Welcome to the quiet backwaters of the M8 forum...

[leicajh]

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I just wandered over to the M9 forum to see what was happening. Woooo! The fighting is in full swing over there. I'd recommend Kevlar if any are thinking of venturing in.

 

Myself, I shall stay here, where it is nice and safe, and sanity prevails.

 

Brilliant idea. May be Luggi could sewup some kevlar bags,

[Rick]

It has all at once dawned on me that the "knowledgeable" members have left the M8 forum. Feels good to swim in the quiet backwaters. I could get used to this.

 

Since, I didn't change my bookmark over to the M9 Forum page yet, I think I'll just leave it opening up the M8 forum.

 

Sorry, you're stuck with me and I'm stuck with the M8.

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[farnz]

It has all at once dawned on me that the "knowledgeable" members have left the M8 forum. ...

I think I'd swap the word "opinionated" for the word "knowledgeable".

 

Pete.

[vanhulsenbeek]

I think I'd swap the word "opinionated" for the word "knowledgeable".

 

Pete.

 

I have seen many knowledgeable members comment and contribute here in the last week. Indeed, the opiniated may have shifted their attention to the M9 Forum: so much more fun to be created there

[geoffreyg]

Having spent two years building the lens kit around the M8, not quite ready to recalibrate yet again for the M9. Shooting with 15, 21 CV, 28, 50 cron and have 75 and 90.

 

With the crop, I've found the 50 to be my favorite lens on the M8, and even warming up to the new 21 as an all arounder....to keep the 28 company.

 

Now all that would have to reshuffle with an M9. The 35 'cron would be fine, but all the others.... would be changed. Yes, the M8 is a bit quirky, but as others have said, so are we all by now. I rather like it.

 

If I had a bundle of change, or the price were half, I'd go get one in a heart beat (like improvements like anyone else). But somehow, the M8 has a nice home now, and I've had great shots with it. Not ready to move on at all. No sir.

 

Geoff

 

PS - still with a closet of Rollei gear, which I won't let loose either. Home of a sentimentalist, to be sure!

[rickp13]

this path may look familiar to you?

 

Year Camera

2003 E-10

2004 D-100

2005 D2H

2006 D2X

2007 M8

2008 M8

2009 M8

 

greetings from the hamburg "backwaters"

 

rick

[digger1914]

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I am sure that I will move to the world of M9 one day. At the moment it's about price, and not just the body. I have 3 lenses that I feel suit the M8 crop, being 28, 35 & 50.

 

When I jump I will need to get a 70 to complete the bit of reach I currently get with my 50.

 

Hopefully any teething problems will be sorted out while I wait.

[apitong]

Happy with M8, 28 Elmarit ASPH, 50 Summicron latest model, and occasionally Elmar-C 90 from the seventies. I also have old Elmar 50 and Summicron-C 40 but have not used these on M8

[Rick]

apitong, Right on! Enjoy and Jai guru deva om.

[exile]

I'm very glad the leica are committed to the M line. I'm glad they have produced an M9. One day I will move on to the M9 or M10. Right now I'm still LOVING my M8. Fantastic camera if you can adjust to the modest crop factor.

If you need one more stop low light performance, you can buy a fast lens for considerably less than an M9. Some of them even have great character. Here are a few shots I took with my new Canon 50/1.2 ltm bundled with a Canon 7 for less than 200 Euros in Budapest:

 

(Maybe we can all get a bit of break now)

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(Of course, it is tempting to go over to the M9 forum and see who is causing trouble)

 

 

Sorry, but I just had to post some more pictures in this thread - I hope we'll get much more of those in the M8 forum now that the "technological feasability" discussions have moved elsewhere....

 

The M8 is still an AWESOME camera. No question.

Edited September 18, 2009 by exile

[steamboat]

Great thread. I eased (very quietly) over to the M9 forum and quickly came upon (whatelse) a thread with improvements that should be put into the M10. The more things change.....and all that.

[DWatts]

If I saw identical images one taken with an M8 and the second with an M9 what differences could I expect to see at say an A4 print ?

Edited September 18, 2009 by DWatts

[exile]

I would think that would depend on the ISO. Not many people find fault with the M8 at low ISOs.

[kemal_mumcu]

You guys are still cool to me. I'm still at the M2 stage.

[lightpainter]

Crazy world. One day the throw something in the bin, the next they search every bin for it since it's what they call vintage. One day you will find search ads looking for that first "loud" M8 without saphire glass because there's definitely something to it. It may be that the sensor version x had pixels shaped y or whatever. All those pics comparing M9 to M8: if you took the comments away and simply let the pics speak, no one would even bother to think whether is was M8 or M9. I got my first (and last) M8 2.5 years ago because I wanted to go digital and take along all the great glass I had used with my M6 and my M7 before. Happy to be there.

 

"Take it easy, take it easy, don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy" (Jackson Browne)

[kalina]

This is how I see the M9. It's an intriguing camera, quite a step up from the M8 in terms of image quality, but... I can't afford one right now. I can probably buy one in a year or so. The thing is I'm satisfied with my M8, my D-Lux 4, my Nikon F100, my Nikon D300, my Hasselblad 501, my Shen-Hao 4x5. These are all great cameras, not the best in their class, but I can take some great pictures with all of them. If I owned an M9 right now, I would be more concerned with dropping it on the ground or someone stealing it. I wouldn't get quite the same enjoyment out of the M9 as I would with all my other cameras.

[lightpainter]

Good point there, Kalina, and great work in your portfolio. You've certainly got something to tell.

[kalina]

Good point there, Kalina, and great work in your portfolio. You've certainly got something to tell.

 

Thank you

[Guest EarlBurrellPhoto]

This is how I see the M9. It's an intriguing camera, quite a step up from the M8

 

I've lurked around but never wanted to get into the foray. Now that the one-uppers and me-tooers have abandoned the M8 and are rushing to early-adopt the M9 as the new Holy Grail, I think maybe it's safe to decloak and put in my $0.02, being an owner and high-volume professional user of 2 M8s since January and February of '07.

 

I can't agree about that adjective I bolded in your characterisation Kalina. I'm not picking on you. Just using it to make some points. Let's look at some points:

 

1. The M9 has, at best, about 1 stop improvement in high-iso noise. As opposed to C**** and more aptly N**** whose high-iso noise is at least 3 stops improved from the M8. Say what you want about the way C**** and N**** go about achieving it, if high-iso noise is that much of an issue in your photography, the M9 isn't a revelation over the M8. Likewise, say what you want about AA filtration, if a lot of what you shoot tends to stir up a lot of moire, the M9 doesn't offer anything better than the M8.

 

2. Being full-frame, the widest coverage you can use on an M9 is 12mm, and nobody knows if that lens (CV) will perform well enough in the corners on the M9 to even be considered usable. On an M8, that 12mm lens becomes a 16mm and it performs quite well. So from 15-16mm there is no coverage-angle available to the owner of an M9 that can't be effectively got on an M8. So much for the vast importance of full-frame.

 

3. The scratch-proof sapphire LCD cover glass that Leica heralded, trumpeted, and touted on the M8.2 is missing on the M9. Leica says it was to keep the price in line. Yet when I was offered to upgrade my M8s with a new shutter and framelines, the sapphire glass added only $300 American to the cost. Surely most people who are willing to pay the price of an M9 wouldn't blink at another $300 American. I see it as a sign there is still some poorly-reasoned decisionmaking on the part of Leica's bean counters, and leads me to wonder what other cost-cutting cheapenings are inside the M9 we don't know about.

 

4. On a similar note, after all the howling over the tight frame lines in the M8 and the subsequent hoorays over the switch to looser ones in the M8.2 (and having used both, I can say I said a few hoorays when I got mine upgraded), the M9 reverts to the tight frame lines. Having looked through the finder of an M9 I can see exactly what the real reason was for it: The 28mm frame lines are much closer to the periphery than the 24mm frame lines in an M8-original. There would have been no way for Leica to expand them. Anything else Leica says in their ads is marketing, pure and simple.

 

5. Instead of giving the top-plate battery check and shot counter an extra digit and making it light up, which would have been an improvement, they decided to do away with it. To check battery condition or shots remaining on an M9, you not only have to look at the back LCD, you have to press a button. In a church or theater, that means lighting up the entire LCD and calling unwanted attention to yourself, not to mention causing your pupils to constrict, which will make the next shot literally a shot in the dark.

 

6. On a similar note, having done away with the battery/shot counter, they decided to cut a notch in the top plate. A purposeless notch. That leaves the viewfinder much more vulnerable to getting cracked by a knock on the side. Another example of senseless change the result of bean counters prevailing over the engineers.

 

7. The M8.2 did away with the black chrome, long a favourite of us professionals for its dull matte finish and durability, in favour of black paint preferred by nostalgists. I don't take umbrage with that, given that Leica has to appeal to affluent collector-types to survive. Sales of Leicas to professionals help Leica's bottom line only by spurring sales to the amateurs. But this time around they've done away with the silver chrome plating as well, in favour of silver-gray paint. I should think even Leica's primary market of amateurs would be dismayed and disgusted over that rather obvious cost-cutting decision.

 

8. It has been noted already that the on-sensor IR filter in the M9 is only partially effective in eliminating the magenta colour shift. Leica even says so in their brochure (so I guess it isn't fair to say they learned nothing from their experience with the M8 ). So then, what are we to do? Keep various sizes of IR filters in the bag for those now-somewhat-fewer situations when they're indispensible? Oh wait, but there is no longer any firmware setting for a lens-fit IR filter to correct cyan vignetting with wide angle lenses. Oh yes, Leica thought the M9 through much more carefully than the M8 they rushed to production. Not.

 

And those, mateys, are but the things we already know from the limited reviews and the dozen or so people who camped on their stockists' stoops to be the first in the clique to boast ownership.

 

The M9 is a changed camera from the M8, I will grant. But from what I can garner so far it offers more to satisfy the cravings of camera addicts than to solve real photographic issues.

 

Cheers,

Earl

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Hallo,

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[graeme_hutton]

......Reads in agreement and then ducks for cover awaiting the onslaught.......