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My new M8.....I'm impressed !


londonuk

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Earlier this week after much wrangling in my head I bought a fully upgraded M8.

I'd (stupidly) bought an Elmarit 28mm Canadian made circa 1970's, which I consequently found couldn't be coded and had IR cut filter issues. I took the lens back to the dealer (sheepishly) and they were very good (aperture photographic in London) fortunately, they happened to have a more recent Elmarit 28mm and had a used Leica IR cut to match. They just swapped it all over, brilliant.

So, I spent the next 2 hours snapping around London. Got home and ran the images through Capture One

as I thought I'd give it a go instead of Lightroom. After quite a bit of work in C1 I found the resulting images to be outstanding. Bear in mind I've been a professional photographer for 25 years and had one of the first EOS 1d 's available (£7000) back in the day. I think the files from this little Leica are painfully sharp.

I shoot with D3's now and there is no way I could consider enlarging a D3 file the same way as I would one of these M8's. having said that, the work involved processing them was greater. White balance was off and as I don't have a coded lens, I could see the cyan drift at the sides. I think I'll make some camera profiles which should help. Does anyone out there have any specific recomendations for a good RAW workflow for this camera. Suffice to say, I'm very pleased with this M8!!!!!

 

Neil Genower - Portfolio

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Earlier this week after much wrangling in my head I bought a fully upgraded M8.

I'd (stupidly) bought an Elmarit 28mm from Canada circa 1973,4,5 ?, which I consequently found couldn't be coded and had IR cut filter issues. I took the lens back to the dealer (sheepishly) and they were very good (aperture photographic in London) fortunately, they happened to have a more recent Elmarit 28mm and had a used Leica IR cut to match. They just swapped it all over, brilliant.

So, I spent the next 2 hours snapping around London. Got home and ran the images through Capture One

as I thought I'd give it a go instead of Lightroom. After quite a bit of work in C1 I found the resulting images to be outstanding. Bear in mind I've been a professional photographer for 25 years and had one of the first EOS 1d 's available (£7000) back in the day. I think the files from this little Leica are painfully sharp.

I shoot with D3's now and there is no way I could consider enlarging a D3 file the same way as I would one of these M8's. having said that, the work involved processing them was greater. White balance was off and as I don't have a coded lens, I could see the cyan drift at the sides. I think I'll make some camera profiles which should help. Does anyone out there have any specific recomendations for a good RAW workflow for this camera. Suffice to say, I'm very pleased with this M8!!!!!

 

Neil Genower - Portfolio

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You know the M8 is sometimes treated like some kind of digital oddity that only is used by whacko Leica fanboys. The fact is it's a great camera and produces fine images. When I'm on assignment I use it in conjunction with two Canon digital cameras. The images are great and images from all three cameras work well together. When I'm not on assignment the M8 is always with me. It's a great camera and I can't understand all the negativity you read about the M8 (I know you weren't being negative, BTW :-). I'm glad you are impressed with the M8's images (but not surprised). Good luck.:)

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Thanks for your messages.

I will take the M8 out tomorrow on a job. Alongside my 2 D3's. It's amazing how many people comment on the camera, which by the way, is great for communicating with ones subjects. Most of what I do requires me to work very fast, so the M8 will get a gentle premier. When I don't have to embargo the pictures I'll post some up here.

As regards workflow. I'm using Capture One pro 5. which is working very well with the M8. The files this camera produces are something else !!

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Thanks for your messages.

I will take the M8 out tomorrow on a job. Alongside my 2 D3's. It's amazing how many people comment on the camera, which by the way, is great for communicating with ones subjects. Most of what I do requires me to work very fast, so the M8 will get a gentle premier. When I don't have to embargo the pictures I'll post some up here.

As regards workflow. I'm using Capture One pro 5. which is working very well with the M8. The files this camera produces are something else !!

 

Really great pictures on your web site. You can take my picture next time I'm in London - but I'm not a film star! (I live in France and work all over the world.) You are spot on about the M8 - great camera, I got one of the first ones in France. Goes everywhere with me, together now with my D3S and several Zeiss ZF primes - the latter also producing stellar results. Agree also on Capture 5, by far the best results after trying a few of the usual alternatives.

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Neil,

 

Fantastic work! Just had a peek at your portfolio... Capture One Pro should pretty much do it for you a little tweaking to remove the cast and save as a preset just to simplify your workflow should be fine. Get the upgrade if you haven't already done so. If you are on a mac, you may want to try Aperture 3 as well, i use them all with my own presets based on camera, look and feel. I have the M8.2 as well as the 28mm Elmarit 2.8, its a wonderful glass!

 

Great Work! Very Impressive!

 

KI

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Thank you for your encouraging words regarding my folio.

I'm still getting my head around capture one. Being able to load some camera profiles would be good. Just need to find out how !

Was on a shoot yesterday with my M8. It was a promo for a new Tv High Def channel. It was sunny in London but about 1 degree C and we had models in bikini's (they were sooooo cold)

Here is a shot with my M8 and 35 Elmarit of the lighting set up, they were all tungsten to emulate sunlight

worked really well and they were warm too !!

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Great work! In the short period that I've own the M8, I have learned more about optics, technique and photography than in any other time in my life. Had I chose a more conventional camera; I doubt that I would make this assessment. Still, we develop and move forward and the M8 is no less of a camera today, than it was when I purchased it.

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