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Which would you buy nowadays, an R8 or R9?


james.liam

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10 hours ago, hamey said:

Having two Nikon F6's I must say they are magnificent cameras but their light metering isn't as good as my R8 in my opinion.

 

I have an opposite opinion on that matter. F6's metering (as well as F5's) is much more sophisticated and more consistent. Some don't like the way these two measure the scene, 'cause F5 and F6 balance the measurement for films with narrow latitude (slide films and some high ISO/ASA B&Ws), but for color negatives one might want to overexpose by 2/3s of a stop or 1.5 stops without fiddling with exposure compensation for every single shot, as every scene requires mental excercise as to how much of an exposure comp you will need to add and which object can be chosen as the source for your hypothetical 17% gray. F5 and F6 will preserve the highlights, while retaining the shadows a bit, where Canon EOS 1 and EOS 1n will give all over the place metering and Leica R8 will definitely overexpose.

My R8 loves to overexpose, where Nikon F5, F6 and Pentax MZ-3 give spot-on metering in situations where I, as camera operator, have hard time deciding what to do. Canons, as said above, are all over the place, their top-of-the-line bodies aren't any better than their consumer models like EOS 650, 300, 3000n and the likes in that regard.

When I look at negatives (shot by Nikon cameras) via the light table, I see that exposures are "equalized" (for the lack of better term). There are not many shots that are obviously over- or underexposed relative to the neighbouring frames, which is good for developing and eases the scanning process.

Edited by Technician
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  • 3 weeks later...

I have the R8, R9 and R6.2.  I love the metering and heft of the R8 and R9 system. Personally, I like the extra weight in the R8, but the R9 is a newer body, so if you can get a good R9, it may last longer (since they are effectively impossible to repair).  Honestly, I have two R9’s both with work great and when needed one will be spare parts…

 

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