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M8 & Pro Wedding photography


M'Ate

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... I don't like carrying more than three lenses at one time, and for me the best flexible range would be 21, 35, 75, corresponding to my old favorite lineup for film - 24/28, 50, and 100....

 

Michael, have to say this concurs with my experience too. I shot a wedding last week with exactly that combination and it felt right. I still like to take a 50 for film bodies though.

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Very nice thread indeed! Even for none wedding pro's!

 

I don't shoot weddings for example, but there is always a reception or business event to photograph. Mostly in this horrible hotel lighting (how can you rate a hotel with 5 stars if your well browned girl looks like the phantom of the opera...). I found out that the M8 does a great job in getting saturated, sharp pictures, yes in AWB. My favorite is the 28/2.0 cron as it is a sharp monster, much better performing than any Canon pro lens I have. To shoot dancing people with almost no light, the M8 is great for that... The M8, how much I hate the iso's above 320 (only use 320 and sometimes 640), gives me more sharp pictures (I flash with a Metz in auto) than my Canon 1D Mark II... Of course there are reasons why I still use the Canon; speed, battery and easier flash. But, the flash gets tired quickly after loosing some battery freshness.. The Canon isn't the right tool for these events (for me), if it was I would stick to it. Too heavy, too much present and many times, also because of weight, unsharp pictures. I only like unsharpness when I program it.

 

Are there more flash stories to tell here, in combination with the M8? This Metz takes the light weight advantage a little away.. I own a SF20, but, as said before, it isn't the pro tool I need... Any other suggestions?

 

Cheers, Harold

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Harold, the Nikon SB-20 is great. It's fat but short, a better form factor for the M8, and they're dirt cheap so you can own several backups. Unscrew the bottom plate and pull out all the pins except the center on so you have a non-dedicated flash.

 

The only downside is it won't rotate on the horizontal axis, meaning you can't bounce off the ceiling when you're shooting vertically. Doesn't bother me. The SB-26 and SB-28 will allow you to do that though, but personally I hate putting a skyscraper flash on my M8. Or any flash for that matter... Well, we all know the story.

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To each his own. I don't find DSLRs to be "perfect" at all for much of my work (weddings included).

 

 

To each his own... But the market doesn't lie. Millions of DSLRs sold and 99% wedding shooters use DSLRs as their main system around the globe. Doesn't get much more perfect then that, IMO.

 

But yeah, this is a M8 forum so the overprotection is to be expected.

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To each his own... But the market doesn't lie. Millions of DSLRs sold and 99% wedding shooters use DSLRs as their main system around the globe. Doesn't get much more perfect then that, IMO.

 

But yeah, this is a M8 forum so the overprotection is to be expected.

 

An unfair statement. It's true the M8 has reliability issues, and I do keep my Canons at weddings also, but I have vastly (all caps VASTLY) more confidence that the M8 will render me a well-focused shot than the computerized gadgetry in my SLRs. Reliability is as reliability does.

 

For some, myself included (and Sean I'm assuming), a rangefinder system provides a different sensory input for the eye and the brain. Compare an SLR to binoculars, whereas the rangefinder is the naked eye. Some people need the binoculars, and some prefer to see the whole vista at once. It's a creative choice. In the few months since I've switched to using a rangefinder system, the creative quality of my work has skyrocketed.

 

I can understand making a blanket statement that DSLRs are perfect for weddings if you're shooting standard cookie-cutter weddings that look like the other 99% of shooters out there, everyone pressing the buttons and letting the camera's computer make the decisions. But if you're looking to stretch artistically and provide your clients with a unique documentation of the day, then a rangefinder is one of the "perfect" means of doing so.

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To each his own... But the market doesn't lie. Millions of DSLRs sold and 99% wedding shooters use DSLRs as their main system around the globe. Doesn't get much more perfect then that, IMO.

 

But yeah, this is a M8 forum so the overprotection is to be expected.

 

Just saw your website. Have a look at the sites of Riccis and Michael, it might benefit you. The rangefinder system offers some advantages to the DSLR system, I didn't hear anybody say that the M8 is perfect. If your mirror reflex is, stick to it, I would do the same. But if it isn't, open up and try something that works out well for at least some of us, no matter what the market dictates..

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To each his own... But the market doesn't lie. Millions of DSLRs sold and 99% wedding shooters use DSLRs as their main system around the globe. Doesn't get much more perfect then that, IMO.

 

But yeah, this is a M8 forum so the overprotection is to be expected.

 

No, this is a forum were people know what they are talking about and do not rely on stupid sentences like "the market doesn't lie"...

 

And if the definition of "perfection" is "biggest market share", then I guess the best pizza in the world is made by Pizza Hut and not somewhere in Naple, the best car is the Toyota Corolla and so on...

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To each his own... But the market doesn't lie. Millions of DSLRs sold and 99% wedding shooters use DSLRs as their main system around the globe. Doesn't get much more perfect then that, IMO.

 

But yeah, this is a M8 forum so the overprotection is to be expected.

 

Nothing wrong with either system. I use a RF for all my weddings; my co-shooter uses an SLR. I can focus in low light where she can't; but she can use macros or long lenses where I can't. I can shoot with some of the best primes ever made; but she never has to change lenses. But ultimately it's all irrelevant as the only thing that matters at the end of the day is the image that's captured.

 

Claiming one system is better than the other is odd. I can't imagine a carpenter ever claiming that a hammer is better than a saw. Most bright minds would embrace the right tool for the job. And in many cases the right tool is probably the one you're most adept at using.

 

99% of wedding shooters use SLRs ? Maybe. But then 99% of photographers in general use SLRs. It's an empty statistic.

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Guest noah_addis
To each his own... But the market doesn't lie. Millions of DSLRs sold and 99% wedding shooters use DSLRs as their main system around the globe. Doesn't get much more perfect then that, IMO.

 

But yeah, this is a M8 forum so the overprotection is to be expected.

 

I don't do weddings, but if I did I'd prefer to shoot with RF cameras, as I prefer for all of my work. Has nothing to do with leica per se, but it's the only game in town for a current drf camera, and few argue with the quality of the optics and I like the ergonomics of the cameras, both film and digital.

 

I'd be curious to compare the quality of the work between your proposed 99% of wedding shooters who use dslrs and the 1% who use other systems...much more of a relevant comparison than market share as others have mentioned.

 

If riccis is a good example, I'll go with the 1%.

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Not a wedding photographer, but just a note. I noticed an article about Ascough sometime ago when he was using Leicas and was truly impressed when I went over to see his work. Since that first look, he switched over to Canons and, honestly, it doesn't seem to compare with what he did with the Ms. My wife made the same comment even though she didn't know that he had switched. Just two cents.

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Guest Essemmlee

Carlsberg don't do weddings.................

 

.......................................but if they did, they would almost certainly use 2 x M8's and a world class selection of superior glassware.

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No, this is a forum were people know what they are talking about and do not rely on stupid sentences like "the market doesn't lie"...

 

But like in any other forum - there are plenty here that simply don't know what they're talking about.

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Interesting, how much attraction the camera-system gets. As real life proofs: One can produce massive crap with the most expensive equipment, others can do real good shots with an amateur camera. Nobody but hobby-shooters finally ask me about my equipment, people just want good shots.

 

My tip: Backup body, backup flash, enough energy (system + photographer) and a solid tripod for the group shots. The rest is on you.

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I think, what a lot of people forget (including Ned there) is that the "beauty" in the images (whether they're created by an M8, M7 or Canon 5D, Nikon D3 etc.) is in the eye of the customer.

 

I think the clientelle really could care less what the images are made WITH as long as they deem them acceptable, beautiful and worth the money that they are paying the photographer. Some couples really put a high priority on photography and hire the professionals accordingly. Others do not and get "Uncle Bob with the Rebel Xti and kit lens" to shoot their wedding. It really depends on the couple.

 

So to argue about whether one camera is "better" or "more appropriate" is juvenile imho because in the end it's not about whether other photographers deem the images "good enough" or "pieces of art" it's more about whether the images appeal to the clients.

 

Cheers,

Dave

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