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Interesting M8 Review ....


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Only the individual can answer that. In my case, I go by the look on a bride's face when she sees the M8 results from an extreme backlight situation to get *the* picture of her with her dad before the ceremony (where on the 5D AF spins or is fooled by contrast and the resulting flare washes out parts of her head).

 

Thank God someone brought this up...out of all the flotsam and jetsam that bubbles out of the M8 cauldron...it's ABOUT THE GLASS as well! Glass, glass, glass. Yes....Nikon & Canon make some fine optics...but Leica has an edge when you get into the difficult stuff - especially backlighting.

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Hi

 

I don't understand some of the vitriolic, almost personal attacks against Mike Johnston.

 

Everyone is entitled to his opinion and Mike has written in his blog the impressions are based on limited use of the camera - at least he is completely honest about this and in no way is he attempting to pass off his article as complete full blooded technical reviews.

 

Actually I have never read a Mike Johnston review based on specs, but rather on user experience. In this respect he is similar to Sean, and both, a great distance from the type of reviews Phil Askey of Dpreview.com would do.

 

Why are you people then so incensed at his writing, of which some of you pple commenting has not even read, and by your own admission, have not gone beyond the first 2 paragraphs?

 

Mike clearly states the reasons why he does not like the M8 - among them, it's not in the M gestalt (according to HIM only). To his credit, he did not comment much on image qualitym, magenta issues, sudden death rumours precisely because he does not have enough user experience to warrant the kind of complete exhaustive writeup Sean would have done.

 

In fact, if you read his earlier blog posts, he promised his readers a first impressions / look at the M8 only because by chance he was OFFERED the chance to loan one for a week. He didn't seek to set out to discredit the camera.

 

Are M8 users not secure enough in their own preference of tools?

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Hi

 

I don't understand some of the vitriolic, almost personal attacks against Mike Johnston.

 

 

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Guest sirvine

Well I don't share in the vitriol, but he did write some insulting and condescedning characterizations of Leica owners as dilletantes and know-nothings who buy for status over performance. When you add that to his lack of serious treatment of the camera, you've got a recipe for irritation. I personally think the "review" is a provocation intended to gather hits on that website, but I wouldn't go so far as to stoop the same level of name calling as he does.

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Hi

 

I don't understand some of the vitriolic, almost personal attacks against Mike Johnston.

 

Everyone is entitled to his opinion and Mike has written in his blog the impressions are based on limited use of the camera - at least he is completely honest about this and in no way is he attempting to pass off his article as complete full blooded technical reviews.

 

Actually I have never read a Mike Johnston review based on specs, but rather on user experience. In this respect he is similar to Sean, and both, a great distance from the type of reviews Phil Askey of Dpreview.com would do.

 

Why are you people then so incensed at his writing, of which some of you pple commenting has not even read, and by your own admission, have not gone beyond the first 2 paragraphs?

 

Mike clearly states the reasons why he does not like the M8 - among them, it's not in the M gestalt (according to HIM only). To his credit, he did not comment much on image qualitym, magenta issues, sudden death rumours precisely because he does not have enough user experience to warrant the kind of complete exhaustive writeup Sean would have done.

 

In fact, if you read his earlier blog posts, he promised his readers a first impressions / look at the M8 only because by chance he was OFFERED the chance to loan one for a week. He didn't seek to set out to discredit the camera.

 

Are M8 users not secure enough in their own preference of tools?

 

Sirvine sums up my response to this very well: I let loose a bit of vitriol (and I'm sorry again for the British sense of humour but it was clearly done with a portion of my tongue in my cheek) because Mike in effect said some daft and insulting things, to whit, in effect, that the M8 gives file quality similar to that of a £500 consumer model and that the only reason people would buy it therefore is because they're obsessed with the prestige aspect of ownership. This implies that we have no critical faculties as photographers and are merely driven by ego and brand insecurity.

 

That, in my book, is far ruder than what anyone here has written!

 

Tim

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Guest stnami

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because Mike in effect said some daft and insulting things
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, which was followed by some daft and insulting things by Sol and Tim, get out of the paper bag guys before it gets wet....................
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Jamie , image of this type a bit of PP canon no difficuly at all

 

Imants, agreed--but it's "quite a bit" of post processing in my experience :) And with a lot of luck from the right Canon lens. For instance, I find the 50 1.2L horribly soft wide open down to f2. The Summiluxes just aren't like that.

 

So if this was shot wide open, well, I think a good print would show the difference.

 

What you won't see though, in the final print, is the detail the M8 lenses give (admittedly less important in skin or of portraits of this type).

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,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, which was followed by some daft and insulting things by Sol and Tim, get out of the paper bag guys before it gets wet....................

 

Stnami, I'm guessing therefore, since you have abandoned your usual ambiguous positioning to occupy the moral high ground, that when you posted to me earlier in this thread

 

"as la\ong as you don't end up like one of your images all will be foine" (sic)

 

you were not in any way intending to be insulting?

 

Please clarify. I'm interested. Really.

 

Tim

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Get over it all, the guy owns the blog, blog him send an email.............in the end its only a camera.

 

or you can start all over again

Sketching? | photostream

 

or read Gianni's reply on the blog

 

 

The Photostream stuff is about the most intelligent I've read about the camera. Can't find Gianni's reply. But the stuff that Mike has added most recently to the blog in which he refers to the discussions here, are kind of weedy. He's a journalist of sorts, not a reviewer, nothing wrong with that as long as you know what you're getting.

 

But you're right, it is only a camera. And right now, it is irritating the F out of me.

 

t

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Guest stnami

Here is the part you are going to hate, present arms .............fire

Gianni Galassi said...

Thank you, Mike, for your smooth and clear attitude. I have been shooting with my M4-P for years. The perfect camera. Three years ago I bought an Epson RD-1. Good enough while waiting for a digital M. Last December I bought an M8. Last February I sold it. Here are my comment as a photographer (http://www.giannigalassi.com), not a collector.

What's Hot: It's a fetish, it's a Leica, it's a digital rangefinder and accepts the best lenses ever.

What's Not: Almost everything else.

Poor image quality.

Very heavy chromatic aberration (colour fringing) whenever an important contrast is at issue. Heavy presence of moiré artifacts.

"Box" artifacts when narrow patterns are in the picture. Unreliable and unpredictable white balance.

The worst colour management I have ever tested, even in budget digital cameras (heavy colour cast difference between center and border of the frame).

Heavy red cast on most black fabrics, no matter the lighting.

Use of IR filters causes chromatic aberration with short lenses (Leica admitted it officially). Heavy banding whenever a lighting source is inside the picture.

Dust production from within the camera (you clean the sensor, you never change the lens, you have dust again after a few shots.

Bad power management (unpredictable battery life). Unreliable AE-lock mechanics (can be easily lost).

Noisy and unpleasant electric shutter rewind (sounds like a hairdryer).

Card formatting takes an eternity to be performed.

ISO setting available only via software (no dedicated knob or button).

Ugly and bulky battery charger (and it's very slow, too).

Poor bundled software (the same that comes for free with any $50 SD card).

Is that enough for the most overpriced camera of all times?

Briefly, I'll stick to my R-D1 (with Leica lenses) and anxiously wait for an R-D2.

Gianni Galassi - Rome - Italy

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Here is the part you are going to hate, present arms .............fire

 

 

I like Gianni's photography and of course he was initially right in a lot of what he wrote though a lot of that stuff is fixed now. Ironically the one main selling point he identifies, 'the best glass ever', is proving problematic on the M8 in some cases.

 

I never had an RD1 so I can't comment on his choice there either, though most serious reviewers seem to think that the M8 is rather better.

 

t

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Guest guy_mancuso
Imants, you really are a masterful irritant--like the pepper spray of online fora. And I mean that in the best way. ;)

 

 

Why someone that does not own a M8 is even here is almost as laughable and i mean that in the best way:D

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Really, apart from a few isolated comments which are perfectly understandable (and a little, but not too much, nastiness), much of the commentary in this thread is not unreasonable, and some of it is well considered. All in all I don't think it's unfriendly or unwarranted, and I learned a few things.

 

tjphoto, that's a lovely portrait.

 

I'll tell you what--I will keep an open mind about the M8. Perhaps I will have a chance to revisit it in the future, and get to know it better. If I find I should revise my opinions at that time, I shall.

 

In the meantime, if the M8 is what you choose to use, don't let my comments worry you in the least. Forge on. Everyone should use whatever camera they want to. Photography should be fun.

 

If anyone is still feeling hot and bothered, please go read the last two lines of my "Con" report one more time (right below the infamous "Podiatrist" picture, which I simply thought was amusing).

 

Best regards,

 

Mike J.

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