Rediscovering My Leica M8: A Journey Back to Basics

A few days ago, I started using my Leica M8 again, the first Leica I ever owned. I took it off the shelf after reading some recent articles where people spoke highly of the camera. I bought the M8 in 2006, the year it was released. It was Leica's first digital camera. The pictures I took back then were very average. I remember struggling with the CCD image sensor, which made greens look too yellow and blacks look purple.

Now, I've decided to shoot with it again, using the skills and knowledge I've gathered over nearly two decades. Here are some random shots I took this morning in Gent. What really struck me is the vibrant colors—they're popping off the screen! No, I didn't change them in post-processing. The only adjustments I made were some selective burning and dodging, adding a bit of contrast, and tweaking the brightness a little.

Sure, the camera has its limitations. It has only 10 megapixels, a sub-optimal screen on the back, and to avoid digital noise, you should stick to the base ISO of 160. Its dynamic range is also limited to 11 stops, while the M11 goes up to 15 stops. But if you treat the M8 like a film rangefinder loaded with ISO 160 color film and use a UV/IR cut filter, you get very special-looking images. You'll get pictures straight from the camera that are as close to the old Kodachrome film as any digital camera can produce.

Shooting with the M8, despite its limitations, brings you back to what photography should be about: composition, aperture, shutter speed, and focus. The M8 is a camera for those longing for the age of analog cameras without the hassle of film. It’s a specialist camera that gets the essentials right without all the bells and whistles of today’s digital cameras. And one last thing—the shutter sound is lovely and unique. I just love it.
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Here is a picture I took at the city’s administrative center at the Woodrow Wilsonplein in Ghent, Belgium.