M8 - Amateur Photographer Review

[jhluxton]

UK's Amateur Photographer magazine has an 8 page review of the M8 this week.

Score is 84%

John

[marknorton]

For a company with such a rich and proud heritage, the words "Laughing Stock" come to mind...

[carstenw]

Amateurs!

[jaapv]

Isn't that the aptly named magazine that "discovered" the Red Blob artifact on the DMR sensor - an issue nobody ever heard of before or since? I still maintain it was a reflection of the Japanese flag the tester has hanging over his desk....

[masjah]

Originally Posted by marknorton

For a company with such a rich and proud heritage, the words "Laughing Stock" come to mind...

Mark

Do you mean Amateur Photographer or Leica?

[masjah]

For the record, I would apply the description to neither of them!

[andybarton]

Originally Posted by jaapv

Isn't that the aptly named magazine that "discovered" the Red Blob artifact on the DMR sensor - an issue nobody ever heard of before or since? I still maintain it was a reflection of the Japanese flag the tester has hanging over his desk....

To be fair, AP have been very generous with the copy space to Leica over the last few years and are generally very Leica-friendly.

The D-Lux 3 got 84% last week, BTW.

[egibaud]

Hi,

I have not seen the review, but in general the problem with reviews in magazines is that they make some mathematics instead of photography:

photo quality 99%
easy of use 95%
material quality 98%
price 5%

So the camera ranking drops to the floor

Then you compare to some very basic camera that cost US$150 and you get an overall score of 95%, several points better than a Leica.

Camera review should not evaluate a camera in such a way, and reviewing a professional camera in an amateur magazine is surely interesting but not really useful. It is like reviewing a Bentley or a Rolls Royce in a "everybody's car magazine"

[Venkman]

Is that the same mag that would charge me 9.95 pound sterling for a copy of the M8's instruction manual in their online shop?

[jaapv]

OK- I couldn't resist...it was a bit unfair. I will read the issue with interest. Problem is, British magazines usually take two weeks to cross the Channel.

[stunsworth]

Originally Posted by Venkman

Is that the same mag that would charge me 9.95 pound sterling for a copy of the M8's instruction manual in their online shop?

They have an online shop? I didn't know that, do you have a link?

Since you can download a PDF of the M8 manual free from Leica's web site I doubt that they'll have too many sales :-)

[Venkman]

Exactly my point Steve

Here ya go:
Amateur Photographer Test Reports

[M'Ate]

The score was quite reasonable under the current state of affairs.

To be fair, would you recommend the M8 to someone looking for a top performing camera straight out of the box ?? Maybe soon, but not yet.

[jlancasterd]

Originally Posted by jhluxton

UK's Amateur Photographer magazine has an 8 page review of the M8 this week.

Score is 84%

John

What a travesty! He takes what is so obviously a camera built to exploit the kind of image quality you can only get by shooting in RAW format and then judges it almost entirely on its performance in producing JPEGs...

Perhaps he really does believe that 'If you shoot in raw mode your life will be shorter...' (page 25, 4th column...)

At least I got a lens brush for my £2.15...!

[j_w_davies]

Am I missing something here? I thought the camera got a good review. If you actually read the review the complaints relate to WB problems and the low quality of the jpegs. The reviewer acknowledges that the vast majority of shots taken will be in the raw format, with the jpegs used as a reference, so it isn't a great problem.

I found the most interesting part was the vast superiority of images processed with C1 in comparison the Adobe Camera Raw.

[jaapv]

Originally Posted by M'Ate

The score was quite reasonable under the current state of affairs.

To be fair, would you recommend the M8 to someone looking for a top performing camera straight out of the box ?? Maybe soon, but not yet.

No Leica M series ever was a "top perfoming camera "straight out of the box. All require the user to enter a learning curve and to realise that the camera is indeed a tool that must be mastered. That is completely different in philosophy of for instance the midrange DSLR market, which is aimed at performing as good as possible whilst taking an automated shortcut from the subject to the final print without passing through the brain of the user. Don't get me wrong, both approaches are valid and I suppose the automated road is the smoothest one commercially, it just happens I choose for the Leica option.

Originally Posted by jhluxton

UK's Amateur Photographer magazine has an 8 page review of the M8 this week.

Score is 84%

John

Didn't find it on the AP-Website. Only an 11 page comparison which contents an 1 (!) page preview of the M8. Could you post the link to the test mentioned above, please?
Thanks
H.

[brunom]

Only amateurs believe that such rankings and %'s matter

Bruno

[reddawn]

AP is one of the most rangefinder / Leica friendly photo mag around. I don't understand why some of u guys are knocking it.

Despite the "amateur" title, I would advise against using any sort of filters (save those for the M8...) over ur eyes when reading it. It tells it (mostly) like it is, white is white and black is indeed, black

I find the contents of AP is at least, more honest than the marketing literature that Leica puts out on the M8...... 16 bit raw, "ultimate digital camera" anyone?

[andybarton]

Originally Posted by Arias

Didn't find it on the AP-Website. Only an 11 page comparison which contents an 1 (!) page preview of the M8. Could you post the link to the test mentioned above, please?
Thanks
H.

You'll have to buy the magazine - they don't put full reviews on the web for free.