vic_. Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el_fang Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 <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> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicaglow Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom_higgins3 Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 "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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sitemistic Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael_dimarzio Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travis1 Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 If you can't find the magic, that's your problem. No? Carry on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex_Es Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sanford Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 Maybe he meant to say "like putting a Volkswagen engine in a Porsche". Oh wait, they already did that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_swinehart Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 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). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el_fang Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 <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> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephen_pitts Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Rowlett Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 What Stephen said. Dude, you don't have to do that every time somebody posts something positive about a Leica product, OK? Backups? We don’t need no stinking ba #.’ _ , J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el_fang Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 <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> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el_fang Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 <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> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_r._fulton_jr. Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike dixon Posted October 15, 2008 Share Posted October 15, 2008 <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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivek iyer Posted October 15, 2008 Share Posted October 15, 2008 Experience, Mike? ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l_dasousa Posted October 16, 2008 Share Posted October 16, 2008 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Smith Posted October 16, 2008 Share Posted October 16, 2008 Pamela Anderson is surely a guilty pleasure Mike? Robin Smith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephen_pitts Posted October 19, 2008 Share Posted October 19, 2008 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly_flanigan1 Posted October 19, 2008 Share Posted October 19, 2008 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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