M8 Brief Usage Report

[skimmel]

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I went by my local camera shop to pick up some prints today and found that they had an M8 there to try out. (Didn't have an SD card with me.)

 

I don't want to reiterate what other have said (beautiful camera, thicker than an M7, shutter sound, etc), but thought I'd add a few of my own (subjective) comments:

 

1) Changing ISO: I wasn't too troubled by the number of button pushes. This may be because I use a Canon 1D and am used to pushing lots of buttons for various functions. I agree it would be nice if it will more straightforward but, as is, I was pretty happy with the ease of changing ISO.

 

2) Smudging: the LCD screen smudged pretty easily. I'm not a greasy guy but I did notice that the LCD screen was smudged after I used it for a few minutes -- worth carrying a good cloth in your camera bag.

 

3) White balance: As I mentioned, I didn't have an SD card, but I noticed that the WB appeared to change with changing aperature. Was using a 35mm summicron (not sure if it had 6-bit encoding -- forgot to ask) in aperature priority mode. When I took a picture of the same exact thing at f 2.0 and then at f 5.6, the WB on the LCD was totally different -- in one the image looked way too blue (this was confirmed by looking at the RGB histogram). Not sure why this would be. (Firmware 1.06). Any ideas?

 

4) 24mm framelines: I wear glasses and can just barely see these. I find them easier to see than the 28 framelines on my M7 (0.72).

 

Overall, the most important thing to me, usage-wise, is that I forgot I was using a digital M after just a few minutes. It just felt like a Leica!

[andrewrossphotographs]

Hi Skimmel

 

Thanks for your report. Regarding point 3: under what lighting situations did you see this white balance change?

 

I too noticed the white balance shift on a firmware version 1.06 M8 at different apertures/shutter speeds the otherday; the shift was from blue to yellow in shots with a coded 35mm/1.4 but it was under fluorescent lighting which of course has a modulating frequency, so my test is inconclusive regarding this.

 

Anyone here who has the camera, like to test this out if this is the case with continuous lighting too?

 

Side apart, the camera tested very well and was a pleasure to work with in terms of ergonomics.

[skimmel]

Hi Skimmel

 

Thanks for your report. Regarding point 3: under what lighting situations did you see this white balance change?

 

I too noticed the white balance shift on a firmware version 1.06 M8 at different apertures/shutter speeds the otherday; the shift was from blue to yellow in shots with a coded 35mm/1.4 but it was under fluorescent lighting which of course has a modulating frequency, so my test is inconclusive regarding this.

 

Anyone here who has the camera, like to test this out if this is the case with continuous lighting too?

 

Side apart, the camera tested very well and was a pleasure to work with in terms of ergonomics.

 

Yes, good point: it was mixed lighting but included fluorescent lighting. Perhaps that's it. I did try it with both auto WB and fluorescent WB and it did the same thing both times.

[andrewrossphotographs]

Yes, good point: it was mixed lighting but included fluorescent lighting. Perhaps that's it. I did try it with both auto WB and fluorescent WB and it did the same thing both times.

 

When I tested it, I just used the "Auto" WB setting, but as I understand it, even using the actual fixed "Fluorescent" WB, it is still possible to produce inconsistant white balance from shot to shot because the fluorescent wavelength varies alot in bursts and a different exposure will of course catch different "lengths" of the bursts resulting in a different colour.

[ustein]

>Anyone here who has the camera, like to test this out if this is the case with continuous lighting too?

 

I have seen this too:

 

Leica M8 Experience

 

Uwe

[andrewrossphotographs]

>Anyone here who has the camera, like to test this out if this is the case with continuous lighting too?

 

I have seen this too:

 

Leica M8 Experience

 

Uwe

 

Interesting you saw this under continuous lighting conditions too; as I was led to understand, Leica did have a last minute WB problem that they needed to fix before shipping, perhaps more work is still needed, of course this problem should be easily fixable via a firmware upgrade, but really this result isn't acceptable when you consider Leica's fanatical approach to quality.

[andrewrossphotographs]

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Yes, good point: it was mixed lighting but included fluorescent lighting. Perhaps that's it. I did try it with both auto WB and fluorescent WB and it did the same thing both times.

 

Hi Skimmel

 

I have re-done a WB test under better conditions and I started a new thread here about this:

 

http://www.leica-camera-user.com/digital-forum/8700-m8-auto-wb-issues.html