A Close Look at the Leica M8
http://www.slrtoday.com/articles/134/1/A-Close-Look-at-the-Leica-M8/Page1.html
By SLR Today
Published on 11/20/2006
In every way that counts, the new Leica M8 carries on the tradition of German style and quality synonymous with the renowned M-series. Just like its earlier analogue cousin, the Leica M8 is a classy, well-built professional camera offering speed, precision and excellent image quality. With such a long history, not to mention a retail price tag of nearly $5000, how could you expect anything less?
In every way that counts, the new Leica M8 carries on the tradition of
German style and quality synonymous with the renowned M-series. Just
like its earlier analogue cousin, the Leica M8 is a classy, well-built
professional camera offering speed, precision and excellent image
quality. With such a long history, not to mention a retail price tag of
nearly $5000, how could you expect anything less?
The basic design of the M8 is much like the M7. Because many style elements were left unchanged, the camera retains the retro look associated with most Leica cameras. Despite its retro appeal, the M8 is well laid-out, and its magnesium-alloy body makes it quite durable. The menu displayed on the camera's bright 230,000-pixel 2.5" LCD monitor, is really a pleasure to navigate. There are no multifunction keys or nested menus; everything you need is easy enough to find.
The digital M8 sports a "low-noise" 10.3-megapixel CCD image sensor, specifically designed to compliment the high-resolution compact M lenses.
The sensor is18 x 27mm, making it larger than most APS-sized image sensors found on the average dSLR. The use of high quality components, in addition to few important adjustments to the image snesor, have allowed the M8 to accurately reproduce true color across the entire photo. Also, an ISO range of 160 -2500 provides sharp, well-lit images under nearly any light condition.
The Leica M8 provides high quality at top speeds. The camera's new metal-blade shutter provides speeds up to 1/8000 second with a
flash synchronized speed of 1/250 second. The camera can also shoot continuously at 2 frames per second up to 10 photos.
The M8 captures images at two JPEG quality levels or in Adobe Digital Negative (DNG). RAW images can be converted using the Capture One LE software included with the camera.
Key Features
In every way that counts, the new Leica M8 carries on the tradition of German style and quality synonymous with the renowned M-series. Just like its earlier analogue cousin, the Leica M8 is a classy, well-built professional camera offering speed, precision and excellent image quality. With such a long history, not to mention a retail price tag of nearly $5000, how could you expect anything less?The Leica M8
In every way that counts, the new Leica M8 carries on the tradition of
German style and quality synonymous with the renowned M-series. Just
like its earlier analogue cousin, the Leica M8 is a classy, well-built
professional camera offering speed, precision and excellent image
quality. With such a long history, not to mention a retail price tag of
nearly $5000, how could you expect anything less?The basic design of the M8 is much like the M7. Because many style elements were left unchanged, the camera retains the retro look associated with most Leica cameras. Despite its retro appeal, the M8 is well laid-out, and its magnesium-alloy body makes it quite durable. The menu displayed on the camera's bright 230,000-pixel 2.5" LCD monitor, is really a pleasure to navigate. There are no multifunction keys or nested menus; everything you need is easy enough to find.
The digital M8 sports a "low-noise" 10.3-megapixel CCD image sensor, specifically designed to compliment the high-resolution compact M lenses.
The sensor is18 x 27mm, making it larger than most APS-sized image sensors found on the average dSLR. The use of high quality components, in addition to few important adjustments to the image snesor, have allowed the M8 to accurately reproduce true color across the entire photo. Also, an ISO range of 160 -2500 provides sharp, well-lit images under nearly any light condition.
The Leica M8 provides high quality at top speeds. The camera's new metal-blade shutter provides speeds up to 1/8000 second with a
flash synchronized speed of 1/250 second. The camera can also shoot continuously at 2 frames per second up to 10 photos.
The M8 captures images at two JPEG quality levels or in Adobe Digital Negative (DNG). RAW images can be converted using the Capture One LE software included with the camera.
Key Features
- 10.3-megapixel CCD image sensor w/ 1.33x lens factor
- Compatibility with nearly all M lenses
- 2.5-inch display
- ISO range160 to 2500
- M-series style, retro compact design