dasrocket wrote:
If you only see a camera through the specs, you are limiting yourself! Sure the M8 cannot AF with a 135, and it cannot shoot at 12,800, and forget about macro..so what! It does less than a DSLR, but what it does, it does better!...and smaller!


And MUCH more expensively. (however, not convinced at all about the "better" part compared to a 5DII, especially with some nice Zeiss glass attached).

I was refering to the process of taking a photo by "better", not the IQ; the 5D is better on a sensor-to-sensor basis.

Meh. EP-1 is THE pocketable camera.

I would jump all over the EP-1 if it had a viewfinder with a rangefinder or slr-like focus.

Rangefinder it would not, but if by SLR-like you mean speed, this remains to be seen. I heard a lot of good things about the G1 AF.

slr like = EVF, rangefinder = patch. I just want a way to know that I have focus, and see where the focus is :/

Live View man

Ouch, I just ordered a bargain M8 from Keh... I didn´t mean to, I swear. The mouse just happened to be over the "purchase" button and I didn´t notice when I pressed it. I thought I closed the window. Hm, well have to test it out then, since I own it anyway now.

I have a Nokton 50/1.5 for my Bessa. Should do me well at the moment, since it is pretty close to my fave FL 58mm... Oh, and I have to get a 35ish lens as well. And M lenses work on the EP-1, don´t they? Those look really nice. And my OMs work with them as well. And I must say I would love to try out a real Henri C-B camera like a leica M3. I should check ebay for one of those. Or maybe I would be better of with an M6. Hm. Oops. What did I do...

That is what is so nice about FM. Someone always buys it

Looking forward to see what you'll do with this Andrè!

ulrikft wrote:
Looking forward to see what you'll do with this Andrè!

Me too!

Richard, Ulrik - Thanks!

I was flipping through this thread just now and of course I see the issues with this camera and rangefinders in general, but to me it´s a tool to reinvigorate my way of working and instill me with a bigger confidence as a photographer, simply by using "the same" tool that great photographers in my field of interest have used. I think it is purely psyhological, not an interest in the technical side of it. I haven´t looked at a single test image from it, only casual, random shots posted here and there.

I think this interest in the M8 came about after reading a book on Henri Cartier-Bresson the last few days, getting really excited understanding that his method of approaching capturing an image was not that dissimilar to my own. So I have to try the camera the guy used as well! Well, not exactly the same camera, but I am sure you know what I mean

I have shot with rangefinders before, and if anybody has the slightest interest - here´s my Epson R-D1 blog from winter 2007

http://gatefoto.blogspot.com/

I sold the Epson after only 6 months - there were unfortunately so many issues about it I didn´t like. Some were related to it being a (1.6x) rangefinder, but mostly it was due to the camera simply having too many basic flaws. But I loved the handling and the feeling it gave me when using it

So here´s to the M8

André, I reckon I would love your pictures if you took them with this:

Haha, you have way too much confidence in my abilities, but thank you - it is very highly appreciated and to know somebody cares makes me strive harder

I just love this one Andrè:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZdFzmFBtxNE/R2PfeWTomAI/AAAAAAAAAUE/NDxbnOg93SQ/s1600-h/EPSN1696X.jpg

Thank you! Taken from outside Ekeberg Restaurant It looks like film, doesn´t it? The Epson gave great B/W files.

ovredal73
This photographer now uses M8 cameras with great results:
check out her galleries and her blog
http://www.tinamanley.smugmug.com/

Dear gmanp - thanks a lot for that link - great images. Bookmarked. Some fantastic captures. That use, those places and people are what that camera was meant for.

Tina Manley's two M8s have been soaked in downpours & rivers followed by several days of nearly 100% humidity with no problems.

Wow...

ovredal73 wrote:
I was flipping through this thread just now and of course I see the issues with this camera and rangefinders in general, but to me it´s a tool to reinvigorate my way of working and instill me with a bigger confidence as a photographer, simply by using "the same" tool that great photographers in my field of interest have used. I think it is purely psyhological, not an interest in the technical side of it. I haven´t looked at a single test image from it, only casual, random shots posted here and there.



Well the photographers that made Leica famous, were (are) shooting with a specific style which is a little irrelevant to what is being discussed here: Bresson, Winogrand, Gilden, Trent Park, Abbas, Constantine Manos, Nikos Economopoulos, Mark Cohen, I could go on forever... I've read countless bios/interviews/books and these guys never even mention their camera, maybe just pracical things, like how durable or reliable it's been. You will notice that 90% of their photos are in good light or with flash, wide & slow lens (bar HCB and his beloved 50mm), zone/hyperfocal focusing, quick intuitive framing with an emphasis on subject and composition. P/J-street type shooting, not sure how popular this stuff is at FM. If thats how you shoot, then yeah, you'll probably feel like Winogrand

But low-light/shallow d.o.f./tripod work/macro/commercial etc, I'm sure this camera can do just fine, but it sure is not what made it famous.

The link posted above with the B&W set from Honduras etc, what makes these photos so nice to look at is that the photographer has kept a consistent style in pp and has managed to create a coherent & cohesive set of images around a specific theme. Nice light, nice subject, nice composition, right time to press the shutter button. She could've used her son's p&s, I would still like her set for these reasons. The way I see it, no matter how much we pay, every camera is but a combination of comprimises, just gotta pick the combination that interferes the least with one's shooting. If this is a Leica then Leica it is, but I reckon its different for everybody. I dont believe in silver bullets

Edit: spelling

Well I do believe in silver bullets

Too many draculas in Norway?

You have to love this quote by HCB:

“All I care about these days is painting—photography has never been more than a way into painting, a sort of instant drawing.”

Great read here:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/nov1999/c-b-n05.shtml

Spyro P. wrote:
Too many draculas in Norway?

I thought silver bullets were for ware-wolves.