New M8 Owner

[rpsawin]

I just picked up a very clean M8 this morning. The battery is charging and I am chomping at the bit to put it through the paces.

I have a few quick questions (certainly more to come):

1.) Do I need the IR filter for all shooting situations?

2.) Can I use a standard cable release on this?

Thanks in advance...more to come.

Bob

[dogberryjr]

1)no, but stay away from artificial blacks (fabric, etc).

[Benjamin Marks]

1) no, but there is a color shift and the problem is worse with wide-angle lenses (wider than, say 35mm) than it is with long lenses because of red drift in the corners of images. I fought it for a while, and there are some pretty good routines on posted on the web to correct this, but I gave up after photographic a party with many women "of a certain age" present. It turns out that many commercial hair dyes must use a IR-responsive component, because these ladies wound up with a purple tint to their hair that I could NOT correct in post processing. If you are converting to B&W, it won't matter so much. I did sense increased sharpness once the IR light was filtered out. Don't know whether that was a real effect or not.

Oh, and dogberryjr. is 100% right about black, synthetic fabrics. Purple city.

2) yes.

[Babylon]

Why don't you buy an IR filter? It's simple and your problems will end. If you could afford an M8, you can spend €50-70.

[Brian Sweeney]

No filter:



With filter:

[Benjamin Marks]

I will say that I did no IR photography until I got an M8. Now I have an IR-pass filter (blocks visible light), which I use on an old 35 Summaron LTM. Very nice stuff.

So: don't think of it as needing an IR filter; think of it has having new vistas to explore.

[iñaki]

You need the IR filters. They can be found cheap in ebay or the classifieds, but first, try at Leica /owners login/benefits
Register your camera and maybe they´ll sent you 2 free filters (your choice and free). They did it with my second-hand M8.2.

[Brian Sweeney]

Hints for finding less expensive filters: Use the search term "Hot Mirror filter" on Ebay. This is what the IR cut filters were called with the first generation Digital cameras. I've paid as little as $5 for them, which is the one used on the pictures shown.

[sprokitt]

I just got my m8 2weeks ago
Depending on the lens I've seen erratic image quality. This seemed to clear up when I manually coded my lenses w a sharpie. Workes great. Let me know if you see similar results

[ampguy]

1. No, 2. Yes.

[ampguy]

What is contaminating Brian's image tests may be the fact that some lenses, especially older ones, do pass UV light, so his images may not be correcting for purely near IR, but also UV.

I've verified several older lenses, including a '54 Leica lens, and some FSU lens that do pass portions of the UV spectrum, while newer lenses do not.

Brian - if you have access to a simple $5/20/100 bill checker flashlight, you can check this out for yourself. Then when you isolate out the UV you can just show with and without near IR filter changes. Be sure to show b/w images, and to leave in the flare that the filters undoubtedly add.

[rpsawin]

Thanks guys. I do expect that most of my work will involve conversion to b&w. Still, I will be doing some color work. I will probably pick one up once I have a better feel for the camera....so far I am very impressed!

Best regards,

Bob

[umcelinho]

Brian,

IMHO the colors on the filterless shot are nicer, kind of 'taken back in 1980' tones.


but I assume the shot using the filter are more accurate to real life, right?

[Vic]

You don't really need a cable release with the M8. The self-timer has two settings: 12 seconds and 2 seconds. Set it to 2 seconds, and then you can press the shutter button without experiencing camera-shake when the shutter fires 2 seconds later. This is a very handy feature when bracing the camera against a wall, or other objects, and taking impromptu shots at a slow shutter speed and getting crisply focused subjects.

Best of fun with your M8!

[Gregoryniss]

sometimes a cable release can be helpful in really long exposures (like 30 minutes).

Enjoy your M8!! I'm very jealous...

[jaapv]

I fear 30 minutes exposures are not possible with the M8, this being a CCD camera.

[rpsawin]

Originally Posted by jaapv

I fear 30 minutes exposures are not possible with the M8, this being a CCD camera.

Excellent point and thank you for the reminder. I am thinking of exposures in the 30 sec to 5 min range. I am also planning on employing the "painting with light" technique in an almost lightless room.

Thanks for your comment.

Bob

[jaapv]

I just saw some very inspiring sea shots at extremely long exposure, using medium format, film and ND filters. Beautiful!

[ramosa]

i would definitely recommend that you get the IR filter. they're not too costly (well relative to it all). also, i'd recommend an extra battery. (i suspect most folks have several.) i think you'll love the M8. just keep it simple, slow down, be at peace ... and enjoy. cheers!