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When photographing people I normally give them a 15x22cm print afterwards. Recently I’ve made street portraits with both the Q43 and a m8. Converted to b/w and printed, it really took me quite some looking to see the difference. Not in sharpness, as lenses where difference, but more into noise, grain, structure etc. 

The m8 still holds up very well. I should have known this, as I used to make weddingbooks (spreads of 80cm wide) with a fuji s5 and exhibition prints with a sony of 10mp.

For daily work, where iso isn’t the main deciding factor, the m8 delivers.

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Yep! A couple of my best-selling pictures are still M8 shots, printed ~36 x 54cm.

Where the difference might be just visible - if customers are impertinent enough to bring a magnifying glass into the gallery. 😉

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On 2/19/2025 at 7:39 PM, Olaf_ZG said:

where iso isn’t the main deciding factor

That is the defining crux of using the M8 isn't it. Go outside that very thin envelope, you get nasty mush. Work within it and you get something very very special.

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3 hours ago, Dazzajl said:

That is the defining crux of using the M8 isn't it. Go outside that very thin envelope, you get nasty mush.

To a degree ... but if you stay at ISO 320 in low light and allow the M8 to severely underexpose it's astonishing what you can pull back in post-processing.  It's one of the M8's little secrets and there are many threads about it on the forum.

Pete.

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10 hours ago, farnz said:

To a degree ... but if you stay at ISO 320 in low light and allow the M8 to severely underexpose it's astonishing what you can pull back in post-processing.  It's one of the M8's little secrets and there are many threads about it on the forum.

Pete.

I’m not looking for pristine quality from the M8 and I don’t want to cast any bad light on the camera but I didn’t find pushing the files to be a look that I liked. 
 

I’m quite to happy to accept that I’m in the minority here and that most find it perfectly pleasing. Oddly, I tend to like the files from the 246 more when they’re pushed and a little rougher. Go figure 🤷‍♂️

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Interestingly, the M11 bores me a bit, and not because I find it lacking (in fact, it doesn't). Maybe that's why the Leica M11 is now in the closet, and I've returned to shooting with my good old Leica M8 - a camera that challenges me every time I use it.

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There is considerable personal satisfaction in producing pleasing results by using a tool with skill and judgement against "point and press" let the tool do the rest, M8 and M2 are both challenging but give me that in spades when I get it right, it's never their fault when they don't.

 

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  • 1 month later...

What bothered me is the sound from M8, very loud for Leica M.

But in those days, maybe I was alone being disturbed while using "happily" this otherwise fine machine.

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22 hours ago, a.noctilux said:

What bothered me is the sound from M8, very loud for Leica M.

But in those days, maybe I was alone being disturbed while using "happily" this otherwise fine machine.

The thing is that it's loud to you when you have the camera to you face but people who are further away, such as the subject and passers-by, rarely notice its shutter sound.  Ambient noise might play a part in masking the M8's steely sound so it's difficult to tell. 

What I can confirm is that the M8's shutter sound is dwarfed by the KABOOM!! of my Pentax 67's mirror-slap. :lol:

Pete.

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On 2/21/2025 at 1:02 AM, farnz said:

To a degree ... but if you stay at ISO 320 in low light and allow the M8 to severely underexpose it's astonishing what you can pull back in post-processing.  It's one of the M8's little secrets and there are many threads about it on the forum.

Pete.

Second little secret: If you use the camera in bright conditions at higher ISO, say 1250 or even 2500, and expose well, your photographs get a lovely film-like microstructure. 

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Hi J

4 hours ago, jaapv said:

Second little secret: If you use the camera in bright conditions at higher ISO, say 1250 or even 2500, and expose well, your photographs get a lovely film-like microstructure. 

Hi Jaap, i never tried that. but sounds interesting to do.

I bought a MP240 last year and i'm using it a lot, keeping my M8 at home.

But this last month, i am called by myself to pick up the M8. I think i'll love it more that before, and i love it a lot.

And as i've acquired a elmarit 28V2, it seems a veeeeery good match, not a fast lens, but....

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