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Moving from M8 to M9


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No coffee stain yet for me...

 

I will most likely skip the M and maybe supplement my M8u with a M9-P...

 

My M8u is in for maintenance, needed a clean and calibration of more or less everything; cleaning, calibration of metering, adjusting times and rangefinder since they open it, also the arrow keys where giving up one by one... so they will all be replaced.

 

Looking forward to get it back from LPS €400 fair since I know the history of the camera and that it still sells images.

 

They mentioned that Vulcanite is replaced by a new style Leatherette so that will be new to me :)

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No coffee stain, just a wonky sensor.

 

My M8 is at Solms as well. It was CLA'd a year ago, but now I discovered it has a problem with blue areas at the top edge of the image ("sky" being a regular guest). The country rep told me that there's a good chance Leica will offer me an upgrade, doing a sensor repair on a 2006 M8 sounds like bad value no matter who has to pay for it.

 

Will just have to wait and see, but I'm at least preparing to go to M9 or beyond.

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Yeah, but does it make (economic) sense to replace the sensor/electronics on a 7 year old camera, that's another story ;) Will just have to wait and see what's Solms' estimate and suggested actions. Upgrading is not out of the question, neither is repairing and then upgrading.

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Such a wealth of information from everyone here! Thank you all for all for sharing your experiences. Is there a substantial difference between the original M8 and M 8.2 in white balance performance? As several have stated the M9 and M8.2 are rather similar I am guessing there is a difference between them and the original M8.

Any thoughts?

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I've been using my M8 for over a year, and it's overtaken my M6TLL as my main camera.

 

I have IR filters for every lens, but as someone who mainly shot TriX, my eye has always been for black and white shots. Colour on the M8 has always been pleasing, and for those situations where the image just looks better in colour, i've enjoyed having the option there.

 

I picked up an M9 recently, not as a replacement for the M8, because i love the camera and had no reason or need to part with it to get the M9, but as a replacement for the M6TTL + TriX combo as i could no longer develop my own.

 

One of the first things i noticed, was the colours. For some reason, the M9's colours just grabbed me more. I really didn't expect this. The images, still shot for black and white, spoke far more to me in colour than they ever have done on the M8, and quite consistently too.

 

I don't know why the colours stood out to me more, or how they're different even, to those the M8 produces, but they just have done. I was under the impression that the M9 sensor was just the M8 sensor with an extra ring of pixels around it to take it from 1.3x to 1x crop. Obviously, it's more than that.

 

Using my M9 doesn't make me love my M8 any less, but even the black and white i get out of the two cameras, have their own signatures. This is a great thing to me, because it feels less like my M8 is a crippled version of my M9, but more that it has a unique identity of it's own and worth putting in the bag alongside the M9 on trips out and about.

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Thanks again everyone! Based on what's been said, I may try to make a move to an M8.2 then for the enhanced usability and better white balance performance. I jumped into the M8 without knowing much about the system and as a Leica neophyte. I love shooting the camera! I would just like to have more consistent color output. When mixed with my Canon files, the M8 files need much more attention in post. Black and white conversions are amazing, but I would also like to be able to use color as well. With wedding work efficiency is huge when dealing with many images a week!

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Make sure you won't miss the 1/8000th shutter speed before you make the change. I upgraded my M8 for the quieter shutter because I was doing a lot of photography in churches and cathedrals and I would have had the old shutter back if I could. The Sapphire screen was excellent and 2m frame lines were handy though.

 

Pete.

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Thanks again everyone! Based on what's been said, I may try to make a move to an M8.2 then for the enhanced usability and better white balance performance. I jumped into the M8 without knowing much about the system and as a Leica neophyte. I love shooting the camera! I would just like to have more consistent color output. When mixed with my Canon files, the M8 files need much more attention in post. Black and white conversions are amazing, but I would also like to be able to use color as well. With wedding work efficiency is huge when dealing with many images a week!

 

I'm not sure that you're going to see as much "enhanced usability and better white balance" as you may expect. I don't find that much between the M8 and M9P. There are lots of other differences in the two bodies, but the WB performance I don't find to be much different. I'm in the same place as Cris in that each body has its own strengths.

 

With WB on both bodies, I find the best consistency when I do a manual WB before shooting.

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Thanks again for your replies. I finally have gotten the color issues under control. To this point I have been converting raws via lightroom with both the standard profiles and custom profiles I generated for the camera. While the customs helped, I was still having issues with color balnce which i interpreted to be white balance issues. At the end of last week I ran a file set through Capture1 7 and it was a whole different experience! Colors were generally excellent, and skin tones SO much better! Prints came back today looking amazing! I'm assuming C1 would be the way to go for M9 as well. Would anyone care to comment on the M9 Jpegs? Are they useful as a digital negative for a good starting point?

Looking forward to the next steps!

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No coffee stain yet for me...

 

I will most likely skip the M and maybe supplement my M8u with a M9-P...

 

My M8u is in for maintenance, needed a clean and calibration of more or less everything; cleaning, calibration of metering, adjusting times and rangefinder since they open it, also the arrow keys where giving up one by one... so they will all be replaced.

 

Looking forward to get it back from LPS €400 fair since I know the history of the camera and that it still sells images.

 

They mentioned that Vulcanite is replaced by a new style Leatherette so that will be new to me :)

 

Got my M8u back, so that's 5 working days including shipping, very good!

 

They have exchanged all of the rear buttons, the thumb wheel and housing, not just the switches/electronic, so I'm very pleased with that :)

 

The new leatherette feels nice and the grip is definitely improved, let's see how it wears over time, it also looks great, similar to real leather.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Let me say that for me the M8/8.2 color is as natural as can be. Any other camera body, it seems to me, boosts their color saturation for those who would be impressed with more out of gamut color. I may move on at some point from the M8.2 just to get more resolution, but it won't be for better color.

Also, I just bought a 24 Elmar so I could use those 24 framelines - so sadly missing from subsequent M bodies.

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Let me say that for me the M8/8.2 color is as natural as can be. Any other camera body, it seems to me, boosts their color saturation for those who would be impressed with more out of gamut color. I may move on at some point from the M8.2 just to get more resolution, but it won't be for better color.

Also, I just bought a 24 Elmar so I could use those 24 framelines - so sadly missing from subsequent M bodies.

 

I agree completely. The WB on the M8 was a problem when it was first released but the firmware updates have completely cured that issue. I find it to be much better than my RX100 or Nex. The color is not as 'cartoonish' as the current style but if you want that there are always the Vibrance and Saturation adjustments in Lightroom.

 

Other than the sound of the shutter I'm not sure what usability upgrades there are on the M8.2 or M9. Have I forgotten something?

 

Best wishes

Dan

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Other than the sound of the shutter I'm not sure what usability upgrades there are on the M8.2 or M9. Have I forgotten something?

 

The M8.2 differs from the M8 based on quieter shutter (but still the horrible motor re-cock sound, and loss of 1/8000 speed), 2m frame lines and sapphire screen. Each of these elements were available from Leica as separate or combined upgrades to the M8. In addition, there were other differences including camera covering, paint versus chrome finish, black dot on the black camera, snapshot mode, etc.

 

In post #7 I discussed different aspects of the M8.2 that I prefer over the M9, as well as potential advantages of the new M. Others will of course have their own preferences.

 

Jeff

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In post #7 I discussed different aspects of the M8.2 that I prefer over the M9, as well as potential advantages of the new M. Others will of course have their own preferences.

 

To partner up with my Monochrom the M8 made more sense than the M-240. Not to say it's 'better' of course but I don't take many color images but I do take some and even the cropped sensor might work to my advantage..The fact it cost 20% of the price of the M-240 wasn't a bad incentive.:p And call me old fashioned or cheap but there is something cool about an older model that just fits the job perfectly..even if money were not an object, The M-240 has the feel of a Porsche Turbo and the M8 is like stock 964..The Porsche analogies never get old and it's fun cause I have them too! :cool:.

 

Only got a couple of frames off but at first look, I was really liking the color! I didnt compare them to images I had taken with my M9, but they seemed to have a certain something..Fungus? :eek:

 

I'll be using it by the weekend...This was a real and fun score!

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Oh, and I have UV/IR cut filters on all of my lenses for the M8, and I don't bother removing them for the M9 unless there's a point-light-source reflection issue. I really like the rendering of the M9 with the UV/IR cut filter in place most of the time.

 

I've decided to change my M8 for an M9. I see a few of your are keeping the IR cut filters on - how does that affect the image on the M9?

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The best method I've found for removing a stuck filter is to press the filter flat against a rubber surface, such as the sole of a shoe, and turn the lens. The turning force will be distributed around the entire rim of the filter, which should loosen it much more easily.

 

Pete.

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