Leica M8 Digital Camera Review

Leica M8

Digital Camera Review

Sep 28, 2006 - By Patrick Singleton
The Leica M series stretches back to the early 1950s, when they offered 35mm film shooters an extraordinary level of refinement and precision. The Leica M8, introduced at Photokina this week, is the logical successor to those forebears – it accepts M-bayonet lenses made since 1954 with focal lengths from 21 to 90 mm. In many ways, the M8 contrasts with its competition now the same way the M3 and M4 contrasted with the Nikon F and Canon F-1 in their heyday. Simply, the Leica M8 is less versatile than other $5000-plus digital cameras. At 10.3 megapixels, with a 2 frame-per-second burst rate for 10 images, no autofocus, and the choice of aperture-priority or manual exposure, its specs are not competitive. But its image quality is superb, its handling very efficient, and its construction uniquely robust.
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Likes
- Beautiful build quality
- Excellent LCD
- Apparently excellent image quality
- Simple, efficient interface
Dislikes
- Slow burst mode
- Slow image save and display
- Only center-weighted metering
- High cost (even if it's justified)
The Leica M8 is built beautifully – both the design and the execution show an attention to detail, a thoughtfulness and a clear vision of utility and elegance. It's a great example of how remarkable a manufactured object can be.

For some time, Leica has served the collectors' market, making limited commemorative editions, and plating cameras in gold. It all seems way too Donald Trump for a brand of camera that has been in the hands of great artists and of photojournalists who recorded history, and by doing so, changed history.

We don't expect that anyone with much sense will buy a Leica M8 because they think it's the only camera that will let them make great art or prompt a more humane world. Cameras don't do that. Still, we hope that the people who buy the M8 will use it, will shoot enough to see if it's possible to wear it out. (We're not worried on that score.) Because the saddest thing we can imagine for an M8 to go up on eBay in 30 years, still in a sealed box.

 

 
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