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Leica M8 or M6


stefandotter

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Dear Leica addicts,

 

I saved up some money and I'm looking to buy my first Leica soon. It will be a choice between the M6 and the M8. Personally, since I work for a small fashion magazine and have to shoot a lot at fashion shows and on the streets, I would prefer the digital M8.

 

But the reason I'm looking at Leica are the colours and contrasts. The photographer I admire the most, Luc Braquet, shoots with an M6 and I'm just deeply in love with the contrast and especially the shadows in his black and white shots ( LUC BRAQUET PHOTOGRAPHY in the section women slide 5 especially, with the shadow in the cheek, it has a beautiful grain and softness.)

 

Sure I'll have to change my habits when I would switch to film, but for image quality like this, extremely sharp - fantastic colours - great contrasts - beautiful shadows, I wouldn't mind that at all.

 

Are these results achievable with an M8? I've never seen something quite like this. I don't need a range of tech specs from you guys, just some honest opinions about the special feel in leica photos.

 

Thank's !!!

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From the application you mention, fashion photography for print, I would recommend the M8. The series of steps required to go from image capture to ready to print is simpler. You absolutely will need to pick up the UV/IR filters for your lenses to suppress the excess IR sensitivity of the sensor. With that simple caveat, the M8 CCD is a very strong performing image capture device up through ISO 800, which is about the limit of available film types anyway. There are many samples on countless websites to support the performance on the M8.

 

The M6, or cheaper alternatives M2, M3, M4-2, provide solid film image capture capability. If you find one that is properly maintained and in good condition, you can recover 65% or more of your investment if you need to resell it in the future. You do have the advantage of operation even without batteries, something not necessarily an issue in the studio.

 

The next recommended step is to rent both cameras and try them out. See which works best for you. You might even be able to borrow one from a local camera club member. It's worth asking.

 

Good luck.

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One caveat, though. You say you want to use the Leica for fashion mostly. Fashion shots are bound to contain pictures of textiles, of course. Digital Leicas produce very sharp images because they have no AA filters. That, in turn, means that they are prone to produce Moiré patterns which might be difficult to control in PP. That's one thing you might want to try before committing yourself.
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Welcome to the forum !!!

 

Another caveat is specific to M8, in the context of professional usage : it is a camera that (like M6, of course) must be bought as used, and Leica recognizes that there are some limitations on its capability to maintain M8 for some specific components (LCD, and probably sensor, too) ; this can be a problem for a professional... in case of some problem you cannot be sure of when your camera will be repaired / replaced.

 

This doesn't apply to M6 which, as all mechanical Leicas (even much older than M6) can be regularly maintained by Leica and/or 3rd parties.

 

M9, the evolution of M8 (full frame sensor) is well maintainable and can be found at decent prices.... anyway much higher than M8 (or M8.2) :o

 

Of course the basis choice is film vs. digital... and that's up to you... in the right hands, M8 is capable of superb results, and, given your taste for BW images with rich contrast, keep into account that, in the Leica world, M8 has been specifically much praised (even in comparision with newer models) for its rendering in B & W.

Edited by luigi bertolotti
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The question I would ask myself is what are the other photographers for your magazine using and why?

 

I love my M8, but I could cite all kinds of reasons that other equipment from other manufactures would do a better job of putting bread on the table.

 

As some others have said, if it breaks you have no camera until it is replaced or repaired.If you were a cab driver think of how you would earn a living while your cab was in the shop.

 

It gets worse if your cab requires expensive parts and in some cases those parts are no longer available.

 

My Nikon D800 is a tool for work (I also have a backup D700). My M8 is a pleasure camera for my joy.

 

In the end being a successful photographer is not about the equipment you carry, but the ability between your ears.

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Dear Leica addicts,

 

But the reason I'm looking at Leica are the colours and contrasts. The photographer I admire the most, Luc Braquet, shoots with an M6 and I'm just deeply in love with the contrast and especially the shadows in his black and white shots ( LUC BRAQUET PHOTOGRAPHY in the section women slide 5 especially, with the shadow in the cheek, it has a beautiful grain and softness.)

 

This is a no brainer, you are in love with the results from black and white film so one way or another its inevitable you will go this route.

 

The same thing happened to me, I bought an M8 just under a year ago, its been fantastic and surprisingly easy to use in my entirely amateur hands. However when I joined this forum I looked through the galaries and fell in love with the incredible images posted here by Peter Martin, like this shot below;

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/members/51454-albums831-picture781.html

 

So I bought my myself an M6 a few weeks back after debating in my mind for months and months if I could go this route and yet here I am shooting film again for the first time since my Nikon FM was stolen way back in 94 and happier than I have ever been with a camera in my hand.

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Thank's for all the answers!

 

Well I guess my job requires an M8 while my heart needs an M6. I guess I'll have to try both of them and decide after. It's a very tough choice.

 

I guess I'll go with an M8 for now and get an M6 after saving some money - as a pleasure camera. The adrenaline rush you get when getting the developed photos is one of the parts in photography I truly love.

 

What lenses would you recommend for M8 and M6 ? 35mm is perfect but what's the cheapest best lens to go with?

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Much as I like the 40mm Summicron, I have to add that the M8 does not have any frame lines which are really close to the image area covered by the lens. If you can afford them, the Summarits are very nice and produce pictures with a very handsome contrast, IMO.

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Thank's for all the answers!

 

Well I guess my job requires an M8 while my heart needs an M6. I guess I'll have to try both of them and decide after. It's a very tough choice.

 

I guess I'll go with an M8 for now and get an M6 after saving some money - as a pleasure camera. The adrenaline rush you get when getting the developed photos is one of the parts in photography I truly love.

 

What lenses would you recommend for M8 and M6 ? 35mm is perfect but what's the cheapest best lens to go with?

 

The cheapest is the Voigtlander 35mm Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5 for $405.

 

Then the Voigtlander Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4 for about $630

 

Zeiss comes next with the Zeiss ZM 35 Biogon f2.8 for $860.

 

And for about $1,100 you can get the Zeiss ZM 35 Biogon f2.

 

There is also a Voigtlander Nokton Aspherical 35mm f/1.2 for about $1200.

 

After that you are looking at the Leica 35mm f/2.5 Summarit-M.

 

Remember, for the M8 all lenses require a UV/IR cut filter (about $60 for the B&W) for each lens you buy.

 

As far as best for the money, I don't know and it kind of depends on the end use. Zeiss seems to fall in the middle of the pack between the bottom end Voigtlander and the Leica Summarit, but others might be able to better refine your search.

 

Best of luck!

Edited by Loren
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I, too, would agree that an M8 is better for the type of photography that indicated in your post. For black and white a film camera (of course, as indicated, cost is a concern) would be a welcome addition in the future. Nice thing is both take the same lenses.

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Much as I like the 40mm Summicron, I have to add that the M8 does not have any frame lines which are really close to the image area covered by the lens. If you can afford them, the Summarits are very nice and produce pictures with a very handsome contrast, IMO.

Actually, when filed down to display 35 mm the Summicron 40 is arguably the lens that matches best with the original M8 framelines.

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I'm far from the one to make any suggestions as to equipment for anyone. I have great difficulty seeing the differences some can as displayed on these forums. My eyes just are not that critically aligned I suppose. But I have always thought that things such as contrast were basically determined by the lense and not the body. The body would be concerned with those things attributed to movement and flatness of the film plane. And little more. I am speaking basically of a film camera as digitals are a whole new ballgame and they actually do processing via the computer imbedded in them. I also thought that one could determine lense focal length and therefore field of view by multiplying the focal length by 1.33 for an M8. I find the 35mm x 1.33 to be 46.55 and 40mm by 1.33 to be 53.2. Using these values I thought the 40mm most closely matched a field as that of the 50mm so I picked a 40mm f1.4 Voigtlander for one of my M8's. To make it easier for me to see (I wear glasses) I purchased a leitz 50mm auxiliary viewfinder. My other M8 body has a 21mm f4 Voigtlander with the 25mm auxiliary viewfinder giving me the same operations for both bodies. As far as operation I much preferred my M6's I had. I don't think there was a single feature of them I didn't like. But digital is a whole new world and I personally cannot see even trying to compare between film and digital as too many aspects seem to be inherent in the film design and not really controllable by the photographer in the manner REQUIRED by the photographer with a digital camera.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Many thanks for your further replies! After playing around with the Leica M6 and M8 of a friend I came to the conclusion that (for now) I will stick with my Nikon D700 for my digital work. I'l get an M6 for my film photography though. It's exactly what NJH said, I just fell in love with black and white film photography.

 

I'm purchasing one in the next few days so there are a few questions left. I would go with the Voigtländer Skopar lens for now, is that a good choice for film? Then there is TTL vs Classic. What's the big difference? I would love to use a flash for some shots but to be honest I don't know what TTL means exactly. With TTL I could use the SF 20 flash which is amazing and not expensive. What should I go with when I choose classic?

 

Thanks!

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You must remember that it is not the camera but the lens that determines the image. Going with a Skopar will give a different image than the Summicron. As far as M6 v M6ttl it you have not owned either there is virtually no difference except in the area of flash. (I do not use a flash so I find both cameras interchangeable for me.) Buy on condition of the item.

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