M8 and "Wild Beast of Botswana"

[Nowhereman]

 

<p >After recently spending a fortnight in Botswana I have now completed a set of pictures of the Wild Beast of Botswana. Of the 110 photographs in this series 95 were taken with the D300 and the wonderful 70-200/f2.8-VR lens and the remaining 15 (mainly landscapes) were taken with the Leica M8. You can see a flickr slide show of which series, all processed using Aperture and Silver Efex, by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/malland/sets/72157618035393355/show/"><strong>clicking here</strong></a>.</p>

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<p >The idea behind the <em>Wild Beasts of Botswana </em>series is to depict the harshness and the stress, on both predators and prey, of the environment in which these animals live, including human encroachment, poaching and hunting in some areas, prolonged seasonal drought, and interaction with cattle and ranchers. For this purpose I prefer expressive B&W prints to color prints and am concerned primarily with the how to best express the essence of the animal and the feeling of place rather than "accuracy" of a color photograph or the "exactness" of the tones of a B&W one.</p>

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<p >I have had my M8.2 for about four months now and the experience of two weeks in Botswana highlights some of the points I raised when I started a thread after using the camera for two weeks. Although I like the M8 and am not really comparing it to the D300, which I use for a different purposes, some consideration of the differences is nevertheless useful.</p>

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<p ><strong>Off-on switch</strong> As many others have mentioned here this switch is not really designed well: often when I took the M8 out of my camera bag I found that the switch had been turned on, something that never happened with the better-designed D300 switch.</p>

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<p ><strong></strong> In Botswana one is often driving on dusty tracks or off-road. In this environment I was surprised by how well this "sensor shake" method of the D300 performed because it shook the dust loose from the sensor each time and I never had to use the Arc tic Butterfly that I brought along. I must say that it would be nice if the M8 had this sensor shake cleaning facility.</p>

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<p ><strong>Metering system </strong> I realize that one cannot really compared the D300 state of the art matrix metering system to the rather primitive meter in the M8. But I have to say that on the D300 using the matrix metering system or the 75/26 center-weighted metering system when there was strong backlight I would have as little as 1 out of 200 missed exposures. In fact, as I was photographing most of the time with the D300 and only occasionally switching to the M8, I found metering on the latter was somewhat of an annoyance, as each time, I had to, obviously, point the M8 somewhat down from the sky each time and hold the exposure while brining the camera up to frame the shot. In a situation in which one is somewhat rushed in doing this, and in comparison of the overwhelming convenience of Nikon matrix metering, one is left wishing that the M8, in future version, would also have a modern, effective matrix metering system. </p>

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<p >Since being back in Bangkok I haven't yet had a chance to do any street photography, which in the bright light here leads to widely different exposure conditions depending on which part of the street one points the camera, for which Auto-ISO can be useful bit and which a modern matrix metering system would also be extremely useful</p>

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<p ><strong>Lens identification</strong> We had an extensive discussion here on this matter when I posted an online petition to Leica asking them to institute in the M8 firmware lens identification along the lines of what Nikon has on its high-end cameras, involving entering for each, in the case of Nikon, for non-AF lens the focal length and maximum aperture into one of nine banks, numbered 1-9, which can then be selected when the relevant lens is out on the camera. There was much objection here to this proposal, which had been discussed previously as well, with many people arguing that they did not want to "go into menus when changing a lens." But that objection only could be validly made by users who have all their lenses coded, which I doubt is the case of most users.</p>

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<p >I would think that most users would be in a situation similar to that I was in Botswana and might not have all their lenses coded or might not have all the relevant UV/IR filter: in Botswana I had three coded lenses but had an UV/IR filter for only one of them, not having been able to locate the correct-sized filters for the other two lenses. In this situation, I had to remember each time I changed a lens to go into the lens identification menu and set lens identification to either "UV/IR" or to "ON." Needless to say, I forgot to do this at least half the time, as I was, in addition, switching between the M8 and the D300. If the M8 had the facility for software with user-eneterd lens identification I would have been able to do this correctly most of the time, as I would know that each time I changed a lens I would have to select it in the menu. That is not to speak of the huge inconvenience, and impossibility for users in countries such as Thailand to get their lenses coded because of the time involved and the difficulties if dealing with Customs when the camera is returned, but this we have already discussed.</p>

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<p ><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3658/3518744880_845fcfcdbd_o.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="580" /></p>

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<p ><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3572/3521686759_df1f920333_o.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="580" /><br>

—Mitch/Bangkok</p>

 

[john_r._fulton_jr.]

<p>Mitch - great job on the photographs. 'Way to go. I'm crazy about my M8.2. But I agree on the metering. </p>

[Nowhereman]

<p>John, thanks for the kind words about the photographs.<br>

 <br>

—Mitch/Bangkok</p>

[ray .]

<p>Especially if you're using longer lenses and shooting black & white- Why worry about IR filters and lens ID at all?<br>

No doubt the metering on the M8 could be better, but if your compositions with sky were consistent, did you try setting exposure comp accordingly?<br>

I also set 'power off' for 10 minutes, but agree power switch could be set up better. Never had it go on in the bag though.</p>

<p>How about the weight of the D300 with zoom? A factor out in the bush, or not? </p>

[Nowhereman]

<p>Brad, the power switch thing never happened to me before but, then, I had to do things faster when shooting in Botswana. </p>

<p>The D300 + 70-200mm lens + TC1.4E is not light, but on these safaris one is shooting from a four-wheel drive vehicle, so it's not a problem. The day that I went on a 4-hour walking safari, however, I only brought the M8. But to shoot game in this way, one needs an EFOV for 400-500mm.</p>

<p>—Mitch/Bangkok</p>

[david_manning1]

<p>Mitch,</p>

<p>Nice pictures. I like your B&W conversions. I also use Silver Efex and like the grain looks. The rest of your work is nice too. I like the small-sensor captures...Ricoh, etc. I'm happy to say you have inspired me to get out with my G10 and shoot, and get busy with Nik. </p>

<p>Do you like the prints you're getting?</p>

[david_manning1]

<p>Here's a Powershot G10 image taken through Silver Efex Pro. It reminds me of Tri-X pushed to 3200ASA...very fun.</p><div></div>

[david_manning1]

<p>And another, more 1-stop pushed Tri-X...</p><div></div>

[Nowhereman]

<p>David, thanks.</p>

<p>Yes, I like the prints that I get from Silver Efex. Your pictures look very good.</p>

<p>—Mitch/Bangkok</p>

[joshroot]

<p>The meter in the M8 is what it is, a simple center weighted meter. While one side will say "Oh, it should be more like the newest DSLR fancy meters, they are mroe accurate" the other side will say "With a simple center weighted meter, you know what you are getting all of the time. Once you understand how to use it, there will never be any surprises".</p>

<p>Both statements are true, it just depends on what kind of a photographer you are as to which camp you will fall into.</p>

[vivek iyer]

<blockquote>

<p>In a situation in which one is somewhat rushed in doing this, and in comparison of the overwhelming convenience of Nikon matrix metering, one is left wishing that the M8, in future version, would also have a modern, effective matrix metering system.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>The 3D matrix metering only works accurately with lenses that have the CPU. Each lens communicates its unique ID (exit pupil, distance, aperture, focal length, etc).<br>

While asking for this, why would you say that Leica needs to do away with its coding, Mitch?<br>

Until recently, the "matrix chipping" of older Nikon manual lenses was a big time cottage industry. Each cost the same or more than what it costs to code a Leica M mount lens. <br>

It isn't absolutely essential that a lens needs to be sent to Solms for coding. You can get it done through many or even do it yourself. These options have been discussed in detail elsewhere.</p>

 

[Nowhereman]

<p>Josh:<br>

>>>The meter in the M8 is what it is, a simple center weighted meter. While one side will say "Oh, it should be more like the newest DSLR fancy meters, they are mroe accurate" the other side will say "With a simple center weighted meter, you know what you are getting all of the time. Once you understand how to use it, there will never be any surprises".<<<</p>

<p>Sure, but unless a matrix system is not possible in successors to the M8 there is no reason to have both the matrix and center-weighted systems so that users can choose what they want to use. With the D300 in Botswana I occasionally switched between the Nikon matrix metering and the 75/25 metering, using the latter when there was strong backlight. The camera also have a spot metering mode, which I didn't use because most of the pictures were taken in the frenetic style of street photography.</p>

<p>—Mitch/Bangkok</p>

 

[Nowhereman]

<p>Vivek:</p>

<p>>>>The 3D matrix metering only works accurately with lenses that have the CPU. Each lens communicates its unique ID (exit pupil, distance, aperture, focal length, etc).<br>

While asking for this, why would you say that Leica needs to do away with its coding, Mitch?<<<</p>

<p>I'm not: all I'm saying is that the user should have the alternative to coding of entering the data (focal length and maximum aperture) as in the high-end Nikon cameras. Having to code for lens identification is a big imposition on the user.</p>

<p>On 3D matrix metering, I was giving of what my experience and reaction was in Botswana, when I had to alternate rapidly between using the D300 and the M8, and I have no idea whether implementing this on successors to the M8 would be possible, in the light of how this type of metering works and whether a non-3D system would be worthwhile.</p>

<p>—Mitch/Bangkok</p>

[larry_kincaid2]

<p>My M8 switch works fine; never turns on or off by itself. My 24mm lens is not coded, nor my 35mm Lux or 50mm lux; never noticed any problem with any of them, even with skies. My 28mm lens is coded; never noticed the effect of coding on these either. I always start shooting a a minus 2/3 to adjust for highlight over exposure, and then adjust the metering depending on the initial histograms or simply they way it looks. Then just shoot away. What I have noticed "absolutely" is that the resolution of the Leica lenses allows for substantial cropping without loss of resolution, surpassing the image produced by the zoom lens on my new Panasonic G1. When you try to crop one of the zoomed images, you lose resolution immediately. This means you can use the 50mm Lux or now my 50mm rigid summicron (very very sharp) and then crop it to obtain something that would normally require a telephoto or zoom lens. Keep in mind, the dpreview said the following about the G1 image quality: "In good light it produces consistently high image quality out of the box, . . . At the camera's standard JPEG settings G1 images show natural tones and colors and hardly any artifacts. Image detail is impressive indeed." DPREVIEW gave the same numerical ratings as the new Nikon D90: image quality 8.5, perfomance 9.0, and value, 8.5. I assume that your D300 was rated higher, but it cannot be rated much higher. And yet, as I said, when I examined my images from the Galapagos Islands, the Leica 8, rigid cron images were substantially better than those made with the G1. Both are light cameras, by the way, so I was actually able to walk around with one in each hand and switch back and forth with little trouble (keeping the G1 on automatic pilot most of the time). So, we're back to the Leica lenses and sensor again: what about those? </p><div></div>

[Nowhereman]

<p>Larry, I never had a problem with my power switch getting shifted before either — but shooting conditions were a lot more hectic in Botswana.</p>

<p>A cropped picture from a 50mm lens on an M8 won't get you far shooting game in Africa — you need an EFOV of 400-500mm.</p>

<p>—Mitch/Bangkok</p>

[Uhooru]

<p>Some beautiful shots, Mitch, really impressed by some of the Elephants. The 70-200 is one of the really good lenses in all of camerahood. But the M8 landscapes look beautiful too. It sort of confirms what I've been seeing and that is the M8 takes great shots in B/W, but I've been very underimpressed by the color shots I've sen from it.</p>

[Nowhereman]

<p>Barry thanks! <br />Actuallly, I think that the M8 produces very good color and at the back of my mind there's a pseudo- or quasi-inspiration to shoot color with it, but I really love B&W. Nevertheless, here a small series of M8 color shots as a small, first, feeble step, which you can see by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/malland/sets/72157614271968343/show/"><strong>clicking here<strong></strong></strong><strong><strong></strong></strong></a><strong><strong>.</strong></strong><strong><strong></strong></strong><strong><strong></strong></strong><br>

<strong><strong>

<p>—Mitch/Bangkok</p>

</strong></strong></p>

[joshroot]

<p>While many "anti M8" types call it an attempt to make excuses for the camera. The fact is that the weak IR filter, while a problem for color photography, is actually a benefit for b/w photography. I don't think it excuses anything, but I do think it's a nice unintended benefit.</p>

[Uhooru]

<p>Those are nice too. It seems very friendly to blues and cayans and other color blocks, but I don't like the skin tones so much. Maybe its my monitor, but they seem very Orange. I get that problem with my D200 unless I use the 70-200, which gets really good tones, also the 17-35 seems to do better.Part of the problem with wide angles is the sensor has to react to different lighting in the same photo so maybe that's part of the cause.. But over all they look pretty cool, and the quality is top notch of the pics themselves. Me on a couple I might have cheated down a stop or so in certain areas to punch the color/tonality in post, but that's just me.</p>

[vivek iyer]

<blockquote>

<p>Having to code for lens identification is a big imposition on the user.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I do not disagree. </p>

<p>The "chipping" business fizzled out after the introduction of the D200. In the meantime (many long years), it did cause a lot of problems for many longtime Nikon users and quite a few switching to the "dark side" and so on.</p>

<p>Unless there is solid lobbying and pressure, alternate possibilities to the coding business isn't going to happen.</p>

[Nowhereman]

<p>>>>Me on a couple I might have cheated down a stop or so in certain areas to punch the color/tonality in post, but that's just me.<<<</p>

<p>Barry, thanks. Yes, this a matter of taste and I was trying hard not to get excessive saturation, as I didn't want unnatural azure skies, although they are very blue in T&C. I haven't done much with skin tones with the M8.</p>

<p>—Mitch/Bangkok</p>

[aslavihervuori]

<p>Nice photos, Mitch. My favourite was mangusti in backlight. I've never shot with leica and I guess never will. But before mt digital age I had this wonderful mechanical mirage, Minolta AL. My favourite films were TMX and TMY (Since meter died in AL). Limiting film choices meaned that I had to guess exposure less. Hardly ever used three frames to bracketing... But then again, I'm by no means a pro. And of course there was no action photography for me (specially after distance meter went grazy in AL :D) So I understand different opinions; even metering can be relative issue... a s l a </p>

[Uhooru]

<p>They look nice Mitch...BTW, OT, I've been using the GRD2, partly your and Ray's fault. Fun camera. Do you still use yours or has the M8 displaced it?</p>

[Nowhereman]

<p>Thanks, Asla.</p>

<p>Barry, I haven't used the GRD2 since I got the M8 in January, but after I try some more street photography here in Bangkok with the M8 I'll decide whether to keep the Ricoh. Basically, I don't like using cameras that handle in very different ways but do like the huge DOF and the way the GRD2 works for street photography.</p>

<p>—Mitch/Bangkok</p>

[larry_kincaid2]

<p>"A cropped picture from a 50mm lens on an M8 won't get you far shooting game in Africa — you need an EFOV of 400-500mm." Mitch, you seemed to have missed my point. No one that I know of has ever suggested that a M8 with 50mm lens could ever substitute in a situation that requires a DSLR with a 400-500mm lens. Surely, that's not what you're trying to say by comparing the use of your M8 and Nikon D300. This kind of comparison has been dismissed many times here; same goes for macro photography. I just used a 90-400mm zoom lens and M8 with 50mm lens to shoot wildlife in the Galapagos Islands. Granted, no leopards at 100 yards in a tree. But as I discovered in Kenya, the jeeps can often get too close to many animals to use a telephoto lens, suggesting that the M8 50-90mm lens would work just fine in many situations. What I was saying is that the image of the M8 with a 50mm lens is far superior to the image created by the 400mm telephoto lens, to the point where a substantial crop of the M8 image is almost as good if not better than the zoom lens. It also opens up to 2.0 or 1.4. Since the uncropped b&w image I posted didn't seem to illustrate this point, I'll upload two crops from the same image shown above, but in color. Each one is listed as 2 inches across or 600pxls. First, the frigate in the air, then the surf. Again, I'm not suggesting that a 50mm lens be used when a 500mm lens is required, only that the image of the M8 sensor with a high quality Leica lens has a superior enough resolution to be cropped. As a matter of fact, both the D300 and the M8 crop the image of all their lenses. </p><div></div>