, I do with my MP, a Contax IIIa, a 500CM, and bombing I95 at 165 mph between Ft. Lauderdale and Miami while racing Ferraris, Vettes with girls flashing boobs, riding a National Performance Champion Peruvian, eating chicharron in San Antonio de Peirera, and sometimes, just getting drunk.

 

Life is for feeling and experiencing, and dying happy.

If you can't find the magic, that's your problem. No? Carry on.

I remember this from somewhere. The model with the legs looks familiar and so does the bit about putting the Chevy

engine in a Porsche. (No way you can do that, but Voigtlander lenses mount nicely on the M8). Anyway, thanks for the

link, Vic. It is good to see the guy still enjoys photography and is willing to try something new. I also remember the stuff

about Pamala Johnson.

Maybe he meant to say "like putting a Volkswagen engine in a Porsche". Oh wait, they already did that!

The M8 does have the largest colorspace of any digital camera when camera profiles are compared. This does have a direct affect on image color rendering, and the colors from the M8 are different than other digital cameras. While one can claim they "can make any camera look just like the M8" - I haven't found that to be true. Part of it is the sensor design and camera color processing, and the other factor is the Leica APO lenses which will render more subtle gradations of color than other lenses I've tested - and that shows up in the final image.

 

If you're working in B&W all bets are off - but, I'd also suggest you should be using film and not converting a digital image to B&W (my personal preference).

<i>"James Russell is one of the world's leading commercial photographers, with offices and studios in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas"- struck me as talented and successful rather than drunk.</i>

<p>Because you read it on Luminous Landscape - so it must be true, right? But seriously, he actually almost had me for a second - I thought his name was very familiar and for a moment I thought he was <a href="http://russelljames.com/" target="_blank">this guy</a>, who is indeed a very well known and successful commercial photographer. But then I realized I had the names reversed. As you can see from their work, they aren't even in the same league.</p>

Fang El,

 

Do you seriously want to spend the rest of your life on constructing diatribes against a small little camera company

and its customers? This is what life was meant to be? How much time do you want to spend on it -- imagine the

regret you'll feel later in life that you were so emotionally conflicted about a camera? Given that you have the

capability to focus intently on one thing, how about making it something positive? Something where you are building

and not denigrating? Take all of that energy and angst to free yourself from this silly fixation over something as

insignificant as some people having an emotional attachment to a little camera. Your're worth it, although no one

can convince you of this other than yourself.

 

Heres an idea -- take a look at Sam Abell's "Stay the Moment" (from a Virginia Woolf) in which he documents his

career and particularly the challanges in the earlier part of his life -- its filled with a lot of loneliness and sorrow -- and

yet he overcomes it to produce images that still enthrall the world.

 

Free yourself and perhaps enjoy photography -- thats it was intended for.

 

Cheers,

 

Steve

What Stephen said.

 

Dude, you don't have to do that every time somebody posts something positive about a Leica product, OK?

<i>Heres an idea -- take a look at Sam Abell's "Stay the Moment" (from a Virginia Woolf) in which he documents

his career and particularly the challanges in the earlier part of his life -- its filled with a lot of loneliness

and sorrow -- and yet he overcomes it to produce images that still enthrall the world.</i>

<p>I'm more into Graham, Sternfeld, Billingham, Leiter, Eggleston, De Keyzer, Webb and Pinkhassov these days but

thanks for the suggestion. But funny you should mention it - I actually owned "Stay This Moment" a long time

ago... bought it at cover price, sold it a couple of years later for $300 to some fool (sporting an M6 over his

shoulder) who, upon my handing the book to him, SKIPPED RIGHT TO THE BACK and read the part where Abell writes

that he used Leica M and R cameras to take the pictures in the book. He then closed the book, held it to his

chest and looked off into space, starry eyed. He didn't even look at a single picture. I was speechless.</p>

<i>Dude, you don't have to do that every time somebody posts something positive about a Leica product, OK?</i>

<p>Tony, a positive post would be a link to a significant photographer doing groundbreaking work with an M8. Or maybe even a scientific test showing conclusively that the M8 does indeed outperform other contemporary digital cameras through a range of ISOs, with accurate AWB to match, contrary to Kamber's report from Iraq. Or maybe a link to a YouTube video showing the M8 being used in vertical orientation, only to be sent crashing to the ground by someone tripping over the tripod leg, then retrieved with no ill effect whatsoever.</p>

<p>A post like this, featuring someone spouting nonsense like <i>"It's like every time I shoot something with the Leica it produces a look of history or better put the photograph looks like it should have historical merit"</i> is NOT positive. In fact it makes all Leica users look like fools.</p>

I enjoyed the review. The guy's a shooter and obviously got into the M8. Nothing wrong with that. He enjoys using the

camera and explained as best as he could what his experience was like. <br>Slightly OT but in late 70's I was looking

around Ferrari of Los Gatos when I lived in California. I was looking at a Porsche that seemed like a decent car. Then I

noticed the model. It was a (I'm not kidding) a "911C". I thought about that, but it didn't make any sense. I've seen 911 T,

E, S, L and R but not "C". So I looked in the engine compartment and sure enough nestled in the rear compartment was a

Chevy small block engine. I couldn't help but think how funny it would be to hear that "V8" sound coming out of a 911.

<i>Shooting the Leica is like going out with Pamela Anderson</i><p>

That's either a vicious insult of shooting with a Leica or a clear demonstration that the writer's taste is not to be trusted. Pamela Anderson is gruesome.

Experience, Mike? ;)

Well there is a parallel as with the M8, Pam Anderson has also had many upgrades.

 

In my feeling I am not so bothered by people who say such emotional things about their Leicas, as much I am by people who spit on someone who uses another maker's camera as though he is below in ability and intelligence.

Pamela Anderson is surely a guilty pleasure Mike?

L DaSousa,

 

Totally agree that any form of snobbery is unwarranted and uncalled for. The skill and respect that any photographer

deserves is unrelated to their equipment. I was just at a huge art fair in London which had an interesting mixture of

all sorts of photographers.

 

The pros were obvious -- big Canon cameras with a tripod over the shoulder and a rucksak with, of course, lots more

zoom lenses. I respect them the most because they have to make a living out of it. Had a good conversation with

one who approached me and later explained that his hobbyist camera was a M6 (I was carrying a M8 with a 28f2

lens). Bottom line: if you have to take pictures to live, you've got to be pretty good. Lots of other people carry

around highly automated DSLRs and you wonder how much they know about the mechanics of photography (and

does it really matter?). Later that day, I met a photographer with a big 8x10 camera (a Zone VI, a beautiful field

camera) outside taking a picture of a gigantic flourescant fork (10 feet tall) stuck in the ground. This was for the

National Park Service. The photographer was a bit lost and a bit rushed -- and had zero appreciation for the craft that

he had studied. It was a dark and dramatic sky with the sun shining out at various points and I could immediately

see the importance of a polariod filter to the scene (just with my polarized sunglasses) and yet he hadn't bothered to

bring a simple filter kit. He admitted as much, but hey?. All that equipment and for the lack of a polariod filter...

 

Taking pictures is so much a product of interest, a positive attitude, curiosity, an appreciation of beauty, and for 90%

of it: just being there ready to take a picture. The rest is all of the other stuff people get over excited about. I would

just like forum members to let people enjoy their equipment without having some of the emotional attacks that seem

too common on the Leica forum.

 

Cheers,

 

Steve

Borat seems to me to be more like a Zorki kind of guy; but maybe he could go for the M8 abit more after falling in love with Pam.