Should I buy a Leica M8 in 2025?

[chris_livsey]

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6 hours ago, Al Brown said:

M8 is like Ford Anglia. Will get you from A to B and is gorgeous to look at but kinda pain to maintain. Looked awesome in Harry Potter tho.

And less expensive when new:

Ford Anglia 105E - Original UK Prices

Ford Anglia 105E ‘Flying Car’ -

 

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[Patarei]

A couple of years ago I bought a used Leica M8 because I wanted to try it out. I sold it a couple of month later, which I regretted deeply.

So some weeks ago, I bough a new one. It's in a very good condition. Just slightly back focus a bit.

[Tirpitz666]

Planning to buy one shortly to see how it compares to my M9 and if it can output something even closer to what I was used to to the DMR (just a bit more useable in terms of ISO range) in terms of color rendition and files "crispiness".

[Olaf_ZG]

My first m was a m8, 4 years ago, which I sold to fund a mm. Recently I bought another one, and short after I came across a m8.2 so the m8 is up for sale.

That said, the m8(2) is still a great camera, if you take its quirks into account. During my last holidays it was my walk around camera. For snaps, I don’t need too many mp. I also don’t care about the screen for chimping.

It was, and still is, a great camera. And a great entry into the m-world.

[Tirpitz666]

After some months of usage, I'm pretty happy with mine, B&W is as expected amazing, and colors and appearance are very close to what I was getting from the DMR, which is a huge plus for me. It's slow and quirky yes, but shot within its limits can still render in a pretty unique way (tones tend to be quite warmer in plain daylight than the M9, but more in an amber-ish fashion, which is not so easily replicable with the WB alone, at least to my eyes).

[farnz]

7 minutes ago, Tirpitz666 said:

... tones tend to be quite warmer in plain daylight than the M9 ...

Were you using a UV/IR filter when you see warm tones?

Pete.

[Dazzajl]

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14 minutes ago, farnz said:

Were you using a UV/IR filter when you see warm tones?

Pete.

The M8 is just a very very warm looking camera, with or without the filters. I love it but I know it's not for everyone. The M9 has a much cooler output.

[farnz]

2 minutes ago, Dazzajl said:

The M8 is just a very very warm looking camera, with or without the filters. I love it but I know it's not for everyone. The M9 has a much cooler output.

I've always found that a UV/IR filter tames magenta and therefore some of the M8's Kodak KAF10800 sensor's warmth by removing infra-red wavelengths above 720 nm.

Pete.

[Olaf_ZG]

I don’t have those filters. I live my life on the edge…

[jaapv]

12 minutes ago, Dazzajl said:

The M8 is just a very very warm looking camera, with or without the filters. I love it but I know it's not for everyone. The M9 has a much cooler output.

The problem does not lie in the warm look, but it is the camera turning blacks, especially in synthetic fabrics, into magenta, green foliage into olive or yellow and caucasian skin into purple blotches. All of which generates a lot of work in Photoshop. 
With an IR cut filter it produces very nice "Kodak" colours. 

It won't be too bad in the UK through lack of IR light and sun, but in the tropics, for instance, it is virtually unusable without filter

[RF’sDelight]

I recently came across this thread. It prompted me to dig out my M8 (which I've owned since 2007), charge the battery and to see how I feel about its image quality, colors, etc – compared to my latest digital Ms. I'll check back here soon to share some shots and thoughts. 😊

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Edited August 5 by RF’sDelight

[RF’sDelight]

PS: A quick very first impression from my first shot this morning with M8 + Apo-Summicron 35. I guess modern glass makes a difference on the old sensor. Everything looks "crispier" than I would have expected.

Complete Frame — ISO 160, f2.0, 1/3000 sec, white balance Daylight, unchanged in LR, Profile: Adobe Color
(no vignetting here, it was the actual lighting situation) 

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1:1 crop (1240 px)

Edited August 5 by RF’sDelight

[Tirpitz666]

The M8 is indeed a "crispy machine", having no AA in combination with the weak IR filter, which makes it even "crispier" by default than the M9 (which is quite crisp and sharp too but less so). In my experience, CCD sensors tend to look anyway crispier than their CMOS counterparts for some (technically unknown to me) reasons.

 

To answer farnz question, I've used the M8 in color with and without IR filters and, as Dazzaijl pointed out, it's just a "warm camera" in any case, but the IR filter for sure is necessary to closely match the Kodachrome (and hence the DMR) look. 

[Dazzajl]

2 hours ago, jaapv said:

The problem does not lie in the warm look, but it is the camera turning blacks, especially in synthetic fabrics, into magenta, green foliage into olive or yellow and caucasian skin into purple blotches. All of which generates a lot of work in Photoshop. 
With an IR cut filter it produces very nice "Kodak" colours. 

It won't be too bad in the UK through lack of IR light and sun, but in the tropics, for instance, it is virtually unusable without filter

Yup. That was my backwards way of saying the warm look and the IR issues are not connected. 
 

Good point about the IR issue not being as much of an issue depending on where you live. I probably should make more of an effort to use them with the M8 but to steal the line, it’s such a futz. They do give the lens a very pretty pink iridescent sheen though and that’s got to be worth something too. 

[jaapv]

Don't forget the effect of modern postprocessing tools. 

[pgh]

I'm working on an archiving project this summer, currently going through thousands of files I made with my M8, but with modern Capture One. You can't do much with a file that's as limited as the M8 files are. Not that it's really necessary but still.

I wish I had made these pictures with an M10. Of course it didn't exist. But to answer the question - no. The compromise in the files is just too much for me. I would not buy this camera in this year. It was a solid enough first try from Leica, a lot to like then and at that time I got a student discount, which made it somewhat more worthwhile. But a half baked camera ultimately that was really no more versatile than film and usually printed inferior to 35mm. Nothing personal to Leica - no manufacturer had tech as mature as say 2015-2016 or so, when for me, things more or less plateaued, or gains got so much more slowly incremental and marginal.

I have a lot of 35mm film I shot during this time as well. I don't regret shooting the film. I wish I had the m8 images on film. 

[frederics]

I bought a demo M8 from Tamarkin in 2009 

It has been a very reliable camera. I've never used a newer version of the M.
Things I don't like: the stapler like shutter sound it makes compared to my film M's.
I'm a longtime M user When the Canon %d came out I bought one of those and compared the files, the quality was better with the Canon - not a big difference but it was apparent.
I prefer the form factor an focusing of the M as that is what I am used to. Plus the mechanical dials are more intuitive on the M.
I sent my m8 to Dag along with few lenses (35 1.4 summilux & 35 & 50 Summicrons) to have them calibrated.. I have other lenses which I don't use as they don't focus properly and did not want to send out for calibration (75 1.4, 90 f2,). 
Being an Fit M user, I always found the shutter lag disappointing. 
In terms of service I feel on ice a few year's back I fell on ice and banged the camera & had the shutter replaced bt Leica as it was damaged/ jammed.
It works well now. Very lrelable camera. Don't use ir too often now, sometimes I use it for B&W with older uncoated 3.5 Elmer for a special look.
It use my medium format film cameras more these days than my digital & put my darkroom back in order.
Cheers,
Serge