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Received my new M8.2 today...and a question


Guest malland

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Sean, thou dost protest too much, given how good the colour is on your shots in the M8 reviews — I know, I know, it's all the M8.

 

—Mitch/Potomac, MD

Bangkok Hysteria©: Book Project - a set on Flickr

 

Thanks and no, it's not the M8 per se but I can only pull it off when I'm working with a fairly simple palette. Color photography is very difficult to do well and I don't often see in color.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

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In other words, no mount swapping. How long does it take?

 

—Mitch/Potomac, MD

Bangkok Hysteria©: Book Project - a set on Flickr

 

Mitch,

 

You should be able to swap the 18 mount yourself. I did it in about 10 mins. The LTM 15, of course, just needs the adapter. See the "Introduction to Rangefinder Cameras" article for methods. It should only be necessary to send a lens to a technician if the bayonet swap is not straightforward. The small Zeiss 21 is tricky for example.

 

I'd try to sort out as many lenses as you can without sending them anywhere. Just get the needed parts sent to you. I have not yet had to send any of my Zeiss or CV lenses to anyone and every RF lens I have is durably coded.

 

The Leica 21 is the one you should ask John about. No real need to send the 18.

 

Cheers,

 

S

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I see that the files converted in Llightroom and Aperture have different pixel dimension: the former being 3916 x 2634 and the latter being 3904 × 2622 pixel, with neither in the 100:150 ratio it should be.

 

Mitch--

Congratulations on the M8.2.

 

I'm late to the party, so someone else may have already mentioned this.

 

I can't get you to 3:2 on the M8, but you are familiar with DNG Recover Edges, aren't you? It gives you everything that the camera recorded. Unfortunately, since Leica has already given us all but 4 pixels on each row and column on the M8, the applet is of little benefit there.

 

OTOH, for the Leica digicams and for Nikon and Canon dSLRs, it can recover quite a bit of useful edge image.

 

It starts with a DNG, and simply uncovers the edge pixels. It modifies the original file, so you may want to work from a copy.

 

(Interestingly, Capture One 4.5 DNGs from D-Lux 4 expand fine but include a lot of edge garbage that ACR DNGs from the same camera don't--maybe because the Adobe DNGs incorporate the lens corrections that Capture One maintains in its TIFFs but drops from its DNGs.)

 

See LuLa for more info and download: DNG Recover Edges

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...You should be able to swap the 18 mount yourself. I did it in about 10 mins. The LTM 15, of course, just needs the adapter. See the "Introduction to Rangefinder Cameras" article for methods. It should only be necessary to send a lens to a technician if the bayonet swap is not straightforward. The small Zeiss 21 is tricky for example.

 

I'd try to sort out as many lenses as you can without sending them anywhere. Just get the needed parts sent to you. I have not yet had to send any of my Zeiss or CV lenses to anyone and every RF lens I have is durably coded.

 

The Leica 21 is the one you should ask John about. No real need to send the 18...

Sean:

 

I've got all the information on the cost from John Millich and, it seems, it's possible to order the mount for the 21mm from Leica and have it milled. But I'm agonizing a bit over the decision of whether to go through the expense and cost of having all this done because I don't know how much I will do colour with the M8. The lenses involved are the CV15, Zeiss 18 and Elmarit-21 ASPH. The Summicron-28 that is on its way to me is coded, and I'll be getting two free IR-cut filter from Leica with my M8 purchase; I thougth of asking for the 46mm for the Summicron-28 and the 60mm for the Elmarit-21 ASPH.

 

 

Once in a great while I also like to give the camera its head and shoot color unfiltered - letting the shifts go where they will. But I'm really not a color photographer outside of commercial work...

 

But I wonder for my type of photography whether I really to need to use IR-cut filters are all. I'd be interested in the experience of others who shoot color without these filters.

 

—Mitch/Potomac, MD

Bangkok Hysteria©: Book Project - a set on Flickr

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Hi Mitch,

 

Maybe you want to find out empirically. Take the coded 28 out and shoot color with and without the filter. See if you like the color shifts. Or if you're really not making color pictures now, wait to figure this out until you are.

 

If you are going to shoot color and you prefer the more "accurate" color rendering with the filters, maybe start with the easier swaps. LT-M8 for the CV 15 is easy (though beware that John's filter holder for that lens vignettes a bit - needs a redesign). Swapping the Zeiss 18 over to the Milich mount should be quite easy and that lens has filter theads.

 

So, as I think about it, maybe try color first with the 28 and then, perhaps, with the modified 18.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

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Guest malland

Good suggestion, Sean, but I have to wait for the Summicron-28 to arrive from the UK, as it's being shipped today. When I get a chance to do the test I may post the results here, but only if the pictures are at least moderately interesting. (I know, people are going to say that this criterion hasn't stopped me in the past...)

 

—Mitch/Potomac, MD

Bangkok Hysteria©: Book Project - a set on Flickr

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Good suggestion, Sean, but I have to wait for the Summicron-28 to arrive from the UK, as it's being shipped today. When I get a chance to do the test I may post the results here, but only if the pictures are at least moderately interesting. (I know, people are going to say that this criterion hasn't stopped me in the past...)

 

—Mitch/Potomac, MD

Bangkok Hysteria©: Book Project - a set on Flickr

 

Right, one step at a time perhaps. Till then, lots of work in BW.

 

Cheers,

 

S

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Steve, I tend to carry the camera with the strap on my right shoulder and wrap it around my wrist when in "shooting mode".

—Mitch/Paris

Bangkok Hysteria©: Book Project - a set on Flickr

 

Do you really mean 'slung only from your right shoulder' and not across your chest as well? If so, as an ex-Naples veteran, I see a real risk that a determined street thief could simply tear the camera from your grasp and disappear into the crowd. Please don't think that I am trying to be a scare-monger; I have seen such an incident happen in the outskirts of Naples with distressing results.

 

How a photographer carries a camera is a very personal choice. In my experience, there is not a simple universal solution. My choice is to have the strap diagonally across my chest with enough slack to provide a secure grip when shooting. I much prefer an additional grip for added security.

 

On a happier note, the M8 is too good to lose and I do hope that you derive great enjoyment from it.

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Do you really mean 'slung only from your right shoulder' and not across your chest as well? If so, as an ex-Naples veteran, I see a real risk that a determined street thief could simply tear the camera from your grasp and disappear into the crowd. Please don't think that I am trying to be a scare-monger; I have seen such an incident happen in the outskirts of Naples with distressing results...
Dave, I've seen similar things happen in Rome, but this is not a problem in Bangkok, where I live, and not in Paris either. And in Italy, it happens mainly to people who look like tourists — not something I worry about.

 

—Mitch/Potomac, MD

Bangkok Hysteria©: Book Project - a set on Flickr

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Dave, I've seen similar things happen in Rome, but this is not a problem in Bangkok, where I live, and not in Paris either. And in Italy, it happens mainly to people who look like tourists — not something I worry about.

 

—Mitch/Potomac, MD

Bangkok Hysteria©: Book Project - a set on Flickr

Mitch, I take your point. But the theft I witnessed was perpetrated on a local resident who did not look like a tourist. Opportunist thieves don't really care who the victim is provided they are carrying something worth snatching.

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Mitch, just in case you're getting your filters ordered before you get back to your lenses, double check the filter size---I thought the pre-asph 21s were 60mm, and that the asph 21s are 55mm (I know mine is, but maybe my recollection is faulty and the size changed after the asph was introduced).

 

I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with the new camera.

 

Until later,

 

Clyde

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I thougth of asking for the 46mm for the Summicron-28 and the 60mm for the Elmarit-21 ASPH.

 

—Mitch/Potomac, MD

 

 

You might consider requesting a 55mm filter along with the 46 in that case; it'll screw in easier. The old pre-ASPH took 60mm except for the prototypes which took 49mm.

 

I always use UV/IR cut filters on all lenses except for the 12 (which is sometimes hard to fix in PP when a filter is used) and some exceptional circumstances. 2 years of shooting have convinced me that this is the right approach. All lenses below 35mm are coded, and some 35's.

 

Henning

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Clyde and Hening, thanks for pointing out that the 21ASPH takes the 55mm filter and not 60mm — I hate to think that I wouldn't have checked before ordering...[/url]

 

Mitch,

 

if you end up with the 28mm Cron and the 21mm Lux. *i'm* going to mug you when you get back to Paris!

 

oh, and i'll take the camera too :p

 

(pity you sold the 75mm Lux and the Nocti...)

 

cam

 

P.S. more photos from the 18mm Zeiss, please!

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Guest malland
I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with the new camera...
Clyde, thanks, so am I really. I got the M8.2 for a variety of reasons, one of them to take a different and perhaps more deliberate approach, in addition to my "loose and fluid" style. However, at this stage, I'm still beating up and roughing up files, as in the picture below. Basically, I like high-contrast, expressionist photography.

 

I've been shooting using Auto ISO, as suggested by robsteve in another thread, and was surprised to see that the picture below was shot at ISO 320, for it didn't need that low ISO.

 

I do wish that there was a more direct and quicker way of setting the ISO, because I like to change it fairly often.

 

 

 

Leica M8.2 | ISO320 | Zeiss 18mm lens

3229743784_28ca92b6cf_o.jpg

 

 

 

—Mitch/Potomac, MD

Bangkok Hysteria©: Book Project - a set on Flickr

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Guest malland

I thought I would continue posting to this thread, as it's still only two weeks since I received my M8.2 in Paris, so that in a way it's a bit like a diary that may be useful to new M8 users.

 

I've continued to shoot using Auto-ISO, following the suggesting of robsteve. This approach generally results in lower ISOs than I would select because it lowers the ISO rather than the shutter speed, and one would never change the ISO this often manually, particularly the way ISO changing is implemented on the M8. Using low-ISOs has the advantage of producing very rebust files that can easily stand up to the rather rough manipulation that I often subject them to. The following pictures were all shot at ISO 160, as few hours after the ISO 2500 pictures in post #119:

 

 

 

3233865874_bdf55703be_o.jpg

 

 

 

 

3232553984_56136782f3_o.jpg

 

 

 

 

3232554036_2bcdf75545_o.jpg

 

 

 

—Mitch/Potomac, MD

Bangkok Hysteria©: Book Project - a set on Flickr

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