An open letter to Leica regarding M8 issues

[henry_a]

The artificial fiber thing is real. I think its the dyes used. I've been shooting a lot of interiors lately on 4x5 (with film of course). Some carpets that look brown or tan in person come out with an odd lavender cast when shot in light coming from the wrong direction. Made for some interesting color correction work.

 

But thats more a subtle color cast, not what I've seen in some of the Leica examples. Shouldn't the M8 files be as good as Nikon D200 or Canon 30D or whatever digital camera files in this regard? All digital cameras have problems when held strictly against film. But they also have advantages and the problems can be overcome. But any properly functioning camera should be in the ballpark of acceptable performance compared to rival products. It appears that some of the M8s are not even close to right. I hope they can fix it, I'd like to own an M8 that worked great.

[boris c hann]

There's nothing wrong with the M8 that a new paradigm won't fix. So it gives purple

skintones. Big deal. We just need to push for this to become the new benchmark. Don't

filter this out, be loud and proud. Before you know it Canon and Nikon users will have

cleaned B and H out of FLW filters in an effort to match the superior, magenta tinged, Leica

imaging characteristics....

[harvey_edelstein1]

AL I was talking about getting a good photo vs. a botched photo. It don't matter if the camera botching it by making the mustard look like grape jelly is an slr or a cropped rangefinder.

 

What Leica has in its favor is guy like you that are loyal to the brand.

I dig that I have M4-P bought decades ago brand new. But are the loyal customers being well treated by Leica selling them this defective new cropped rangefinder.

 

The answer is it does not take pictures like a Leica and the consumer has to solve the problem with filters that may interact with any other filter you normally use like a polarizer. Then some say use Photoshop to post process away the problem. $600 more on software shoot everything in raw, sit at a computer and fiddle with every shot. I say is this faster than scanning negatives?

 

All I know is that German engineers can do better, speaking as an engineer with a German surname I sure expect that they can.

 

By the way OT the cropped 35mm dslrs have smaller mirrors and less kick than old FF film cameras. Also, the vibration reduction lenses take 2-3 fstops slower shutter speed before showing blur in the photo. This makes them pretty competitive with a crop factor Leica that uses also uses a metal verticle shutter mechanism. Also, normally an RF is superior with wide angle lenses, but cropping factor changes all the effective focal lengths. Right now you can get Canon 5d FF dslr for half the price of a Leica M8. The thing I like about RF is that you see whats going on outside the viewfinder bright lines. With the M8 what you see is what was cropped off your formally wide angle lenses viewpoint.

[thomas_sullivan]

"...There's nothing wrong with the M8 that a new paradigm won't fix. So it gives purple skintones. Big deal..."........the "Leica look"...."Leica glow"...."Leica Bokeh"......"Leica Fringe"......heh

[andrew robertson]

"It's not just a matter of a $1,000 vs $5,000 thing. Yeah, they both make pictures, but one is

a rangefinder while the other is an SLR. It's like suggesting that an 8x10 Deardorf is all you

really need because nothing beats a big negative. For those wanting the rangefinder

experience a DSLR isn't going to cut the mustard."

 

So, get the R-D1s and $3000 worth of lenses!