Another New M8 Found

[Jager]

I woke up this morning to the promise of a sunny, 70 degree day. Very unusual for this time of year here in the mid-Atlantic. I'm an avid motorcyclist (R1200GS, K1200RS, GSX-R1000) and figured to get in a much-needed ride. Around 10am, just as I was getting ready to go, I thought to myself the only thing that could keep me from enjoying a nice, half-day ride... would be suddenly finding an M8. I'm on a couple of dealer lists and must have refreshed the page on B&H about a hundred times last week. Anyway, on a whim I decided to call the one Leica dealer within a couple hundred miles that I hadn't already spoken with. Long story, short... they had one in chrome! I asked the kind lady to please hold it - "it'll take me a couple hours to get there". And I ended up doing a little road trip in the car, instead of on the bike.

My first impressions are exactly what everyone has already described. It's most definitely an M. A bit lighter than than my M6 and M7, shutter is different and louder, and the ergonomics seem very well thought out for the most part. Changing ISO and WB is very quick - not the pain I kind of expected it to be.

Firmware is 1.09 and it came with the Free IR Filter pamphlet in the box, so I'm assuming it's a second batch model. The packaging was rather clever - the kind of thing you'd expect from Apple.

The one thing of note - I'm a left-eye shooter but will most definitely be training myself to change that!

Anyway, the message is that there still appear to be a few new M8 samples to be found out there, especially if you're willing to drive a few hours. The dealer where I finally found one was about the tenth place I had called.

Good luck to all of you who are still looking and waiting!

Jeff

[khanosu]

Enjoy your new M8 Jeff. By the way there have been some useful posts about using your right eye to compose and focus. You may have to do some searching for them; one of the threads was started by Guy (last week) with a title like “must have accessory for M8” or something like that.

Furrukh

N.B. Search for "nose grease"; I am not kidding

[arthury]

Have fun with your M8. I just got mine 2 days ago and spun the wheels quite a bit.

And, yes, left eye shooter, eh ... look out for nose grease on the LCD.