Hey guys: When we down sized to move to our present 2 bedroom 2 bath condo here on the bay, I had to also give up my darkroom. I was able to sell my Leitz autofocus enlarger with lens. My Besseler 23C with condenser, cold light and color heads, and various trays, nikkor tanks and reels, I donated to the local high school's camera club/photo dept, and took a write off on my taxes that year.
Bill Vann: We still call them "bennies" or "Shoobies". Shoobies refers to the old days when day trippers brought their own lunch/dinner in a shoe box, and never spent money here. This island's economy now depends on tourists of all kinds, including Shoobies.
Regards
Dave G.
How is it that almost every time I have bought a camera in the last 20+ years, it's either been winter, or the purchase has been followed by weeks of cloud, rain and generally 'crap' weather Hmmm...
I went walkabout today with M8 and Leica 28/2.8 (not coded) under my arm. This one was is York, England. F8, 1/60 ISO 320. See what I mean about dark, dismal & wet
The resturant at the end of the road (Nineteen) was where my wife and I had our wedding breakfast all those yeas ago....
brainiac wrote:
My darkroom is giving me a forlorn look too. It has been ten years since I used it. I don't suppose it's even worth trying to sell my Durst medium format condenser enlarger and Schneider lenses
F#"k, I did it. Ordered a M8. Will have it tonight. Started to make sense to get one because I have a couple of great lenses for it. Can't wait to get it now
Martin, I really believe that you will enjoy the M8. As an M7 shooter, you clearly must appreciate the unique perspective of rangefinder shooting. When you add in the utility of a digital workflow...it's a pretty cool combination. Let us know what you think.
Thanks Kurt, and hope so to!
I was looking at the DMR for a while, but in the end I felt that the M8 was the right and slightly cheaper way to go.
Feels good to have most of the lenses I need for it too. I will probably get a 21 and 50mm if I like the M8.
Hope so too. It sure feels good! Prefer it to the film M's. It's nice not to have to rewind the film.
Just ordered my two free filters. Will probably shoot B&W jpeg's until I get the filters.
marbrink wrote:
Will probably shoot B&W jpeg's until I get the filters.
If you set the camera to shoot RAW+JPG (in the Set Menu - Compression to RAW+JPG), then in the main menu set the color saturation to Black+White, THEN go back to the Set menu, and turn JPG off, i.e. set back to RAW only, you will see the shot you just took in B&W preview.
At least this way you can still play with the RAW data, and even do you own B&W conversion (which is usually the better way to go).
Of course you can shoot RAW+JPG too if you want - it just eats cards & Battery faster
Dave,
Yeah, I know. I know a lot about B&W conersions and have tried and use many methods for it. But sometimes it's nice to shoot directly in B&W and not be a control freak. + I currently only have a 1GB SD card. Have to get more cards before going RAW. Otherwise I only shoot RAW and I know that, that's where M8's big strength is.
Any recommended JPEG settings by the way? contrast? sharpening? color space?
I saw some really weird and edgy sharpening halos/artefacts in high contrast situations in some of the files I shot tonight. I think I will go with contrast set to standard and sharpening set to low. Color space probably ECI RGB. Would appreciate tips though!
Some magazine mentioned that the sharpening with JPGs was assymmetrical, with light edges looking good and dark edges looking really overdone. They recommend lowering the sharpening all the way.
Carsten,
The artefacts in high contrast situations with JPEG is simply unacceptable. Pictures are almost unusable, yet I've set sharpening to low. Hope it's not anything like it with RAW?
No, raw is different. I don't use JPG so I haven't seen these problems. Some German magazine mentioned them, but simply stated that sharpening should be set to low. I presume this is fixable in firmware, so in February/March there will be an update.
Hmmm... 
