Leica M8 "Not a real camera"!!!

[mgc2010]

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I took the opportunity yesterday of having a leisurely stroll through our local castle grounds woodland park with my trusty M8 slung around my neck, nestled in it's gorgeous Luigi's leather half-case. The summicron 50mm was poking unobtrusively out between the flaps of my unzipped jacket. "Oh!" exclaimed a middle-aged lady as she came up to me on my stroll, "is that a real camera I see there?". I proudly showed off my 'real' camera to her, noticing the 'run-of-the-mill auto everything' SLR which she was sporting around her neck. As I was explaining the finer points of manual focussing and exposure without all of the scene programme modes to which we are all too accustomed I unpopped the press studs on the back of the Luigi case to show the LCD screen. "Oh!" she exclaimed again, "it's not a real camera then. It's a digital." And she then swiftly walked off with a look of disgust on her face. WOW! if a Leica aint a real camera then what is!!!

[andybarton]

On the forum outing to Dudley in the West Midlands today, half the cameras were "real".

[garygsandhu]

Was her slr film ? :-)

[mgc2010]

Yes. A self-confessed die hard user of film and openly critical of digital image taking devices. Which somehow confuses me now as I have just found out that she has a flickr site! There are some fantastic images there but correct me if I'm wrong, wouldn't every one of her images displayed on flickr have been through a digital image taking device?

 

I guess I must have been a bit offended by her snooty remark but hey - if she prefers to go through all of the extra hassle involved by using film, chemicals, darkroom, t i m e, etc to arrive at a digital image for posting on flickr then that's up to her and perhaps she should have kept her opinion to herself. (secretly, I think she was just jealous of my M8!).

[wattsy]

She's probably just bored with digital. Why on earth would she be jealous?

[plasticman]

I guess I must have been a bit offended by her snooty remark but hey - if she prefers to go through all of the extra hassle involved by using film, chemicals, darkroom, t i m e, etc to arrive at a digital image for posting on flickr then that's up to her and perhaps she should have kept her opinion to herself. (secretly, I think she was just jealous of my M8!).

 

Yeeees she obviously goes through all the extra 'hassle' of film with chemicals and a darkroom in her spare bedroom (etc etc the usual predictable rubbish about film from the digital crowd).

 

I have an M8 and enjoy it enough. The film results through my M6 blow it out of the water though. And the only time I smell chemicals is when I pick up my developed negs from the lab.

[delander †]

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…I have an M8 and enjoy it enough. The film results through my M6 blow it out of the water though.

 

Sorry Mani, as a previous owner of an M8 and now an M9 as well as several film Leicas, I dont find that film blows the M8 or M9 'out of the water'. Both are great when you know how to get the look you want, they are just a little different.

 

Jeff

[plasticman]

Sorry Mani, as a previous owner of an M8 and now an M9 as well as several film Leicas, I dont find that film blows the M8 or M9 'out of the water'. Both are great when you know how to get the look you want, they are just a little different.

 

Jeff

 

Yep Jeff - what it is, is that after over a decade working in advertising, I don't know how to use a camera properly. Thanks for the heads-up that it's all about 'user error'.

[delander †]

Yep Jeff - what it is, is that after over a decade working in advertising, I don't know how to use a camera properly. Thanks for the heads-up that it's all about 'user error'.

Sorry no need to be sarcastic. I never mentioned 'user error' but you did write that 'film blows the M8 out of the water' which is your valid opinion of course, but rather all embracing dont you think?

 

You know Mani people write things and you read into them personal affronts that were never intended. I dont analyse my posts thinking how 'so and so' will react to this. Still its Monday morning I suppose.

 

Jeff

[plasticman]

Sorry no need to be sarcastic. I never mentioned 'user error' but you did write that 'film blows the M8 out of the water' which is your valid opinion of course, but rather all embracing dont you think?

 

You know Mani people write things and you read into them personal affronts that were never intended. I dont analyse my posts thinking how 'so and so' will react to this. Still its Monday morning I suppose.

 

Jeff

 

Yep - and a sore throat is making me grumpy.

 

Naturally the two media are not really comparable - they are very different expressions of photography. However, it's interesting that for many, the true virtue of M8 files is that the output is 'film-like', and I'd endorse that in the M8's favor.

 

However, the OP's apparent standpoint (that film-users are awash with chemicals and all the other supposed 'hassles' of analog photography), and that they are all secretly jealous of digital cameras is just irritating hogwash.

[bill]

Perhaps the lady in question was more au fait with Leicas than the OP realised and recognised his camera as an M8...

 

Regards,

 

Bill

[delander †]

 

 

However, the OP's apparent standpoint (that film-users are awash with chemicals and all the other supposed 'hassles' of analog photography), and that they are all secretly jealous of digital cameras is just irritating hogwash.

 

I agree but such opinions generally come from people who have no real experience of film processing and print enlarging. Like you I just send off the film, but after that it does revert to scanning etc. I could rebuild my darkroom, but the prints I am getting nowadays from my truly wonderful Epson 3800 are superb.

 

PS hate that term 'analog' and refuse to use it.

 

Jeff

[jsrockit]

Who really cares what she thinks? Does your camera do what you want it to do?

[Paul Verrips]

Maybe you had more fun telling her it's an old & useless camera, but you couldn't affort anything else.

[plasticman]

PS hate that term 'analog' and refuse to use it.

 

I tend to agree - I used it in that sentence purely because I felt I'd overused the word 'film' in the post, as a whole. A stupid and pedantic reason, in other words.

 

To return to the original spirit of the thread - the main thing for me when I'm directly comparing Portra scanned on the LS9000ED and M8 images, is that the film images just sing in a completely different way.

For the first time, I long for a really large format printer - I've looked at a 3880 a few times now, but I know that I would never, ever use it for the manufacturer's optimal 100 prints per week.

 

I never felt that way looking at my M8 images, however good they are.

[mgc2010]

Perhaps the lady in question was more au fait with Leicas than the OP realised and recognised his camera as an M8...

 

Yes I believe the lady was aware that it was a Leica but what astounded me was the reaction of almost physical wretching when it became obvious that it wasn't a film Leica.

 

Thanks for all of your comments, I've got it off my chest now!

 

Best regards to ALL photography enthusiasts out there,

Colin

[delander †]

… For the first time, I long for a really large format printer - I've looked at a 3880 a few times now, but I know that I would never, ever use it for the manufacturer's optimal 100 prints per week.

 

I never felt that way looking at my M8 images, however good they are.

 

Mani, I never manage a 100 prints a week, maybe 5-10. I've never used the A2 size either normally A3+. I would encourage you to think about that 3880 and find a new joy in the prints it can produce, even from an M8:)

 

Jeff

[Double Negative]

"Whatever."

[ho_co]

Ah, poor lady! She was looking for another film user when she asked, "is that a real camera I see there?"

 

She just wanted someone to hobnob with over the loss of Kodachrome and how the younger generation just doesn't understand.

 

You should have given her Mani's address.

 

I mean, unless she was good looking, of course.

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[luigi bertolotti]

Well, a friend of mine, pro photographer mostly for industrial sector, started his activity in 1974 / 75 or so... had a good success, and switched to Hasselblad around 1999-2000: until then he used only Sinar LF machines, and told me, at that time, that using rollfilms was not "real photography" , which for him meant film plates only...he is still active, and the last time I saw him (last year) had a FF DSLR... told me anyway that digital "is not real photography" but for a man who has to make his life with it, is stupid not to use digital.