Piers Posted June 29, 2007 Share #1 Posted June 29, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) New to the forum, so I hope I'm not duplicating too much: I bought new (not demo) official UK M8 in March 2007, disatisfied with performance of rd1s (sensor performance not as good as my Nikon D100), although it felt solid and I really liked the concealed lcd screen. M8 has many very strong features and handleabity just as good as my old M6, and gets the best out of the new elmarit 28, which looked very average on the rd1s, and the metering behaves in just the same way which is a bonus, BUT: 1. came with a lot of crud on the sensor; seven cycles of cleaning with Eclipse #2 solution has reduced to a handful of visible blemishes on images of eg sky, but is this acceptable? (I have not had similar experience with Nikons D100 and 200 or Fuji S2 and S3). 2. Visible vertical banding creeps in above ISO 640 in low light shooting: is this the original banding problem?--it limits the utility of the camera for reportage. 3. Signed up on Leica website for the IR filters five weeks ago, still not arrived. As a more positive footnote, having used Raw processing for 5 years or so via Photoshop Camera Raw, I found the Capture 1 LE software shipped with the M8 produces excellent images, higher quality in many instances than the same DNG run through Photoshop--although of course the Capture 1 is less fully featured for fine tuning. Thoughts on any of the above appreciated. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted June 29, 2007 Posted June 29, 2007 Hi Piers, Take a look here advice welcomed on M8 behaviour. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Hans Roggen Posted June 29, 2007 Share #2 Posted June 29, 2007 ad 3: Signed up in December and January...still waiting for my 60mm. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted June 29, 2007 Share #3 Posted June 29, 2007 New to the forum, so I hope I'm not duplicating too much: I bought new (not demo) official UK M8 in March 2007, disatisfied with performance of rd1s (sensor performance not as good as my Nikon D100), although it felt solid and I really liked the concealed lcd screen. 1. came with a lot of crud on the sensor; seven cycles of cleaning with Eclipse #2 solution has reduced to a handful of visible blemishes on images of eg sky, but is this acceptable? (I have not had similar experience with Nikons D100 and 200 or Fuji S2 and S3). 2. Visible vertical banding creeps in above ISO 640 in low light shooting: is this the original banding problem?--it limits the utility of the camera for reportage. 3. Signed up on Leica website for the IR filters five weeks ago, still not arrived. Thoughts on any of the above appreciated. Piers, I like many others suffered a dirty sensor in the first few months with oil spotting. It should clean up perfectly. Are you using the correct amount of E2 - 2 drops? If you use more it will leave spotting. Are you doing your wipes VERY slowly - the slower the better to allow time for the E2 to dissolve any grease. You should not be getting any banding on higher speeds now - I suspect your M8 needs to go for a holiday in Solms - frustrating I know. Filters - you may have to wait considerably more than 5 weeks. I am guessing they are being hand made by one elderly craftsman in Japan, who is working two days a week. They are then sent out by donkey post, except this is a three legged geriatric donkey who gets lost frequently. I don't think anyone has got their 60mm filter yet, even though they arrived from the makers at Leica Germany at the beginning of last week. Wilson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted June 29, 2007 Share #4 Posted June 29, 2007 I see some people have now had their 60mm filters in the last day or so, so hopefully the delivery donkey is on its way round to me next. Wilson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eoin Posted June 29, 2007 Share #5 Posted June 29, 2007 My 55 & 60mm arrived on Monday/Tuesday this week(ordered 6th Dec 2006), there was also reports from Paris for the same thing. So 60's are shipping as we speak, I guess it just depends where you come up on the shipping list. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guy_mancuso Posted June 29, 2007 Share #6 Posted June 29, 2007 We saw about 400 Leica 60 mm filters in the Solms factory last week getting preped for shipping . There on there way it seems Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
farnz Posted June 29, 2007 Share #7 Posted June 29, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Piers, Have you installed the 1.102 firmware udate? Some banding issues were fixed in this update. Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shootist Posted June 29, 2007 Share #8 Posted June 29, 2007 1.) Yes the M8 comes with it's very own dust/oil manufacturing plant built into it. It's from the lub Leica uses on the shutter mechanism. I have a black one that I have cleaned at least 8 times, make that 8 sessions with at least 3-4 wet clenings in each session to get MOST (NOT all) of the spots off, in the last 3 weeks, from when it was delivered ot me. The chrome one I have, which was a replacement for my first unit that had some irregularities, and delivered about 3 days after the black has had the same dust/oil spots. I have about 800 shots with the black and only about 100-150 with the chrome. Don't use the chrome that much and I'm saving it for possible resale when the M9 comes out. With my first M8 I had the same thing but it cleared up in about 1000+ shots to the point I only had to wet clean the sensor about once every 2 weeks or so and some times a simple blow off with a rocket blower took care of whatever dust got on the sensor. 2.) I haven't seen any of this on any of the 3 M8's I have had. I don't shoot to many shots over ISO 320 but the few I have shot at 640/1250 I haven't noticed it. Then again I very rarely view the files at 100% on my PC screen. I use to do that but got out of the habbit because I never print that big and any irregularities I have noticed in either the M8 of Nikon D200 files don't show up when printing 8.5x11 or 11x17. 3.) Depending on what sizes you ordered they could take from 1 week to 5 months to show up. With my first unit I ordered a E39 and E55. That was January 25 2007. In April I saw that B&H was selling E39 Leica filters and I still hadn't receive that size. I sent a fairly nasty email to M8 support and with in 3 days had the E39, but not the E55 because they hadn't been made yet. With the second M8 I ordered a E39 and a E49. That was 3+ weeks ago. I saw that some LUF members had gotten the E55 filters so I fired off another email to M8 support about why I hadn't received my E55 and that why hadn't I received the E39 and E49 from the second M8. They repplied that the E55 and the E39 was in stock and that I would have them next week. The E49 was out of stock, and or not made yet. So I suggest you email M8 support about your filters. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piers Posted June 29, 2007 Author Share #9 Posted June 29, 2007 Just a quick response to say thanks to those who have responded with lightning speed to my post! I've loaded the firmware recently, but not checked the banding since--should have thought of that. It's certainly been helpful to know that I'm not alone in experiencing these problems, and that they are probably not insoluble. I'll tweak my E2 technique Wilson--it's the stubborn few that lay in the same place that annoy... (and Tourtour! a truly beautiful place.) In time I'll discover how to display my location (SW England) on the forum. Best, Piers http://www.scenae.co.uk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fpbender Posted June 30, 2007 Share #10 Posted June 30, 2007 Ed, What is the email address for M8 support , please. Thanks, Fred Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shootist Posted June 30, 2007 Share #11 Posted June 30, 2007 Ed,What is the email address for M8 support , please. Thanks, Fred m8.support AT Leica-camera.com You're Welcome Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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