The Leica M8.2 Interchangeable Lens Rangefinder Digital Camera not only looks like an M model, it faithfully embodies all the advantages of the analog Leica M system to provide sophisticated and creative digital photography. It is the only professional digital camera to use the beneficial rangefinder system, which is discreet, quiet, fast and accurate, and the uncompromising quality criteria of the M system have been applied.
The M8.2 adds to the M8 by providing an innovative Snapshot Mode "S:" for fully automated functioning, and improves durability with a unique sapphire crystal coverglass over the LCD display and a robust "vulcanite" finish over the camera body. It also includes a more compact and faster charger for easier travel.
The Leica M8.2 provides full compatibility with almost all M lenses, and the low-noise CCD image sensor with a resolution of 10.3 million pixels has been specially integrated into the compact lens design, ensuring optimum picture quality. The operation and functionality of the digital M concentrate on what is essential, while useful additional functions provided by digital technology complement the proven M concept. The Leica M8 is a timeless digital camera that is excitingly new and yet comfortingly familiar.
Features
- Uses all Leica M Lenses
- The Leica M lenses are recognized as the best in the world and demonstrate their full capabilities on the Leica M8. The extremely high resolution of all M system lenses since 1954 make them perfect for digital photography. The M8 quite deliberately has no resolution reducing moire© filter in front of the sensor to maintain the full performance of the lens
- Supprts M Lenses with 6 Bit-coding
- The Leica M8 uses an optical scanner on the camera's bayonet to identify the 6 bit-coding of the current Leica M lenses. This allows the slight vignetting caused by the system to be compensated, further improving the familiar high image quality. The lens type identified is saved in the EXIF data for the image file and the reflector position on modern flash units is adjusted to the image angle depending on the focal length. Existing M lenses can be retroactively 6 bit-coded by the Leica Customer Service department
- Modified High Quality Image Sensor
- The Kodak CCD technology used in the Leica M8 provides a high basic speed of ISO 160 extending to a maximum speed setting of ISO 2500, and produces pictures with far richer detail than analog films can deliver, and the thickness of the cover glass has been reduced to just 0.5 mm to prevent unwanted refraction - resulting in an image that has uniform brightness right to the edge. To increase the light sensitivity of the CCD sensor, micro lenses are positioned in front of the pixels, and the micro lens structure that is perfectly tailored to the characteristics of the Leica M lenses
- 10.3 Megapixel Resolution
- The low-noise CCD image sensor has been optimized for the special features of the M lens system and provides an excellent resolution of 10.3 million pixels
- Durable Design
- The Leica M8.2 is designed to deliver professional results over many years. The enclosed all-metal body is made of a high-strength magnesium alloy while the top and base plates are cut from solid brass blocks and then given a black or silver chrome finish. The battery and the SD card slot are located under the base plate to provide effective protection from dust and moisture. The high resolution 2.5" LCD display is also impressively durable with an ultra scratch-resistant sapphire crystal coverglass that is so hard that it can only be worked with special diamond tools. The camera also sports an easy-grip and robust "vulcanite" finish
- Supports Creative Photography
- The electronically controlled metal blade focal-plane shutter enables shutter speeds of up to 1/8000 second to be achieved. Even in very bright surroundings, the photographer still has total creative freedom thanks to the selective focus feature with open aperture. The high flash synchronization speed of 1/250 second now allows daylight flash photographs to be taken with selective focus
- Snapshot Mode "S"
- The snapshot mode "S" turns the Leica M8.2 into a simple to use fully automatic camera, and is particularly usefull in situations where time is not available for the user to fiddle with camera settings, such as on a vacation or taking pictures of an event. In the "S" setting, the camera controls all the key features automatically, such as automatic exposure (aperture priority), automatic ISO speed setting and automatic white balance
- Quiet and Discreet
- To make cocking the shutter as close to silent as possible, a rubberized silent friction wheel has been placed in the first winding gear stage. A cam disk is used to transfer the force at a constant torque over the entire path of the cocking arm. As a result, the electric motor cocks the shutter almost soundlessly
- Optimum RAW Data Conversion
- The professional Capture One LE RAW data converter ensures that the raw data supplied by the Adobe digital negative format (DNG) is processed to yield optimum quality. Leica worked in conjunction with Phase One to create the sophisticated camera profiling and quality-optimized algorithms for digital color processing, allowing exceptionally low-noise photography with incredible resolution. The development of even ultra fine tonal value nuances from the 16 bit-image supplied by the CCD sensor is comparable with the image quality provided by film professionally developed in a photographic laboratory
- Simple, Intuitive Operation
- Operation of the digital functions centers on the combined direction pad and dial, which can be used for fast navigation. Pressing the Set key opens the exposure parameter menu on the 2.5" monitor to quickly check and adjust the crucial settings. Pressing the Menu key takes you to the clearly structured system menu, where you can change some of the basic settings that are permanently applied, for example the ECI RGB, Adobe RGB and sRGB color space options. You can also specify how your pictures appear on the display. An additional monochrome LCD display on the left-hand side of the top plate constantly shows the remaining capacity of the SD card and the lithium-ion battery so this elementary photographic information is available at a glance at all times
- Innovative M-TTL Flash Technology
- The unique feature of the Leica M-TTL flash technology is that a pre-flash for flash metering is fired immediately before the actual exposure. TTL measurement of the light reflected by the surfaces of the subject determines the exact power required from the main flash. The seamless addition of the flash intensity to the available light results in flash photographs that retain the natural lighting mood. The auto slow sync function allows you to use aperture priority mode in conjunction with the flash technology. It ensures that the image background is balanced even if the intensity of the ambient light should change. An appropriate metered amount of fill-in flash is emitted to provide correct exposure. Depending on the photographer's experience or the intended effect, various maximum exposure times can be set for aperture priority. This can be done manually or - when using 6 bit-code lenses - automatically using the rule of thumb 1/focal length in seconds
- Sensor Cleaning Function
- The LEICA M8.2 has a special function for manually cleaning the sensor. When you select the corresponding option in the menu and press the shutter release, the shutter remains open while cleaning is in progress. The low depth of the M camera makes the sensor more easily accessible than on digital reflex cameras, for example
- Tonal Value Histogram
- As a professional digital camera, the LEICA M8.2 provides an RGB tonal value histogram that can be called up at any time to check the exposure of saved pictures and can also be combined with the automatic review function. Another useful feature is the additional marking of overexposed sections of an image - known as the clipping warning. Pressing the Info function key displays all of the photographic settings from the quick menu and additional meta-information saved with the image file - this enables you to completely evaluate a picture as soon as you have taken it
- Remote Control
- The LEICA M8 is supplied with special software that allows the camera to be controlled remotely for scientific work or in a photographic studio. With LEICA DIGITAL CAPTURE the camera can be operated from a computer via a USB connection and the image data can be saved directly onto hard disk. The software can send all settings in the exposure parameter menu, e. g. sensitivity and resolution, to the camera
- Compact and Fast Charger
- The compact charger is designed to take up a minimum of space in the photograper's bag and has a quick-charge function that can charge the battery to 80% capacity in less than two hours - sufficient for about 400 exposures
Specifications
Camera type Compact digital viewfinder system camera for professional use with Leica M lenses
Microprocessor-controlled metal blade focal plane shutterImage sensor Low-noise CCD sensor specially optimized for the requirements of the M lens system Pixels 10.3 million Sensor dimensions 18 mm x 27 mm Extension factor 1.33 x. Aspect ratio 3:2 Coverglass thickness 0.5 mm Moire filter No Sensor speed range Additional automatic setting with free choice of ISO range Viewfinder principle Large bright-line frame viewfinder with automatic parallax compensation Eyepiece Matched to -0.5 dpt Correction lenses From -3 to +3 dpt available Image framing By display of two brightline frames at a time: for 24 and 35 mm or for 28 and 90 mm or for 50 and 75 mm Magnification 0.68 x Effective measuring base 47.1 mm (mechanical measuring base 69.25 mm x viewfinder magnification 0.68 x) Lens mount Leica M bayonet with additional optical sensing for identification of all 6-bit coded lenses Lens system Current 6-bit coded Leica M lenses of 16 - 90 mm focal length 6-bit functions Lens-dependent reduction of edge shadowing originating in the system Aperture priority mode (Auto) Automatic determination of the correct shutter speed with manual aperture preselection and corresponding viewfinder display Manual exposure control Free selection of shutter speed and aperture - can be visually checked using the exposure control in the camera seen by LED light balance in the viewfinder Snapshot mode "S" setting of shutter speed dial: Automatic control of exposure time, ISO speed and white balance Picture modes S Single picture: Pressing the shutter release once per picture
C: Continuous succession of pictures with 2 pictures per second and 10 pictures in the sequence
Auto-release: Selectable with 2 sec. and 12 sec. delay timeControls/displays Camera front: Lens mount; frame selector
Top: Main switch and shutter release; shutter speed dial, LCD status display
Back: 2.5" color monitor with scratch-resistant sapphire coverglass
Base: Lockable base plate protects the rechargeable battery and the SD memory card against dust and moistureColor monitor 2.5" large bright LC display with a resolution of about 230,000 pixels for viewing pictures and for menu settings (scratch-resistant sapphire coverglass) Picture view sizes Miniatures, 4 miniatures, full picture display and enlargement in four stages up to 100% view Picture parameter menu-main menu By pressing the set button, the following parameters relevant to the picture can be selected and changed in the picture parameter Menu User profile, sensor speed, manual exposure correction, white balance, image data format, picture resolution Menu languages German, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese Picture resolutions DNG: 3916 x 2634 pixels (10.31 MP); JPG: 3936 x 2630 pixels (10.35 MP), 2952 x 1972 pixels (5.8 MP), 1968 x 1315 pixels (2.6 MP), 1312 x 876 pixels (1.15 MP) Data formats DNG (camera manufacturer-independent digital negative format), 2 different JPEG compression rates DNG file-information 6-bit color resolution, 10.2 MByte file size per picture Memory medium SD and SDHC cards up to 32 Gbyte White balance Automatic, 6 preset values, manual white balance, color temperature input from 2000K to 13,100K Color spaces Adobe RGB, sRGB, ECI RGB Viewfinder display LED symbol for flash status, four-digit seven-segment LED display with dots above and below for display of the automatically calculated shutter speed in aperture priority mode, indication of the use of saved metering values, warning of exposure corrections, warning of when the metering range is overshot or undershot in aperture priority mode and countdown display of shutter times longer than 2 sec., memory capacity warning when the SD card is full Exposure metering Heavily center-weighted TTL exposure metering with pre-set working aperture Metering principle Light reflected from a white strip in the centre of the metal blade focal plane shutter Metering range EV0 to EV20 at 20°C room temperature, aperture 1.0 and ISO 160/23° Metering cell Silicon photodiode with collection lens positioned at the center of the lower edge of the camera base Flash exposure metering Principle: Using an extremely short calibration pre-flash fired immediately before the exposure, the exact power requirement for the main flash is determined Connection M-TTL guide number control with calibration pre-flash via accessory shoe SCA 3502 (version M4) or with Leica flash SF24D Flash synchronization time 1/180 sec. Manual Flash synchronization times from B (bulb) down to 1/180 sec. Aperture priority mode Auto Slow Sync: Automatic extension of the longest flash time, using the rule of thumb 1/focal length in seconds Synchronization flash firing time Firing optionally at the 1st or 2nd shutter point Flash exposure correction ±3 1/3 EV in 1/3 EV-Stufen stages adjustable at the SCA-3501/3502 adapter
Settable at the LEICA SF 24D ± 3EV in 1/3 EV stages, or from 0 to -3 EV in 1EV stages when using computer controlShutter Microprocessor-controlled metal blade focal plane shutter with vertical action (optimized to reduce noise and vibration) Shutter times In aperture priority mode (A) steplessly adjustable from 32 s down to 1/400 s Activation Shutter activation optimized for minimum noise Release Three-stage activation governed by how far the release is depressed Power supply Lithium ion rechargeable battery with a nominal voltage of 3.7 V and a capacity of 1900 mAh Interface 5-pin standard mini-USB socket on the left side of the body, for quick USB 2.0 data transfer to a computer Camera body Material Enclosed all-metal body of highly stable magnesium alloy
Silver synthetic leather coating
Top cap and base plate are milled from solid brassTripod thread DIN 4503 - A1/4 (1/4") in the centre of the bottom cover Dimensions (W x H x D) Approx.139 x 80 x 37 mm Weight without battery Approx. 545 g
Includes
Reviews Leica M8.2 Rangefinder Digital Camera Body (Silver)