mike prevette Posted November 22, 2006 Share #1 Posted November 22, 2006 Advertisement (gone after registration) Ok so thanks to a poster yesterday http://www.leica-camera-user.com/digital-forum/9918-m8-returned-dealer.html I finally got a M8. He returned it yesterday to Kenmore camera. I called them up and they said someone already had a hold on it. Well around 4:30 I decided to call them up again and see if the guy who had it on hold had picked it up, well he hadn't. So after drinking WAY to much coffee, I decided to drive up there and wait it out to see if the other guy would show or not. I got there at around 6:30 and he still hadn't picked it up yet. So I hung around a while, then finally at around 6:55 he called up and canceled his order. So there I was after a long long wait, and quite an adventure to get up there in the rain and rush hour traffic, I had in my hand my very own m8. So first thoughts ( I'll ignore the typical issues as they have been discussed adnauseam and the appeared within the first 15 shots for me): Pre-purchase I checked the sensor to make sure it was clean and somewhat defect free. Well the first time I tried to use the 'sensor clean' function the camera froze. My heart crashed, but I popped out the battery and rebooted and it worked fine. I can only guess that it didn't like the fact it didn't have a card in it at the time. so far no more lock ups. Something that I haven't heard mention of is that when you press the shutter button down to it's exposure lock position the camera emits a VERY FAINT high pitched whine. Now I can only hear it when I'm in a very quiet place, and only when my face is pressed up against the camera. It's possible no one has noticed this because it is a very high pitch, and ears loose their sensitivity to those tones over time. The shutter button is indeed a little 'gritty' feeling. Of course it's doing a lot different work than my M6 shutter button is doing. I've noticed some vertical streaking most likely caused by small point source lights (xmas lights) slightly out of frame. These lights end up reflecting off surfaces inside the camera chamber and back onto the sensor. This is a very common ocourance in the motion picture work I do. It's also the reason why motion picture lenses have a much tighter image circle when compared to the fall off of still lenses. Since the chip in the m8 is smaller than 35mm, and yet the lenses are projecting 35mm image circles, there is a lot of excess light bouncing around in the camera. B/W JPGs at the low con, low sharpness settings are very organic looking, and are making me very happy. Also using the low con setting has helped emensly with the harsh highlight transitions reported in JPG's earlier. The camera actually writes DNG's FASTER than it does JPG's. This makes no sense to me other than possibly the M8's JPGing chip is way under powered. But shooting, and reviewing DNG's on the camera is almost a second faster in each operation than JPG's. USB2.0 seems faster than most other cameras. I don't recommend it vs a card reader however. Here is one reason why: I hooked the camera to my laptop via usb2.0, and opened 'image capture' (a small quick image downloader that comes with mac's) I've used it to great success in the past, and love it's simple no frills workflow. Well It talked to the camera just fine, BUT big but here, it only downloaded the thumbnails of the DNG files and not the actual raw file itself. Of course I only noticed this after i had wiped the card. Lesson learned. I only lost about 15 shots. Please keep in mind this is osx 10.3.9 WITHOUT the latest raw camera support upgrade. More notes to come. _mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted November 22, 2006 Posted November 22, 2006 Hi mike prevette, Take a look here ZOMG I got a M8- first thoughts. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
carstenw Posted November 22, 2006 Share #2 Posted November 22, 2006 Interesting comments, thanks for the post. Another poster has mentioned the high pitched sound. I have not heard it yet, but have to wait until my camera returns from Solms before trying again. I have operated my camera with no card, and not had any problems. Possibly just an unusual condition. Software for these things is very complicated these days. My image capture loads pictures fine, on Mac OS X 10.4.8. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrism Posted November 22, 2006 Share #3 Posted November 22, 2006 Mike, I don't think Image Capture would recognise those DNG's even if you were using OS 10.4.8 and all digital raw updates so far - it relies on the OS to recognise raw formats (as does iPhoto and Aperture), and M8-flavoured dng's aren't in there as yet. A card reader is always the way to go - less strain on the mini-USB socket in the camera, and less drain on the battery while you transfer pics. Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott kirkpatrick Posted November 22, 2006 Share #4 Posted November 22, 2006 The camera actually writes DNG's FASTER than it does JPG's. This makes no sense to me other than possibly the M8's JPGing chip is way under powered. But shooting, and reviewing DNG's on the camera is almost a second faster in each operation than JPG's. More notes to come. _mike It's quite a lot more work to make a JPG than a DNG. In the DNG each pixel value is found in a lookup table -- maybe three machine instructions. In the JPG, the 8x8 image blocks have to be assembled, interpolated, FFTed, and reduced in precision before you have anything to look at. So the DNG should stream straight to the viewfinder while it is being stored. The JPG I believe is stored in its Fourier transformed state, and needs to be decoded before you review it. Keep the notes coming. Lucky guy! scott Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike prevette Posted November 23, 2006 Author Share #5 Posted November 23, 2006 I totally agree that the cameras usb port is a last resort, and that card readers are the way to go. Nothing has changed there since I got my first apple quicktake 100 in '93. The jpging is interesting, because even taking into account all the steps needed to jpg raw data, in all of my other cameras jpg wins. I guess what this really says is that Leica has made there file writing protocols so fast that the speed of the internal processer starts to show through. VS other cameras that might not have a fat enough data pipe to write faster than the chip can jpg. Interesting. _mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike prevette Posted November 23, 2006 Author Share #6 Posted November 23, 2006 WOW = 28 VC Ultranon F1.9 + iso 1250 + view at 100%. This camera is amazing. Buyers remorse is gone. This thing is pretty damn impressive. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott kirkpatrick Posted November 23, 2006 Share #7 Posted November 23, 2006 Advertisement (gone after registration) WOW = 28 VC Ultranon F1.9 + iso 1250 + view at 100%. This camera is amazing. Buyers remorse is gone. This thing is pretty damn impressive. And you have qualified for one of the 30% off Leica lenses. Which? scott Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike prevette Posted November 23, 2006 Author Share #8 Posted November 23, 2006 Very tough call. I already have quite a bevy of lenses, but a nice fast 75 might be a good addition. . . hmmm time for some creative bookeeping. Even at 30% I'm not sure i need to be buying more lenses. _mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean_reid Posted November 23, 2006 Share #9 Posted November 23, 2006 WOW = 28 VC Ultranon F1.9 + iso 1250 + view at 100%. This camera is amazing. Buyers remorse is gone. This thing is pretty damn impressive. I love that lens on the M8 as well. The very faint whine is something I hear as well and heard also on the preproduction cameras. Interestingly, the D2 makes a similar sound. Maybe the red dot issues a very small sound <G> Enjoy, Sean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike prevette Posted November 23, 2006 Author Share #10 Posted November 23, 2006 Most annoying "feature" is the reversed base plate. Probably reached for the wrong side 15 times by now. I also wish they had kept the larger catch pin of the earlier m's. Second most annoying: The stopless shutter speed dial, with half stop clicks. There is no mechanical reference point so I have to look at the damn thing to change speeds. My M6 and CL both have subtle things that tell me where I'm set without me looking at the damn dial. I have made it a point for years to be able to prepair my cameras for a specific shot without having to look at them. this is gone with the M8. _mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
carstenw Posted November 23, 2006 Share #11 Posted November 23, 2006 What is the 30% off deal? Does this exist in Germany too? Edit: It turns that this is the latest news from a letter from Leica to dealers. Let's wait it out and make sure it is true, but if so, this is a "sorry" from Leica to early purchases of the M8 who need to send them in. Two free IR filters as well! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott kirkpatrick Posted November 23, 2006 Share #12 Posted November 23, 2006 The jpging is interesting, because even taking into account all the steps needed to jpg raw data, in all of my other cameras jpg wins. I guess what this really says is that Leica has made there file writing protocols so fast that the speed of the internal processer starts to show through. VS other cameras that might not have a fat enough data pipe to write faster than the chip can jpg. Interesting. _mike I hadn't thought about it that way -- if RAW is so easy to generate, why do others take longer to produce it? maybe Leica is the first one to get this right, with the DNG output on the fast track, and the JPEG as an afterthought. The speed is certainly a side effect of their choice to use an 8 bit encoding which has approximately the result of setting gamma = 2 for output to the LCD -- no decoding or 16-8 bit transform needed to display the shot you just took. scott Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adan Posted November 23, 2006 Share #13 Posted November 23, 2006 First: Congrats, Mike! Hope to join you sooner rather than later! The whining was mentioned with the Digilux 2 also as I recall - I guess it's just an electronics thing. Powering up the sensor like the backpacks in "Ghostbusters" (Does that mean the M8 also contains a compact particle accelerator)? Again, as I recall, the Kodak Pro SLRs processed RAW faster than jpegs (or perhaps it's better to say that their jpegging was dismally slow). I've always thought RAW/DNG should be faster (less image processing to do), but as Scott says, in most cameras it doesn't work out that way. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.