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By: Sean Reid

September 15, 2006
Leica has just announced their new digital rangefinder camera which is called the M8. It is probably the most important camera the company has introduced in many, many years and I'm happy to say that they've pulled it off quite successfully. Leica has been able to bring the M into the digital age while still preserving many of the essential characteristics that have made this series one of the most famous lines of small format cameras ever made. The M8 is very much a digital version of the M7. The new Leica is a little thicker, a touch taller and the same length as an M6 TTL. It weighs just a bit more than an M7 but almost exactly the same as an Epson R-D1 (when both have a card and battery installed). The M8's 10.3 MP sensor has a crop factor of 1.33 X compared to a 135 mm film camera. It's excellent finder is essentially straight out of the M7 except that it features a .68X magnification rather than .72X and includes frame lines for 24, 28, 35, 50, ...

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Sean Reid has been a commercial and fine art photographer for more than thirty years. He studied photography at Bard College under Stephen Shore and Ben Lifson. In the late 1980s he worked as an exhibition printer for Wendy Ewald and other fine art photographers. In 1989, he was the first American photographer to receive an artist-in-residence grant from the Irish Arts Council in Dublin, Ireland and his work is held in their collection. That same year he gave a guest lecture at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art in Dublin. In the early 1990s Sean met occasionally with Helen Levitt to discuss and edit pictures he was making in the subways of Budapest and New York City. These were exhibited in New York in conjunction with performances by Jens Nygaard's Jupiter Symphony. Sean's work for clients is often of weddings and architecture. His editorial work has appeared in magazines such as Motorcyclist, Rider and The Robb Report. His personal work is primarily of people in public places -- especially in rural New England where he resides. In 2004, Sean began reviewing cameras and lenses for Luminous Landscape. The following year he began Reid Reviews (link: www.reidreviews.com), a site -- of equipment reviews and essays on photography -- that accepts no advertising and is paid for entirely by subscribers. Written primarily for professional and serious amateur photographers the site has become known for its in-depth analysis based on both field and studio testing. Sean also serves as an unpaid consultant, advisor and sometimes beta tester for several camera and lens manufacturers. http://www.reidreviews.com
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