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M8.2 as second / back-up body?


dwbell

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I'm afraid I joined the Good Ship Leica at the M9 point so have very little knowledge of the 8.

 

My travel kit is M9 + 35 cron ASPH + 75 Summarit (awaiting 75 cron).

 

Would it not make sense to have an 8.2 as a second body with the 75 on? giving me 35 - 50 - 75 - 100 effectively plus one level of redundancy?

 

Can you educate me on the foibles of the M8, what's with the filters? It's "better" at B&W I hear?

 

I'm by no means a 9 snob so hopefully this is worded well and I won't get flamed!

 

Kind regards

DWBell

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I'm afraid I joined the Good Ship Leica at the M9 point so have very little knowledge of the 8.

 

My travel kit is M9 + 35 cron ASPH + 75 Summarit (awaiting 75 cron).

 

Would it not make sense to have an 8.2 as a second body with the 75 on? giving me 35 - 50 - 75 - 100 effectively plus one level of redundancy?

 

Can you educate me on the foibles of the M8, what's with the filters? It's "better" at B&W I hear?

 

I'm by no means a 9 snob so hopefully this is worded well and I won't get flamed!

 

Kind regards

DWBell

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Don't forget to get IR filters for all your lenses. And you'll need a 28 to double for the 35.

Image-wise there is nothing wrong with the M8. With slightly different postprocessing (try Jamie Roberts'profiles in C1 !) you can get the images very close to the M9.

As for B&W I find the M8 and M9 much of a muchness. The much-flaunted IR effect can easily be obtained on M9 files by a little twist in the midtone contrast.

One thing however the M8 can do that the M9 cannot: With a 092 or 093 filter it turns into an excellent IR camera!

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Don't forget to get IR filters for all your lenses. And you'll need a 28 to double for the 35.

Image-wise there is nothing wrong with the M8. With slightly different postprocessing (try Jamie Roberts'profiles in C1 !) you can get the images very close to the M9.

As for B&W I find the M8 and M9 much of a muchness. The much-flaunted IR effect can easily be obtained on M9 files by a little twist in the midtone contrast.

One thing however the M8 can do that the M9 cannot: With a 092 or 093 filter it turns into an excellent IR camera!

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M9 vs M8 the 'crop' x1.3 difference is similar to cropping the picture of a M9 so you might as well just shoot the 35mm on the M9 and crop it down to 50mm... No real need to carry a M9 and a M8...

 

You need filters to cut out the IR 'contamination to get 'natural' looking colors, especially many black color tones in fabrics will look too bleak, light or just plainly wrong.

 

So it would be filter off on off on....

 

Yes, for shooting B&W this it not a real issue... shoot without...

 

Ideal a M9 back up is what you need if your a PRO in the field... as a Leica shooter with their Leica Professional service you get to borrow a camera so a back up is not really needed unless it's for 'now' is the only time to get the shot moments.

 

BTW same as with NPS Nikon Professional Service...

 

EDIT: Cross post with Jaap ;-) I agree on all color and B&W points, and I now have a 92 IR filter just delivered today to compare the M8 with my Nikon D200 IR converted camera...

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M9 vs M8 the 'crop' x1.3 difference is similar to cropping the picture of a M9 so you might as well just shoot the 35mm on the M9 and crop it down to 50mm... No real need to carry a M9 and a M8...

 

You need filters to cut out the IR 'contamination to get 'natural' looking colors, especially many black color tones in fabrics will look too bleak, light or just plainly wrong.

 

So it would be filter off on off on....

 

Yes, for shooting B&W this it not a real issue... shoot without...

 

Ideal a M9 back up is what you need if your a PRO in the field... as a Leica shooter with their Leica Professional service you get to borrow a camera so a back up is not really needed unless it's for 'now' is the only time to get the shot moments.

 

BTW same as with NPS Nikon Professional Service...

 

EDIT: Cross post with Jaap ;-) I agree on all color and B&W points, and I now have a 92 IR filter just delivered today to compare the M8 with my Nikon D200 IR converted camera...

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Thanks guys, much appreciated.

 

At the moment my back up is either a 5DII or a G9. Back up in terms of the M9 goes down and I still want to continue making images, not so much immediate, more of a back to the hotel, open the safe, back out and carry on kind of thing.

 

So I was thinking that as my shooting is 80% 35 (FF) and I then study more details with the 75 I could just have the 75 on the M8 all the time and in the bag. I don't want a 1:1 back up so would stick with those two lenses no matter what. So as a rule it would be M9+35 with M8+75 in the bag. I could always unmount the 75 to be a 75 on the 9 or the 35 to be a 50 on the 8.

 

Probably too heavy though I would imagine? I used to carry 5DII with 3 f/4 zooms so it's comparable. None of my canons has ever let me down though, although I left a 30D in the hotel safe usually. But a 5DII as a back up for the 9 means taking at least one slower zoom whereas an M8 (second hand for not much more money than the new 5DII) obviously shares the glass.

 

Ok, thanks for the input. Something to mull over.

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Thanks guys, much appreciated.

 

At the moment my back up is either a 5DII or a G9. Back up in terms of the M9 goes down and I still want to continue making images, not so much immediate, more of a back to the hotel, open the safe, back out and carry on kind of thing.

 

So I was thinking that as my shooting is 80% 35 (FF) and I then study more details with the 75 I could just have the 75 on the M8 all the time and in the bag. I don't want a 1:1 back up so would stick with those two lenses no matter what. So as a rule it would be M9+35 with M8+75 in the bag. I could always unmount the 75 to be a 75 on the 9 or the 35 to be a 50 on the 8.

 

Probably too heavy though I would imagine? I used to carry 5DII with 3 f/4 zooms so it's comparable. None of my canons has ever let me down though, although I left a 30D in the hotel safe usually. But a 5DII as a back up for the 9 means taking at least one slower zoom whereas an M8 (second hand for not much more money than the new 5DII) obviously shares the glass.

 

Ok, thanks for the input. Something to mull over.

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DW, on my last trip to Vietnam and Laos, I brought my M9 with a 50mm Summilux ASPH and my M8 with a 35mm Summilux ASPH (x1, 33) , as back up under 41°C with 80% humidity

As I like the portrait and macro photography I also took a compact MacroElmar 90mm.

I left my 90mm Apo Summicron at home to travel light!

I would even take my R8 as second back up film but finally I have renounced

Best

Henry

Look at these links :

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/people/153544-zen-people-zen-city.html

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/landscape-travel/154205-minh-mang-royal-temple.html

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/people/144163-temple.html

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/people/136816-about-laotian-faith.html

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/nature-wildlife/135981-lotus-blossom.html

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DW, on my last trip to Vietnam and Laos, I brought my M9 with a 50mm Summilux ASPH and my M8 with a 35mm Summilux ASPH (x1, 33) , as back up under 41°C with 80% humidity

As I like the portrait and macro photography I also took a compact MacroElmar 90mm.

I left my 90mm Apo Summicron at home to travel light!

I would even take my R8 as second back up film but finally I have renounced

Best

Henry

Look at these links :

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/people/153544-zen-people-zen-city.html

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/landscape-travel/154205-minh-mang-royal-temple.html

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/people/144163-temple.html

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/people/136816-about-laotian-faith.html

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/nature-wildlife/135981-lotus-blossom.html

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Thanks Paul, nice image.

 

Thanks Doc that's good first hand experience and lovely accompanying shots.

Maybe I can borrow one for a while and process the shots to see how I get on.

 

Good feedback, thanks again all.

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Thanks Paul, nice image.

 

Thanks Doc that's good first hand experience and lovely accompanying shots.

Maybe I can borrow one for a while and process the shots to see how I get on.

 

Good feedback, thanks again all.

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M9 vs M8 the 'crop' x1.3 difference is similar to cropping the picture of a M9 so you might as well just shoot the 35mm on the M9 and crop it down to 50mm... No real need to carry a M9 and a M8...

Not the first time i read this here. Are you guys cropping in your heads when you compose really? Just curious.

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Yes of course, if you don't have a long enough focal length then you need to crop in PP to get the shot, if you can't move closer.

Also, not having a shift lens at hand for Leica M... while trying to correct a building to have parallel vertical lines, you can use a shorter focal length lens and then keep it vertical and in PP crop off the excess 'ground' that will be included but not needed,... I do this often also with DSLR and wide angle lenses.

 

BTW I just finished a conversion of a PC-Nikkor 28/4 to have Tilt 0-8 degrees like the new PC-E lenses... can be used on the M8 also... :)

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Also, the same applies for if you don't have a lens that is not wide enough, then you can stitch one or more pictures together...

Vertical stitch and Horizontal stitch, don't know if you can see the quaity on souch small jpgs... they are large in the gallery if you click on it...

 

1_L1006571SmallWeb.jpg

 

1_Teglvaerksbroen_01.jpg

 

 

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I had the great pleasure of going on a Safari in 2009... there I used a fullframe and a crop camera to great flexibility and speed.

However the weight of the equipment was about 15 Kg D3 D2Xs 500/4 300/2.8 70-200/2.8 24-70/2.8 14-24/2.8 16/2.8 8/2.8 TC's tripod & monopod....

Borrowed D3x 600/4 200-400/4

We are in the range finder forum here, yes of course you can use two M8 or M9 with theri tiny lenses to great use...

But not really needed, you can get by with doing some cropping and stitching IMHO

M8 10.3 MP is a lot of data, the first real DSLR I had was D1 2.7 MP enough for a poster sized print here at work...

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You are putting words in my mouth here... :D there is a little word in that line 'can'

 

Of course you should use different lenses! that's why the camera has a mount and not one fixed lens.

 

And also I use not only certain focal lengths but also different types of lenses even more so on a DSLR... however I have only few focal length of each 'type'

 

Just take fast lenses, large aperture; some have one, two or three, few have the 'full' set 21/1.4 24/1.4 35/1.4 50/1-1.2-1.4 75/1.4 135 3.4

 

For the situations where you don't have the desired FL you have to move forward or reverse, but often that is not doable, then you 'can' crop or stitch...

 

For TC's, the best of them do give an advantage compared to cropping according to my tests...

 

Yes I prefer to fill the frame and avoid cropping at 'almost' all costs...

I also hate when the shot is not level, I hate wasting crop on 1 degree realignments...

 

Hope it's more clear now....

 

Do you see any difference in a shot from a M9 cropped down to M8 size resulting in same apparent FL ? M9 50/2 M8 40/2 both shot at 5.6

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