The start of a love affair - Leica M8
Saturday, July 16, 2011 at 9:37PM Love is a wonderful thing! Of course this is not truly a love affair, but I think it comes pretty close!
On Thursday the 14th of July 2011 a package arrived from Gauteng Johannesburg. It had been sent by a Dutch Reformed Pastor. The package contained a Leica M8 digital camera and a Voigtlander 50mm Color Skopar lens. I was so excited to open the package! And, my excitement was surpassed with joy with what I found. My very own Leica rangefinder camera! My camera came with the hand grip base plate. It is such a beauty! See the image below.
The Leica camera is a thing of great beauty. It is carefuly hand crafted from a solid piece of metal. Unlike the Nikons, Canons and Sony cameras it has no automatic functions. Yet, it is one of the most sought after cameras in the world.
I had to sell my brand new Apple Macbook Air, a secondhand Sony Vaio laptop and my almost new Leica D Lux 5 digital camera (with electronic viewfinder and leather case) to fund the purchase. It was worth every cent!
The M8 makes you want to take photographs. It is heavy in your hand and feels absolutely solid. The rangefinder is amazingly simple to operate. And, once you get the hang of aperture and shutter speed you can take beautiful pictures. The Leica has a very distinctive picture style - the Voigtlander 50mm Color Skopar lens just adds to that refinded beauty. The pictures are full of colour, super sharp and have a certain kind of warmth to them. It is strange to try and explain it. Take a look at this photograph of my son, Liam, as an example.
Here is a picture of my daughter Courtney and I.
The rangefinder takes a little getting used to. Unlike a DSLR camera one looks through the viewfinder and there are 2 differences. First, what you see in the viewfinder is not what you see through the lens. There are framing lines (related to your lens) that help you to frame your shot. However, you can see what is outside of your frame as well. That helps to see what is coming into your shot in case you need to adjust your framing for a better picture. Secondly, the rangefinder has a small 'patch' in the center of the picuture as you adjust the focus on the lens two pictures in that patch need to line up perfectly in order for the picture to be in focus. This makes it super fast for focusing on any object within your depth of field. Simply focuss on a distant object to have that in focus and foreground out of focuss, or focuss on a closer object to have that in focus and the background out of focus. It is super accurate, and once you get the hang of it you can get quite quick at focussing the camera just by judging how far your subject is from the lens and 'pre focusing' the camera as you lift it to your eye.
Of course manual focus does mean that the quality of your image is dependent on your skill! I have a Nikon D50 which can take lovely pictures without any effort. Just point it in the direction of the object you want to film and the camera does the rest. While that can be quick it does take some of the fun out of photography. Plus, if the camera decides to focus on the wrong point you have to do some 'trickery' to get your focal point corrected within the frame.
Lastly, the Leica is just so beautifullly made. It is solid, heavy and has a feeling of absolute quality. A classic style icon - just see how lovely that 'Red Dot' looks! This photo was taken using my iPhone 4 camera and adjusted using instagram's 'tilt shift' function to higlight the Leica logo.
This is a classic camera. It doesn't do video. It can shoot in JPG and Raw (DNG) format. My 11 year old daughter and wife have already mastered some of the manual controls.
Does anyone else out there have a Leica camera? I know there are quite a few film camears, but how about anyone with an M8 or M9? I'd love to hear from you and hear about your experiences, tips and tricks, and any advice you may have for shooting with the M8 and carng for it.
Reader Comments (3)
I own a Leica camera. It is superb. I have owned ten digital cameras, and my Leica is unmatched. My father always aspired to having one -- now I own one. Here's a photo that I took of one of our Sunday School children: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OT8u7z42ftc/TNVv7tSBN2I/AAAAAAAAF6A/HMe8lV46nGU/s1600/L1030027VGA.JPG My one disappointment with my Leica: it suffered sensor burn through shots taken into the sun. This was while someone else was handling the camera at a wedding I conducted. I thought that this should not happen with a Leica. Apparently one of the advantages of a Leica is its true colours, unlike "Eastern" cameras, which tend to over-saturate.
Thanks for the comment and the link to your photo. I have read about the sensor burn issue. What does it do to your pictures? I am trying to be extremely cautious with direct sunlight (even strong reflective light off water or windscreens). I'm loving my Leica! The M8 is great because I can experiment and shoot hundreds of photos without the development costs - a great way to learn and experiment!
Thanks Thomas.
Thank you Dion. Here's an example of the sensor burn -- like fingerprints above my vehicle at the top left and above the eye of the tortoise at the top edge of the photo -- but worse than this under different lighting conditions or when a photo is adjusted. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hb-cCRBTWxA/Tce7ZT2K9wI/AAAAAAAAGWY/AkV3GBiPap8/s1600/Tortoise.jpg