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Leica M8 10.3MP Digital Rangefinder Camera with .68x Viewfinder (Black Body Only)
List Price: $4,400.00
Price: $3,995.00
You Save: $405.00 |
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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Low-noise 10.3-megapixel CCD image sensor specifically matched to the compact lens design |
| Full compatibility with nearly all M lenses means unique imaging performance |
| Incorporates rangefinder system with its advantages of discreet and quiet operation, speed, and precision |
| Future-guaranteed raw data format (DNG) and the raw data converter Capture One LE |
| Main settings clearly structured in menus on the bright 2.5-inch display |
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Accessories
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Customers Reviews
2009-09-02
Sparkling digital images for Leica M-users, with a few niggles
The Leica M8 gives you great digital images right out of the box. Contrary to another reviewer's comments, M8 images need little or no Photoshop / Lightroom tweaks for printing or web display.
I also use Canon dSLRs and find myself doing a lot more contrast, level and sharpness adjustments with those images. The M8 helps my images look very good to clients.
**Using Aperture-Priority A-Mode
Exposure compensation is just about required in aperture-priority A-mode with the built-in metering. If you're shooting live theater or concerts where the lighting is similar shot-to-shot, you can use A and set compensation with the camera's `Set' menu.
And that's one of the problems. You shouldn't need to go to a menu to set exposure compensation. Any of Canon's EOS cameras let you do it from control dials, not menus.
You can use shutter speeds from the A-mode as a starting point for manually-chosen speeds. The viewfinder shows you what the camera chose, and you just set that speed. Then you can shoot and tweak the speed for best exposure after you chimp your shot in the LCD.
**Auto White Balance A Bit Off
Leica also needs to work on its auto white balance algorithms. Either use a white balance target for a session in relatively constant light, or use Auto White Balance in Lightroom's Develop module to fix this. 90% of the time, that's enough. Rarely, you'll need to hand-tweak color temperatures and tint to get it right. The colors are in there - sometimes you just gotta pull `em out.
If you or your clients are less picky, daylight exposures have nice untweaked color.
**Noise At High ISO
High-ISO performance is outdated. Shoot at ISO 1250 or grit your teeth at 2500, and you'll get lots of color speckling and other noise. Does this make the M8 unusable? No. You get great-looking images at ISO 640 and below. Heck, ISO 1250 is usable if you have adequate exposure and get close to your subject. You'll be using nik DFine or Noise Ninja when you edit, though.
The latest offerings from Canon and Nikon have much better high-ISO and auto white balance performance. But they don't mount Leica lenses, and they weigh a lot more. I carry the M8, two spare batteries, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 90mm lenses in a LowePro Orion Mini fanny pack only 9 inches wide.
**.DNG Raw File Format
Shoot raw (doesn't everyone?), and you get files in the universal .DNG format. This should be supported long after proprietary raw formats like .NEF and .CR2 are history. .DNG images also store all your Lightroom adjustments directly, without the space-sucking .XMP sidecar files required by other raw formats.
My first serious camera was a Leica M3 I found in my parents' basement in 1968, and I've been photographing with a combination of Leica M, Nikon and Canon gear ever since. Digital makes editing and delivering photography to clients very easy. The `right where it should be' controls, outstanding color rendition, sharpness, contrast, outstanding glass, and small size make this the camera system I carry most of the time.
If you have a collection of Leica M-lenses and shoot editorial feature-style, it's time to switch over from film.
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2009-06-15
Not satisfied
I bought a used Leica M8 camera recently and used it for a while. It was not as good as I expected. The image quality really relys on your PS skill. Without the UV/IR filter, the outcome was frustrating. It quite easy to leave mark on the black chrom top plate. With spending 3k on M8, I rather to have the new Leica MP film camera body.
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2009-01-10
For the deliberate photographer
The best rangefinder camera I ever used before this one was a small Olympus. I still have that camera even though i do not shoot film any more. I just love it for it's simplicity and graceful design. Before that the only other camera that resembled a rangefinder that i used was some instamatics as a kid.
This is not for everyone. I scrounged every penny and bought a used one in excellent condition. I have been shooting for 23 years now and I figured i earned the chance to have a big boy camera. It's not perfect. It exhibits grain above the 600 ISO and there is the whole IR filter thing with the magenta casting. Still that camera is made like a house of bricks and only reminds me of a very heavy minolta my dad gave me when I was 16.I used to drop that camera all the time. This feel like it would not mind being dropped. It almost feels like you could throw it and it would be OK.
Now today with all the bells and whistles on every camera and megapixel wars going full steam this camera does not enter the fray. It is the first of it's kind from Leica, (Epson made one that is not as good some years back) and it sets the standard for this type of camera. it is actually alone in it's class. The only other one out there is its slightly more expensive older brother the 8.2. The M 8.2 has the same resolution. It's improvements are a sapphire crystal (only a diamond can scratch it) back and a quieter shutter as well as better denting for dials and a"S" full auto mode. F stops and focus are fully manual in both models.
These are MANUAL cameras. They require looking, focusing, working the camera to get it to do what you want it to do. Depth of field, framing, exposure. These are all in your hands. Now while there are SLRs out there that do all this too, they are not rangefinders. There is no mirror in a rangefinder. less vibration. Smaller lenses, less obtrusive camera all around. It almost has an antique appearance. Were it not for the LCD screen on the back it looks 75 years old. The LCD is for menu and reviewing only. Shots are framed in the viewfinder, which is way brighter than SLRs.
Now this is not the only camera I own. This is a special camera. A camera for taking to a new city. For a walk in the fall woods. For taking some pictures of the family. This is NOT an action camera. It does not even take SDHC cards, only just plain old SD. This camera requires that you slow down, take a deep breath and make a single image as if your life depended on it.
Once you get one in your hands, hold it for a few minutes, mess with it, you will be humbled. Any one can buy a Best Buy camera and take dozens of shots in focus. This requires that YOU do the work. When you look at your pictures you take from this, you can rest assured they are your photos, not the computers. You have to put skill, knowledge, and even a bit of your soul into this camera to get some decent shots. I have been at it now for a while and I can say, I am humbled. I am sure I'll make some nice images with it, but I will have to work for them. When I get them, they will be all the more satisfying.
If all that I am saying seems like nonsense then please don't contest, just move on. This camera is expensive for a reason. It's made by hand by people who have been making cameras since before time began. This is a German camera and the lenses are the other 1/2 of the equation here. The best glass in the world. The M8 & 8.2 takes almost every M lens going back decades so you have a lot to choose from and if you are a M user from the film era all you need do is save for the body.
This camera has enough megapixels to produce decent prints at a decent size for the rest of your life.
Save up, it's worth it.
Added note: Now SDHC cards can be used. I have a 8gig one in the camera now and it works fine.
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2008-09-13
Yes, it's an M camera!
After spending a day out shooting, er, ah... "making photographs" with my M8, I thought I'd share with you my impressions. In summation, it really is an M camera. I doubted it, but I was wrong. Here are my individual footnotes as to why: Handling the camera & lens, my hands and brain were often led to think I was handling an M6. Only when my thumb reached for the film advance/shutter cocking lever did my hands and brain went "hey, what the heck? There is none!" If I had the option, I'd choose the original manual shutter cocking lever over the electric one, even on a digital M camera.
My hands could not even detect the slightly thicker body compared to the M6. The weight, combined with a 50mm lens was noticeably lighter than the M6 with same lens (which surprised me). The handling is the same, and so is the balance and heft.
I never once looked at the instruction manual, because: Everything is logical. Just read what is in the LCD, scroll, and press the right buttons.
Crop factor: what crop factor? My wide angle lens is still pretty wide with the M8, and I'm getting more than what the frame lines are showing me with the 50mm! Could it be that the M8 is a full-frame, but they aren't saying it is? Could be!
The write time is slow. You can see it writing as the red light in the back flashes. This is of no consequence, because of the ample buffer.
At present, the largest capacity SD card that can be used on the M8 is a 2 gig. I tried to use a 4 gigabyte SD card, and the LCD would say that the card is full. With a 2 gb card, you get 539 shots at the highest quality jpeg setting. How do they do it? I can only get 399 shots in a Panasonic DMC-FZ50 (with a 2 gig card)!
With the M8, you can use every lens that Leitz Wetzlar ever made, right back to the beginning of (Leica) time with screw-mount lenses. And you can use other lenses like the manual-focus Minolta MD lenses (and others, I was told)...with a Novoflex adapter! Find out by going to Novoflex' website. You can also use the new Voigtlander screwmount lenses, and some Konica Hexars. This is good, because Leica lenses cost thousands.
This is my review. I hope it was helpful.
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2008-06-23
Beauty and simplicity
In the short period that I've own the M8, I have learned more about optics, technique and photography than in any other time in my life. Had I chose a more conventional camera; I doubt that I would make this assessment. Still, we develop and move forward and the M8 is no less of a camera today, than it was when I purchased it. If anything, its better following the last firmware (AWB) update. Still, the M8 is markedly expensive vs. its features and for this reason alone; I can't recommend it to most people. However, if you love rangefinder style shooting, then you will love this camera!
~ Digital Dude
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Product Details
Batteries Included:
Binding: Electronics
Brand: Leica
Color: Black
EAN: 0799429107017
Floppy Disk Drive Description:
Has Red Eye Reduction:
Is Autographed:
Is Memorabilia:
Label: Leica
Legal Disclaimer:
Manufacturer: Leica
Model: 10701
Publisher: Leica
Release Date:
Special Features:
Studio: Leica
System Memory Size: |
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