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Leica M8 - It's official!


marknorton

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While checking through the box my lenses came back from coding in, SWMBO discovered a pink envelope containing a leaflet in 6 languages which confirms the name of the Leica digital M as "Leica M8".

 

"Notes on using Leica M lenses with 6-bit code on analog and digital Leica M cameras

 

Type Marking

 

This Leica M lens is equipped with a 6-bit barcode marking on its bayonet flange for use on the digital LEICA M8. This marking enables digital M models to detect the type of lens attached by using the sensors in the camera's bayonet flange.

 

The LEICA M8 writes the lens information it has read to the EXIF file and uses this for processor-aided optimization of image quality. This code also allows the focal length of the lens to be displayed in the camera monitor.

 

This Leica M lens can also be used on Leica M models up to the LEICA M7.

 

Supplement to the tips on lens care for type-marked Leica M lenses

 

Ensure that you do not apply too much grease to the bayonet flange and especially that you leave the lens code area ungreased, otherwise residues of grease might become lodged in the recess, allowing more dirt to accumulate. This could ultimately impair the legibility of the code and consequently the camera functions of the LEICA M8."

 

Leica M8 - Welcome to our World!

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Well, I think it is important how sensitive a company is in naming their models!

 

I like the idea of M8 name, it shows more the consequent evolution of the M system than other manufacturers starting to use D-letters to name their digital cameras.

 

Peter

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I think the name is important in this case. M8 signals a continuity of the M system with all the implications that signifies.

 

Meanwhile I've had confirmation form a very reputed Leica dealer in Frankfurt that the price will be just under €4000.

 

Regards.

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€3995 + VAT equates to $4995 + sales tax and, say, £3299 including VAT.

 

I think the name is important because it signifies no new Leica film cameras, apart perhaps from special editions. That ties in with information in the annual report which suggests all R&D effort/funding is going into digital and sport optics.

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€3995 + VAT equates to $4995 + sales tax and, say, £3299 including VAT.

 

I think the name is important because it signifies no new Leica film cameras, apart perhaps from special editions. That ties in with information in the annual report which suggests all R&D effort/funding is going into digital and sport optics.

Hi Mark,

While you are probably right about new film cameras, they could just as easily produce an M11-film that integrates what they learned on the M8, 9 & 10 in digital......shutter, body molding material, meter circuits....if for no other reason than to use the components across the film/digital great divide in the fabrication process, even for special editions. Your discovery has a nice tie in with your conversation with Andreas Kaufman about his calling it the M8....:)

Bob

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Tough to see the business case for ever producing a new film camera. Derivative of the M7 maybe but for film users, the message is pretty clear: what you see now is what you are ever going to get. Leica M7, Nikon F6, that's the way it's going to be.

 

Leica's future commercial survival comes from selling lots of M8s and especially lots of new lenses to go with them. Then there's 4/3 and a possible R10 but the common theme throughout is digital.

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Well you can use whale foreskin for the covering ;-). But I agree I can't see there being another film M outside of the a la carte system. It wouldn't suprise me if by the new year the film bodies were built to order and only available via a la carte.

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