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Leica M8 : An interesting Review


Samir Jahjah

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There is an interesting review of the M8 to be found here (in French):

 

Prise en main Leica M8

 

 

C1 appears much better than Adobe ACR in converting M8 DNG files. Banding and IR-related purple are mentioned. On the latter the author confirms what other have said: it cannot be fixed by a firmware.

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For French readers Pascal Meheut's really useful "Prise en main" / user review (Leica M8 - Prise en main) gives a balanced and encouraging view of the camera - warts and all. Magenta / banding issues aren't glossed over, but they ARE set in the context of the overall delight of being able to work digitally with a viable RF camera.

 

Worth the read.

 

Chris

Christopher Tribble: documentary photography, training, education, linguistics

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The first test with the DxO tests was done by a friend using my camera. What is interesting is that he found the optical quality to be everything we expect from Leica lenses. The 28mm/2 is amazing, ranking for very good to excellent all over the frame and even wide-open. The 50mm/2 has the lowest CA he ever saw and so on.

 

About the short review I wrote, I have to say that now, I would empathize more how the IR problem can really be painful. At first, I had it only under incandescent lights and it was easy to fix by tweaking a problem but now, I have it with some clothes too.

So I'm waiting for the IR filter.

 

But I still think this is a great camera.

 

BTW: DNG converted with ACR show more much CA than even M8 Jpegs, not to mention C1 output files... Never, never use ACR with an M8 file.

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I have used ACR on all of my M8 shots, having integrated it into my workflow with the DMR.

 

I have not noticed anything other than the widely reported issues using this method.

 

Is there anyone here that can provide a further details on why ACR is not as good as C1 ?

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Here is an example, the corner of a shot with the 28mm/2 at f/8. Left is C1, right is ACR. ACR as 3 times more CA and as I said before, even more than M8's jpeg. So it adds some...

 

Not to mention the oversaturared colors, especially the red...

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Sorry, I don't buy into it. I just shot an all digital job using three cameras ... M8, DMR and a Mamiya RZ with a Leaf Aptus 75 back. ACR recognizes all those file formats as well as those from my H2D/39 Imacon.

 

This means I can dump all of the RAW image files from all three cameras into one folder, sort by time shot to place them in chronological order for side-by-side evaluation and editing.

 

Like the DMR, I had to build a proprietary default profile for the M8. Took 2 minutes. ARC is infinitely adjustable and provides calibration adjustments just for this reason. Once made you save that subset for recall when working on camera specific files.

 

Since I can easily select intermingled files by assigning them a rating ( one star for one camera, 2 stars for another camera, and so on), I can then select just the M8 files, call up its' RAW calibration and work them in batches of 30 or more.

 

I think we all need to investigate the abilities of these very sophisticated programs more deeply before making blanket pronouncements.

 

BTW, I am taking my own advice here also. I am investigating C-1 more than I have in the past and haven't ruled it out.

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Sure, if ACR is more convenient for you and if you are ready to calibrate it yourself, go for it. If more CA is not a problem, ok.

 

But your post is just about the way you work, not about the results.

 

I'm a ACR fan also. I always end up doing a custom calibration anyway so ACR is ideal. It seems that most people pick a PP software based on the color profile that the software developer came up with sometimes in a matter of days after the release of the camera. I haven't found that any one software is consistently better than any other in that regard. Frankly, I'd rather "roll my own". And ACR let's you do this more easily than most. Although still a huge pain.

 

Rex

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