Leica M8 just a little too pricey...

[usayit]

I am willing to pay this M8 just for the sake of it for $250. I will use it for show off only to those uninformed onlookers. Who knows maybe one of them willing to pay it for few grands.

ok...

The truth is the M8 doesn't get much attention from onlookers. Most people either don't take notice or think its a P&S. My 1D MII with any of its L lenses mounted gathered more attention than wanted. That is the point of rangefinders.. quick... compact... discreet.

With that said... you post bears little for this discussion so I'm out. I'm mature enough to know when its time to exit stage left.

 

[Iron Flatline]

I love my digital Rangefinders. I have both the R-D1 and the M8, and I every time I dig out my 5D it feels way too large and conspicuous. However, AF and zooming is great for shooting kid parties and so on.

 

[passerby]

With that said... you post bears little for this discussion so I'm out. I'm mature enough to know when its time to exit stage left.

I don't have this M8 but merely read someone's review, a journalist who used Leica cameras since 1987. I shared his frustration by placing myself in his shoes - who earns his daily bread through the use of cameras. I copy and paste some his frustation here, maybe you can verify it's truthfulness. Page numbers provided for quick check.
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Page 3:
The first day I shot with an M8, I noticed that in two consecutive frames of the same scene, one frame would be slightly blue, the next slightly yellow. I assumed I was doing something wrong. I spent hours fiddling with the color correction to no avail. The problem was not me. On the M8, when the color balance is set to auto, the color balance swings widely across the spectrum, even on consecutive frames where the camera has not been moved.

The second and third M8’s I used had the same problem and other M8 owners have had it as well. The solution is to shoot on a specific setting: cloudy, sunlight etc. This solves the problem of color swings between frames, but it does nothing to solve the M8’s poor color balance and the greenish tinge that most photos have

Page 4:
The M8’s automatic exposure (aperture priority) is similarly unreliable. I found that frames often varied more than one stop from the correct exposure. The slightest amount of highlight behind a subject would cause serious underexposure. I spent countless hours hurriedly Photoshopping my images to get them in shape to make my deadlines.

I shot with the M8 on a night mission at ISO 2500. The pictures were unusable; extreme noise destroyed the shadows and digital streaks ran through the night sky. The following night I lowered the ISO to 1250. Again the images were very noisy and had noticeable streaks. At ISO 640, the images were usable but still had streaks through evenly lit areas such as skies or painted dark walls. I would estimate that between the lack of fast wide lenses and the abysmal high ISO performance, the M8 is 4 to 5 stops behind both Canon and Nikon in low-lighting shooting. This is not just behind the pack, this is completely out of the race in my opinion.

Page 5:
The buffer on the M8 is filled after about 9 frames on the M8’s that I have used. After that you must wait about seven seconds for the buffer to clear enough to get off another frame. In any breaking news situation, seven seconds is an eternity. To fully clear the buffer, assuming you are shooting JPG and RAW, you have to wait a full minute. Even on the JPG setting, it takes about 35 seconds to fully clear the buffers on the M8’s I have used.

Page 6:
On Canons and Nikons you can discreetly replace the SD or CF card in a couple of seconds. I believe that all SLR manufacturers use a simple compartment cover. Leica has decided that--in a nod to 1950’s technology--they will have you take off the bottom plate, i.e. partially disassemble the camera to remove the SD card.

In my opinion, Leica’s quality control today is well below that of other camera makers. This, coupled with poor field testing of new models and what is probably the longest repair wait of any major camera manufacturer, is a very serious problem for a working photojournalist. I have waited up to three months for lens repairs and four months for camera body repairs that had to be sent to Germany.

(About M7 purchased in 2005):
I shot four rolls of film with the M7 before it locked up. Leica returned it after a few weeks but it quit on me in Sierra Leone, and again in Darfur. The camera had to be sent back to Leica four times but still was undependable; the meter fluctuated wildly. After nearly a year, much of which the M7 spent at Leica’s repair facility in Germany, Leica refunded my money and I gave them back their M7.

Page 7:
My second M8 continued to malfunction, frequently locking up. The battery had to be removed to reset the camera. I sent it to Leica when I returned to NY on a break, along with a 28mm lens to be six-bit coded. Leica had the lens for nearly a month and promised to get it back to me before my return to Baghdad. The lens never made it back, despite numerous calls. I have returned to Baghdad without it.
The M8, however, was returned to me “repaired”. While passing through Barcelona, I did some test shots. The camera continues to lock up and is now randomly exposing half-frames. See sample below. It is worse than when I sent it in for repair. I don’t expect I’ll be using it much on this tour.

 

[Iron Flatline]

It's odd how visceral some people get about hating the M8. Every forum seems to have them. Funny thing is, they never own one, they just hate the damn thing.

Oh well.

That article is over a year old. Since then the company has fixed virtually every issue - though God knows they should never be forgiven for releasing such a buggy beta version at the time. If and when the R10 comes out, they better have their ducks in a row.

ISO, AWB and light meter are fine now.

He's right though about the self-timer thing - it's in a terrible location, and should be deactivated. And removing the SD card is unnecessarily difficult - that base-plate may be a cute throw-back to the film cameras, but inappropriate for the digital age.

As an aside, what serious photographer runs off into combat, and then fires off his first test-shots squeezed into the back of a Humvee... might be a good idea to try it out beforehand...