Leica M8的尘埃落定

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原文作者著名Leica评论家Erwin Puts，本文选译，省略了部分对SLR的“抵毁”。Leica中文站编译，转载请署名出处。

2006年——约瑟夫.尼塞福尔.涅普斯拍出人类史上第一张照片的180年后——世界上第一台Leica数码M系列旁轴相机诞生。在这长达近2个世纪的时间历程中，Leica一路走来：1925年首次商业化上市，1954年首台M机型发布，当然，还包括Leica最终被奥地利投资公司收购。

在最高解析度胶片（例如Maco Ortho 25和Spur Orthopan）以及最佳分辨率镜头（Zeiss以及Leica）的帮助下，任何一台胶片Leica M机身都可以拍出第一流的摄影作品。因此，我们不得不怀疑，是否真的要放弃半个多世纪以来使用的胶片，转而接受数码时代的Leica新生儿——M8，她不仅拥有数码时代的技术优势——即时流览以及高速图象处理器，同时也集成了Leica无以伦比的机械工艺以及最让人激动的拍摄方式。

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回顾一下历史，M8其实并非第一台Leica设计的数码摄影设备，在过去十年中，这家位于德国Solms的光学业巨人还推出过两款“数码相机”，其一为1997年发布的Leica S1，另一则为Leica DMR数码后背。

Leica S1其实就是一台支持Leica镜头卡口的平板扫描仪，虽然Lab-colour空间等技术的应用的确有些许创新性，起码在外观上，非常不“Leica”。

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Leica DMR则是较为正式的Leica数码化尝试之作，支持R8/R9，能够直接将胶片单反转换为DSLR，采用Imacon和Kodak共同开发的ASP-C画幅CMOS，焦距转换系数1.37X，1000万有效光学象素，加装DMR后的R9重量达到1395g。然而，DMR在功能上依旧无法和新款DSLR相竞争。当然，Leitz王朝从本质上就从未接受过SLR相机的模式——无论精神上还是情感上都从未将其放在眼中，从R3至R9，Leica SLR机型始终都没能摆脱这一情绪的羁绊。当然，Leica R镜头在光学设计和成像质量上均出类拔萃，对整个摄影业发展的贡献也不容忽视。

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对于Leica来说，旁轴市场是他们最具有统治力，也最具核心竞争力的领域，事实上，在Pentax、Nikon上个世纪五十年代推出SLR之前，Leica一直是整个相机领域的统治者。而从2000年开始，数码技术突飞猛进降低了摄影的物质门槛，同时提供了更多样、灵活的影像处理模式——这也对Leica传统的银盐胶卷模式产生了巨大的挑战。

M8的诞生，不啻于宣布，Leica回来了，旁轴踏上复兴之路。

Leica M旁轴相机最初设计上便存在其固有的软肋——微距拍摄，长焦，快速马达，精准取景等等等等都无法和SLR相较，但是Leica有最简洁自然的操作，最优良的机械性能以及全世界最出色的光学镜头，将Leica拿在手上你便会发现，这才是世界上做工最精致的相机——因此，在过去，人们从未诟病过Leica的软肋，而将其作为一种风格接受下来。

事实上，从M3开始，每一款Leica M机身都是杰出特性与遗憾缺陷的结合体，M8继承了Leica M的血脉，也包括Leica的“软肋传统”——为了兼容更多卡Leica M卡口镜头，Leica取消了M8的低通滤镜设计，直接导致出现CCD对红外线敏感、带状条纹等闹人问题。然而，绝大多数用户和评测者还是包容了这些问题，和Leica镜头出色的光学素质以及便捷拍摄相比，缺憾也成为了可以容忍的个性。

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在M8使用过程中，我发现M8给予我更多的试验机会。在Apo-Telyt-M 3.4/135mm镜头上，M8的表现十分出色，对焦精准（使用1.25x取景放大镜），在LCD屏幕即时回放的帮助下，甚至没有取景框线都能让你第一时间了解到拍摄的内容。相比之下，M7/MP的0.72倍率取景器在不使用1.25x取景放大器情况下进行135mm镜头对焦要困难得多。

有关M8感光元件尺寸的话题能引出不少讨论，对于习惯经典35mm Leica镜头的摄影者来说，不得不重新适应更狭小的视角，不过，还记得那句Leica摄影者箴言么？“距离越近，越不会浪费你的底片。”M8的1.33x焦距折换倍率无形中帮你拉近了与被摄物的距离，LCD即时回放帮助你时刻掌握确切拍摄距离，根据我总结的规则，比取景框线的指示更近一些，你会获得更佳的图片。

在Seimens-Star测试图表测试中，使用M8距离2.5米外拍摄，Summilux-M 50mm F1.4光圈全开，M8的对焦精度十分准确，至少是靠肉眼对焦精度的三倍以上。

M8是一款纯粹的Leica M机型，是一款拥有桀骜个性的出色的相机，关键在于你能否驾驭它——从而获得最愉快的拍摄体验以及极出色的图象效果。

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请看英文原文：

英文原文：《M8 revisited：The dust has settled》

The first photographs with the digital M camera were made in 2006, 180 years after the taking of the first photograph ever to be taken with chemical means by Niepce in 1826. That is a time span of almost two centuries, in which we saw the birth of the first commercially available Leica camera in 1925 (81 years ago and 99 years after the making of the first photograph), the first M camera model in 1954 (52 years ago) and the acquisition of the Leica company by an Austrian investment firm.

Any film-loading M camera can deliver first-rate state of the art pictures by using one of the current high-resolution emulsions and lenses, like the Spur Orthopan and the Maco Ortho 25 and the recently introduced Zeiss and Leica lenses.

It is doubtful whether we will be able to use the M8 over half a century of use, but switching from solid chemical and mechanical tools to volatile digital and electronic components has a price. The M8 on the other hand embraces the technology of digital image capture with all advantages of direct viewing and immediate image processing. The camera combines exquisite engineering quality with simplicity of use to deliver a camera package that is not only a joy to handle, but also allows pleasure, or even passion to be part of the picture taking process.

The M8 is the third camera design for digital capture originating from the Solms factory over a period of ten years. The Leica S1, now almost forgotten was the first digital product from Solms and was introduced about ten years ago. A period of a decade in the current time frame seems to cover more progress than the 180 years of photographic history did in the previous centuries. The S1 was in fact a mobile flatbed scanning device with a lens attached to it. It had some innovative features like the use of the Lab-colour space, but it did not look, nor did it handle like a camera in the Leica tradition.

The DMR is the second digital product from the Solms factory. This product can be attached to the R8/9 camera, converting the film-loading SLR to a DSLR. The image quality that is being offered by this device is state of the art for small format digital imagery, but the solution still has to impress the photographic world. 'Small format' in this context refers to sensor sizes smaller than the classical area of 24x36mm. Digital backs are a fine solution for the medium format world where image files around 100 Mb are standard requirement (the S1 could cope with that demand), but the R8/9-DMR combo is too closely related to the mainstream DSLR to become convincing competition in the medium format market in transition from emulsion to sensor. For the photographer migrating from the 35mm reflex cameras to the digital APS sized DSLR, the DMR does not offer enough modern features to become a real alternative. Leica has in fact never been good at designing and marketing reflex cameras one could rave about. The Leitz dynasty in their time had never mentally and emotionally adapted themselves to the worldwide predominance of the slr-concept. The Leica SLR lineage from R3 to R9 has always stood in the shadow of that emotion. The optical designs for the reflex line are first class and it would be very important for the photographic world that this quality can be preserved and evolved to a higher level of performance.

With the M8, the Leica company is in a safe area: the rangefinder concept is their core business, honed to perfection over a period of eighty years. With regular intervals, there is that prediction of a rangefinder renaissance, as it is currently en vogue to predict a revival or at least a continuation of the silver halide film emulsion business. This is wishful thinking at best. Silver halide recording and rangefinder cameras are and have always been specialized products, optimized tools for a small set of goals and ambitions. When there was no other choice, the products sold well, even very well, but as soon as better or more versatile equipment became available, the mass market deflected to the new products. It happened to the M3/M4 after the introduction of the Pentax and Nikon SLRs in the late fifties and to filmemulsions around the year 2000, when digital technology delivered superior quality at a lower cost and with greater manipulatory potential.

The M rangefinder camera has from the start been designed as a specialized instrument, as the concept has its inherent limitations: macro photography, long telelenses, fast motordrives, accurate framing, focusing over the whole screen area have not been possible or with quite cumbersome solutions, like the Visoflex housing. Within its natural habitat, the Leica M could thrive with the most accurate rangefinding, the most intuitive and simple handling, the finest engineering and the best lenses in the world. The camera feels like a triumph of mechanical engineering and is indeed one of the best-built cameras. But one should not close one's eyes for the other side of the coin: the M camera has no waterproof sealing like some of the SLR competition. One should avoid using the camera for prolonged periods in heavy rain.

In the past no one objected to the design constraints and worked with or around them.

The currently available M8 has its share of design constraints, different from the past of course, but still there. I have reported on them in my series of articles about the M8. One could start a philosophical debate about the importance of the higher than normal infrared sensitivity of the Leica M solution. It certainly is a nuisance and of a more ubiquitous nature than most observers and many reviewers are willing to accept. By incorporating these constraints into the design, there was room for optimizing the core values of the M system: its optical qualities and its inspirational ease of use. With some historical and evolutionary insights, the first reports about hands-on experience could have been more comprehensive of these roots and heritage of the M line. From the M3 onwards, every Leica M model has offered this blend of outstanding qualities mixed with limitations.

The potential image quality is very high, but one should be careful to define 'quality'. In the area of resolution and sensitivity figures, the sensor size of the M8 sets clear limits compared to the best of the competition. If we add the classical silver halide characteristics into the quality definition, the M8 images show a clarity and crispness that is unequalled in the digital domain. The fact that the images recorded on silicon are as pure and unprocessed as they are on silver halide grains, is a decisive factor. If you develop in black and white (and print with one of the current excellent BW printers, like the Epson R2400 or R3800) the colour cast might even become an advantage.

The role model for M photographers has always been HC-B, but I would like to draw attention to a German photographer, who did not work with a Leica, but whose pictures are better suited as a guide line for current digital M photographers: Albert Renger-Patsch.

His pictures show a very keen perspective, coupled with a highly elaborated technique and mastering of the medium that is now so easy to learn with the M8. It is indeed this combination of learning the craft with the M8 (exploring the medium by shooting spontaneously without any cost and getting immediate response, however unflattering for the person who made the pictures) and transferring this workmanship to the M7/MP world that is such a pleasure to adopt. I am aware that most persons will not return to the wet darkroom, but I have to stress the fact that the results of meticulously processed (slow-speed) negatives are still unsurpassed in its look and feel.

As a sideway I should express my unease with labels like professional and semi-professional and amateur that are now conveniently attached to persons and above all to cameras. I really do not have a clue what a semi-professional camera should be or do. Canon D30 or D5 are referred to as semi-professional, but what does it mean? Is a person who works to high-quality standards with a low cost camera but does not earn money with his pictures an amateur or a semi-professional or a professional? Perhaps we should evade these empty words and fall back on the only really important criterion: it the picture worth looking at.

Using my recently acquired M8, I could do additional experiments. One of my favourite lenses is the Apo-Telyt-M 3.4/135mm and I put in on the M8: the results are excellent and focus is quite accurate (when using the additional 1.25 magnifier loupe). The beauty of the digital capture is the direct viewing possibility. Even without frames, you quickly learn to guess the picture area, by simply looking at the screen. It is quite illogical (Vulcan speak) for Leica to claim that the 0.72 finder on the M7/MP could focus the 135mm lens accurately without 1.25 magnifier, but the 0.68 finder on the M8 could not with that magnifier. The hidden argument is of course the 1.33 crop factor, which requires you to enlarge the image of the M8 by 1.33. The 1.25 plus does not compensate for the 1.33 minus: the net result being a finder of magnification 0.64 or so, adding in the Circle of Confusion equation. Anyway: my 135mm pictures with the M8 are quite good (technically speaking of course!).

There is much discussion about the sensor size, not being equal to the classical 35mm Leica format. You need indeed to adapt to the narrower angle of view that the M8 offers when using the lenses with focal lengths that are meant to give a certain view with 35mm film area. But if you look at your pictures you will notice the fact that on many negatives you do not frame as tightly as is required for the composition. There is that old and almost forgotten remark for Leica users: close in on your subject and exploit the small negative size to the best you can or in other words: do not waste negative area. The same is true for the M8. You can compensate for the 1.33 crop factor and magnification factor by getting as close to your subject as is possible. Here I have to make a negative remark about the M8: the quite generous latitude in accuracy of the frame lines (especially the 50 and 75mm frames) is not helpful: luckily the screen view gives you a direct update of the scene selection. My rule: go closer than the frame lines suggest: picture quality will increase.

I use the M8 with the magnifier attached as a standard. With this equipment I tested the accuracy of the range finder. I used the well-known Siemens star test chart and photographed the chart at a distance of 2.5 meters with the 1.4/50 wide open. On the chart I had drawn a vertical line, one millimetre wide, to assist the focussing. With that vertical line you can exploit the higher accuracy that the vernier acuity allows. The normal human eye can discern details when they are separated by an angle of 1/12 of a degree. I focused on the line and I also shifted focus by the width of that one millimetre line. In terms of viewing angle the difference is 1/40 of a degree, or more than three times as accurate as the human eye can focus. The spoke pattern of the Siemens star is clearly resolved when focusing is accurate and quite soft when the focus is off by that 1/40 of a degree. This is an amazing result: the drop in contrast and definition of fine detail is quite visible and indicates that accurate focusing is really required to exploit the quality of the Leica lenses. We have to admit that a three dimensional object has a certain depth and that a small error in locating the focusing plane might not be visible. But the famous discussion around the bo-ke effects might be influenced by small but significant shifts in the plane of best sharpness.

The M8 is a camera that fits into the entire M line: it is a camera with a strong personality and with clear advantages and clear disadvantages: that is the existential price you have to accept with every instrument that is designed to do some work with outstanding results and by implication cannot comply with all demands. The bottom line is that the M8 is a most pleasurable camera to use that can open your eyes to the basic understanding of the photographic process and can produce extremely high quality images as a result.

Whether the M8 is a milestone camer is the topic of the next article.