THE M8 FRAME LINES

This section added April 13, 2009

One of the trickiest parts of focusing a M8 is composing the frame when the subject is off-center. The M8 frame lines are not precise and depending on the focus distance, their precision (or slop) varies.

My favorite lens at the moment is the Leica 50mm F1.4 Summilux-M ASPH (the picture to right was taken with the 50mm ‘Lux). Fortunately 50mm is fairly forgiving when it comes to framing. I also have the 75mm F1.4 Summilux-R and 90mm F2 Summicron-M APO. Framing with 90mm is very difficult because the frame line area for 90mm focal length is quite  small, thus any imprecision has a significant impact. With small frame lines and their imprecision, composing with either the 75mm or 90mm can feel hit or miss if the subject is shifted towards the right or left.

Frame lines are not just right and left, they are top and bottom too. The subject might be within the horizontal, but the top of head may be inadvertently cropped, or hands may get chopped off. This is not a deal breaker for me, but I do check the LCD to make sure the composition turned out okay. The M8.2 has improved frame lines and existing M8 owners can have the frame lines updated with Leica’s upgrade program; click here for more information.

8-BITS VERSUS 16-BITS

Leica M8 raw files are saved as a 8-bit DNGs. Internally the M8 is 16-bits. After the raw data is processed by the in-camera processor, the raw data is downward compressed to the 8-bit DNG format. Leica’s explanation for using 8-bits is: “The LEICA M8 is equipped with a nearly loss-free compression of the image data in the case of files in DNG format. This doubles storage speed while requiring only half of the storage capacity. During the prototype phase, tests were performed with a 16 bit version, but they did not reveal any image quality advantages. As a result, Leica opted for the 8 bit technology.” Section 1.5 --- Leica FAQ Document

Keep in mind that these are the same engineers who designed the M8 and missed the IR sensitivity issue. So the engineers who could not distinguish the difference between black and plum colors, also did not see a difference in 8 bit files vs 16 bit files. Hmmm... Having processed tens of thousands of raw files from the 12-bit Canon 1Ds Mark II, 16-bit Phase One P25 digital back and 14-bit Canon 1Ds Mark III - I feel experienced enough to comment on the value of a 16-bit raw file format. The Leica M8 should have a menu option where the user can select to write either 8-bit or 16-bit DNGs.

Leica probably evaluated 8-bits vs 16-bits based upon the image as seen in their software BEFORE any editing in Photoshop, etc. In my non-technical opinion, the advantages of 16-bits is not readily apparent when previewing the raw files in their respective viewer or editor. The advantages of 16-bit files show up later, after the file has been processed and converted to a 16-bit TIFF and then edited in Photoshop. Also, 16-bit files would probably have more latitude for highlight and shadow recovery. If somebody is just shooting in-camera JPEGs, then I understand Leica’s point of view.

The M8 files do have good shadow information and boosting the mid-tones often reveals some hidden treasures. Overall, the M8 captures the same or more dynamic range as the Canon 1Ds Mark III. With Canon 1Ds Mark III the dynamic range can be teased out with some levels work (selecting areas, boosting and cutting highlights & shadows, etc). The M8 files seem to have more effective (or net) dynamic range on the surface, but there is less hidden dynamic range that can be teased out of the file. This is especially true in the highlights. Here, the weaknesses of a 8-bit DNG format begin to show themselves. When editing files in Photoshop the upper mid-tones such as skies, clouds, brightly lit opaque surfaces and so forth are far more likely to show banding, noise patterns, solarization or aliasing during the edit process.

The Phase One P25 files do best with this type of editing and the Canon 1Ds Mark III is a close second-place. The M8 comes in third. This short-coming is not a fundamental flaw that compromises every image. It happens only when the M8 files undergo moderate editing. Since Leica has sorted out 16-bit DNGs during the prototype phase, then give us an option to select 8-bit DNG or 16-bit DNG! They already did the work per their explanation, so let the users decide which format is best. The M8.2 continues to output the same 8-bit DNG, so again, shame on Leica.

M8 COLOR

This topic is a work in progress because there so many ways to alter a file’s color. I use Phase One’s C1 Version 4 (release 4.1xxx) for the M8. I have been using Version 4 software since its release about a year ago. The C1 Canon color profiles are not my taste, but I do like C1 for the Phase One P25 and Leica M8 conversions. Overall the C1 M8 profile is pleasing, but the profile is over-saturated in the reds and yellows. Maybe Phase or Leica were aiming for a canned “Leica look”. Working with yellows and reds can be delicate since the C1 profile tends to push the values to the gamut’s limit and regions will clip / posterize / band when levels or saturation are pushed in CS3. With some color editing in the M8’s C1 profile, this probably could be resolved. Whether artifacting is C1 profile issue or a limit of the 8-bit DNG or both - I do not know.

April 13, 2009 Update -

It has has been about seven months since publishing this review and I am still using C1 - now version 4.7. The colors are pretty good, not necessarily accurate, but pleasing. The M8 has firmware 2.004 loaded and auto-white balance is quite good in daylight. Like most cameras, indoor tungsten is too warm and needs to be adjusted. Sometimes the M8 assigns too cool of a AWB value in the shadows; again, easily fixed in C1 or other raw editors. RAW Developer also works well for the M8 files.