LEICA ANNOUNCEMENT: New Leica Products - LEICA M8 / M System

[humanized_form]

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i'm wondering... could a firmware change enable the EV/ISO/WB/file settings to show up in the small round frames/battery life lcd on top of the camera or in the viewfinder? as Guy said i think the viewfinder has a signal that EV has been adjusted, but i'm not sure if this includes the amount of adjustment etc.

[jackart]

I'm stunned that the Sony R1 LCD is good under bright conditions. I will have to check it out.

 

Digilux 2 has also trans-reflective LCD. Good to work in the sunlight.

 

-Jaak

[sean_reid]

Sean's review really is first rate. It is fair, accurate and informative. It identifies the issues without raining on anyone's parade or detracting from all the enthusiasm. It is a review not a "commentary" or op-ed piece. Worth the price for a year.

 

Oh, and as for the guy who wants to buy just this one review and Sean's "I'm not that kind of girl" retort, just look at it as the kind of one night stand you might find you want to last forever.

 

 

Thanks very much. I love the analogy.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

[sean_reid]

I could use some damn credit . Leica send me one. LOL

 

Guy,

 

Given your taste in fine equipment, you should probably stay as far away from credit as possible! <G>

 

Sean

[sean_reid]

That's good to hear Sean, some other thoughts:

 

1) When the scroll wheel is used to select menu entries, the selected entry should wrap from top to bottom and bottom to top so that you can turn it in whichever direction gets you to where you want to go quickest.

 

2) I can see different modes here - Shooting Mode, Image Playback Mode, Set Mode, Menu Mode, Image Review Mode and, as I understand it, pressing the shutter release always takes you back to Shooting Mode. In that mode, with auto-exposure set, could the thumb-wheel be used to dial in EV+/- since I don't see what else it is doing? Maybe an option to have this as an alternative way to set it as in SET mode, maybe an option for "this picture only".

 

3) I think there should be some indication in the viewfinder that EV+/- is set, maybe a blinking dot to remind you. Even better would be to replace the shutter speed with the EV+/- value while you are dialling or alternate the display, or something.

 

1) I think that's the way it works but I don't have an M8 here right now to check.

 

2) Shutter release always dominates, yes.

 

3) There is an indicator in the finder that EV is set. It doesn't tell you what the value is.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

[ehecatl]

It is extremely long winded and imho could have been edited down soemwhat. It is also plagued by a horrible interface that forces me to read in square the is the size of a keyhole on my screen as it dosen't resize according to screen resoulution. Possibly an effect of his choice of flash as a presenter or simply just crappy pogramming on the part of the hired help.

 

I'm very glad to see the release of the M8, and I've been dreaming of ways to purchase one. But I think I would have to sell: a) my m7; my custom made Independent Fabrication road bike; and c) my liver. However, those are bad options because: a) I love my M7 (though since I got an R-D1 I haven't used it mucho); I love my IF bike; and c) I'm using it (to quote Monty Python).

 

So, I'll just have to make do with reading the reviews. I quite liked Sean's review, and I signed up for his website just to read it (and got hooked into looking at the other reviews which I'd heard such great things about). I don't find it long winded at all.

 

However, Sean, I do have to agree that the interface needs to worked on. I was reading it on my new iMac 24" (another reason why I can't get the new M8, I just purchased a new computer) and I wish there was a way to resize so that the review went all the way to the bottom of the screen. I understand your desire to use Flash as a presentation tool, but isn't there a way to program your site so that the review conforms to the screen resolution?

 

Congratulations on the site, however. and congratulations on the review of the M8!

 

Saludos,

 

Santiago

[sean_reid]

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thanks to Sean; great review, as always.

 

couple of questions:

if I want to fire a studio flash, I assume there is some kind of shoe adapter, but can the pre-flash be disabled?

does the car charger plug into the camera, or into the standard charger?

will the view of a std 21mm lens just fill the entire finder so you would not need an external finder?

 

Thank you. Carl may not have liked it but I'm glad that you did. I did not have an appropriate flash at hand to do any flash testing but I suspect that one can manually fire a studio flash without a pre-flash. Does anyone know?

 

I also didn't use the car charger accessory but I believe it plugs into the charger itself.

 

I don't have a 21 right now and I haven't tried one on the M8. Someone on the forum, must have, however.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

[fotografr]

Just brilliant. They've done a great job, there is nothing at all which disappoints, not even the lack of a 21mm frame!

 

€4200 including German VAT makes it about £2950 in the UK including VAT and about $4500 + tax.

 

Am I doing my conversion incorrectly? €4200 comes to over US $5300.

[sean_reid]

I'm stunned that the Sony R1 LCD is good under bright conditions. I will have to check it out.

 

Hi Albert,

 

It is indeed, despite being mounted on top of the camera where it faces the sun directly. Andy Piper can chime in on this. The LCD on the M8 is pretty good, I just find I need to shade almost all LCDs to see them well.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

[pascal_meheut]

Am I doing my conversion incorrectly? €4200 comes to over US $5300.

4200 includes german tax.

[albertwang]

Sounds wonderful... Actually if Leica could build a waist-level magnifier (2X or 1.25 X) that was L-shaped, then street photography could be very nice.

 

I really like the R1's top LCD screen quite a bit... Has a similar idea to a Hassy.

 

I'm still glad that Leica has a wonderful list of accessories for their cameras; it's hard not to find something that isn't useful for the M (or R) in some way.

 

(Note: Vlux has a flip screen too which makes it attractive to shoot from the waist.)

[robbegibson]

Two things:

 

The Hasselblad/Imacon 'OLED' display on the new CF backs is (IMHO) better in bright sunlight than the DMR. That's from using both side-by-side for a while. Of course that's in bright California sunlight. YMMV in Arizona sunlight.

 

On an M with an 0.72 finder, if you jam your face against the viewfinder, the overall view pretty much covers the 24mm field of view. (Glasses wearers will have a real hard time with this). Obviously, there's no parallax correction. It might follow that an 0.68 could come close to matching a 21mm with the same limitation.

 

Robbe Gibson

[sean_reid]

I'm very glad to see the release of the M8, and I've been dreaming of ways to purchase one. But I think I would have to sell: a) my m7; my custom made Independent Fabrication road bike; and c) my liver. However, those are bad options because: a) I love my M7 (though since I got an R-D1 I haven't used it mucho); I love my IF bike; and c) I'm using it (to quote Monty Python).

 

So, I'll just have to make do with reading the reviews. I quite liked Sean's review, and I signed up for his website just to read it (and got hooked into looking at the other reviews which I'd heard such great things about). I don't find it long winded at all.

 

However, Sean, I do have to agree that the interface needs to worked on. I was reading it on my new iMac 24" (another reason why I can't get the new M8, I just purchased a new computer) and I wish there was a way to resize so that the review went all the way to the bottom of the screen. I understand your desire to use Flash as a presentation tool, but isn't there a way to program your site so that the review conforms to the screen resolution?

 

Congratulations on the site, however. and congratulations on the review of the M8!

 

Saludos,

 

Santiago

 

 

Hi Santiago,

 

Thanks for the comments. The screen size issues are endemic to Flash and I've firmly chosen to stay with Flash for security. What I did long ago, however, was to make the following notice prominent above the "subscribe" button so that a prospective subscriber could consider these factors and then decide whether or not he wanted to subscribe:

 

"Before Subscribing, Please Note the Following:

 

The subscriber section of ReidReviews.com requires Macromedia's Flash player (version 7 or 8), which you may already have installed on your computer. If not, you can download it for free here. Since the subscriber section of the site is written in Flash, the content is set at a fixed size and one needs a monitor resolution setting of at least 1152 x 864 pixels to see the full site (at full screen setting) without needing to scroll horizontally. We have optimized the size of the site content based on feedback from hundreds of subscribers, many of whom are working with higher resolution displays. The active content of the site appears in a Flash window that can be vertically scrolled using the traditional on-screen graphics as well as the up/down arrow keys (on Windows and Mac platforms). On Windows platforms, the scroll wheel on a mouse can also scroll the content in the active window. We are working on also implementing mouse scroll wheel functionality for subscribers using the Mac platform but that functionality is not currently in place. For security reasons, the site content cannot be copied or printed."

 

It's just the nature of the beast so potential subscribers can decided if the content is worth accepting the design layout. I realize that it's a compromise but its needed for content security. Most subscribers seems to manage fine with it.

 

This is all OT, though, so maybe we can continue this specific topic off-list if needed.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

[wparsonsgisnet]

Sounds wonderful... Actually if Leica could build a waist-level magnifier (2X or 1.25 X) that was L-shaped, then street photography could be very nice.

 

Albert,

 

When I've been wandering the streets to shoot pix, I use a wide lens, zone focus, and look the other way when I push the shutter. With outside noise, no one ever knows I've taken a pix. With the "autowind" on the M8, I won't even betray myself by cocking the shutter.

 

Gimme the camera!

[larry]

I haven't posted for quite some time, but the M8 introduction got my attention. This camera is on my shopping list.

 

Larry

[Guest guy_mancuso]

Just a follow up the DMR shows that you made a adjustment with your EV but does not show what direction. I beleive 90 percent the same is true on the M8 from what I read .

 

My wife already said she has a rope out for my neck if I get one. I can deal with that no problem as long as she stays away from buying shoes.

 

The question about the flash if you can turn off the pre flash. I tend to think on the M8 you can't but on the Metz 54 I believe you can do that. I will look into that and see if i can uncover more info on this. the M8 for me would be a nice corporate event camera with flash so i need to know this also. I know the Metz has controls that probably no one ever seen or tried. i may have to read TFM. I will check Monday when i get home

 

 

Funny conversation with someone last night and we were saying for a pro to show up at a gig with one of these we may get laughed at because it is so darn small. LOL

[Guest guy_mancuso]

Wait does anyone know if Samy's still has one in the shop. i'm in LA this weekend

[johnbuckley]

Since Sean seems to be reading this thread, I am going to ask a question of him, or perhaps anyone who knows the answer.

 

Sean - I was intrigued in your review by the flash options available. You seem less enamored of them in practice than I am in principle -- but maybe that's because I don't fully understand what they're doing. So two questions: 1) it would seem that the Auto Slow Sync would be a great way to use fill flash and still have an outdoor shot seem natural; did it not prove to be the case in practice? 2) I have a two or three year old SF 20 Leica flash; do I need to upgrade to the SF 24d in order to use the full range of effects? JB

[mitchell]

Jeez Guy,

 

For the first time I have to disagree with you. !:-)

 

When on Auto Exposure, my R9/DMR viewfinder shows exposure compensation, direction, i.e., plus or minus, and amount, in 1/2 stop intervals.

 

On the left there are plus and minus signs in a triangle that only indicate that Exp. Com. is operative. But, in the middle there is something that looks roughly like this:

 

-_______l_l_0_________+

 

 

In this case indicating one whole stop, 2 half stops under exposing. In the real viewfinder the half stops are shorter than the whole stops. When on manual, the same graph indicates how far you are from the exposure the meter is suggesting.

 

The set up is very similar to the LED in the M6. It seems to me very easy to incorporate in the M8. I wonder if people just haven't noticed that it indicates Exp. Comp. when on Auto as well as manual metering?

 

 

Best,

 

Mitchell

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[Guest guy_mancuso]

John if i may , i do this all the time. basically what leica did is do what i do manually when shooting flash. let's say your at a indoor party for example and shooting at ISO 400 and you have your flash set on A and at 5.6 . The flash will put out enough light to give you 5.6 this is on Auto and not TTL. I will explain that difference in a minute. now what I DO is set my shutter around a 1/30 of a second and that is to cath some of the ambient light in the image , So if there are 3 folks in front of me the background can be seen given the right amount of ambient light. Here is what Leica did they give you 3 settingsand i don't have the exact numbers handy but one I do remember. BTW this is called dragging the shutter. What they did was give you a seeing that goes from 1/250 of a second to 1/30 of a second. the camera sends out a preflash than determines the correct light for your F stop but also determines the ambient light and automatically drags the shutter to the slowest spped of 1/30 of a second. So reality is if you maybe in open shade it may stop at 1/60 of second because it meteerd that value but still gives you the correct 5.6 flash power. this is basically automating a task that i have done for years. now i think the other setting was down to 1 second . This is exactly how i read what they are doing. Now the difference is with TTL it is relating to the Lens coding on the lens. Auto has no idea what focal length is on the camera unless you set it. TTL with the coding does. This is one they had to get from a photographer , great idea

 

I'm on a laptop typing , not a good thing. LOL