Leica M8 or M 8.2 The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

[Kingair]

Dear TRF'ers,

This forum is costing me some money . . . besides watches . . .
I was reading the posts for the Leica X2.
I just bought a Nikon J1 . . just for fun . . but I like it and from a mile away it a look a like of the Leica M . .
So . . . I restarted reading some more on the Leica digital camera's and . . .
You can guess what ;-)

How uses an M8 or M8.2 ?

Did you do the upgrade to the M 8.2 version ?
Money wise . . . is it a good thing to have the upgrade ?
You loose the 1/8000 setting . . .
Do you really need a quieter shutter ?

And tell me all the good, bad and ugly things on them.


Thanks

HAGWe

[bewithabob]

Leica…lovely equipment!

[bryanth]

The only problem you'll really run into with this line is the need of the extra filter. Kind of a deal breaker in my opinion.

[tinger]

Depends..

1/8000 of a sec is nice to have if you want /need to throw the background out of focus in bright sunlight at a particular asa level using a very fast f-stop.. or freeze super super fast motion.

A quiet shutter when you need to be unobstructive. To me, the best type of 'portraiture' is when the subject dont know when they're being photograph (posing).

[Kingair]

Originally Posted by bryanth

The only problem you'll really run into with this line is the need of the extra filter. Kind of a deal breaker in my opinion.

Extra filter ?

Could you tell me some more please ?

Thanks

[Kingair]

Any Leica shooters out there ?

Spit your comments ;-)

HAGOne

[merciful]

I had a lot of lost sleep before I decided to get an M9, and I haven't regretted it for a moment. A great deal of the stuff on my blog (don't go if you don't like strong language) at http://monochromegod.blogspot.com (and everything that doesn't reference old projects) is done with it. It's not for every sort of shooting, but for environmental portraiture it can't be beat.

[Kingair]

Originally Posted by merciful

I had a lot of lost sleep before I decided to get an M9, and I haven't regretted it for a moment. A great deal of the stuff on my blog (don't go if you don't like strong language) at http://monochromegod.blogspot.com (and everything that doesn't reference old projects) is done with it. It's not for every sort of shooting, but for environmental portraiture it can't be beat.

Nice shots . . .
B&W is always a winner for me !
No I will have the same problem at night . . . M8 or M9 . . . ?

HAOne

[merciful]

Thank you.

I have a good friend in the Netherlands who shoots M8, and he'd really like to have an M9. He's compared his DNGs with mine and likes the M9 results a lot more. (See http://www.hansverbrugge.com

Originally Posted by Kingair

Nice shots . . .
B&W is always a winner for me !
No I will have the same problem at night . . . M8 or M9 . . . ?

HAOne

[Kingair]

Originally Posted by merciful

Thank you.

I have a good friend in the Netherlands who shoots M8, and he'd really like to have an M9. He's compared his DNGs with mine and likes the M9 results a lot more. (See http://www.hansverbrugge.com

Just checked his site !

Nice shots he made.

HAGOne

[ToyCollector]

Kingair, with the M8, you will need to have a UV filter on your lens as the sensor is of a different style/technology. The M9s do not need one. Since you will likely be buying one on the secondary market (I assume), I would highly recommend the M8.2 as it will have better resale down the road and was a model with some software improvements, etc.

I have been exclusively shooting my M9 the last few weeks again to work on composing and doing a good bit of Black/White with it and am about to load some B/W film and play with my M3. Don't forget to have a budget for glass to stick in front of it. I love how it forces me to slow down and be much more involved in the process.