Product Reviews

Perhaps no other camera brand has the same rich heritage as Leica, and the M8.2 can trace its roots back to the first 35mm film models. Like the M8 before it, the updated M8.2 is based on the legendary 35mm coupled rangefinder M range, but due to a number of technical challenges, the digital M8.2 is not a 35mm full-frame camera. Instead, it's built around a Kodak APS-H (27 x 18mm) 10.3-megapixel sensor, with a crop factor of 1.33x.

Although the sensor is a little larger than the APS-C sensors used in the majority of DSLRs, the 35mm Summicron lens is the equivalent coverage to a 50mm. Rather than viewing through the lens like a DSLR, the manual focus M8.2 uses a rangefinder for distance detection and a viewfinder with frame lines for composition. It's a system that works well, especially with short focal lengths, and the brightness of the viewfinder image remains unaffected by the maximum aperture of the lens in use, making it an aid when focusing in low light.

We found the viewfinder large, bright and clearer than many APS-C DSLRs. Focus accuracy using the small central rangefinder rectangle was good, though it takes time to become accustomed to it, and manually adjusting the lens' focus ring makes it difficult to keep up with fast-moving subjects.

With the exception of the missing wind-on lever, the M8.2 balances extremely well in the hand and feels every bit like the original film offerings. Even the bottom plate is completely detachable, but rather than to load film, the cover conceals the battery and memory card slot. It's a minor inconvenience to remove it, but makes for a very solid body, free of ill-fitting and creaky compartment covers. All the same, we

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would have liked to see the USB connector located on the left-hand side.

At the rear, the M8.2 has a not-overly-large 2.5in (230k dot) panel; a compromise, we suspect, to retain the distinctive top-plate design. The hardened sapphire glass cover over the LCD screen is a good idea, especially as the display and control panel protrude from the back. And the large rear command dial is a welcome addition, especially as the main features of the M8.2 - such as white-balance, ISO, compression and resolution - are shown from a handy sub-menu.

The sub-menu is accessed from the Set button and, like all the other controls, falls naturally to hand. However, you have to confirm each change of setting with another press of the same button. While this adds another step, it prevents inadvertent selection. A few additional features can be selected from the main menu, but the M8.2 doesn't have anything like the dizzying multitude of exposure options and customisable features of a pro-level DSLR.

The biggest concession to automation is not the inclusion of aperture priority, but the addition of a Snapshot mode, with pointers to using the hyperfocal distance, which is out of place at this level. Still, purists will welcome the manual exposure mode and the adoption of a new quieter shutter mechanism, along with an option to delay the noisier shutter charging until you let go of the shutter release: another nod to Leica's heritage.

As you might expect, picture quality is a real highlight. Lacking an anti-aliasing filter, the 10-megapixel sensor and premium quality Leica M lenses deliver more fine detail than the sensor's resolution would suggest, though not up to the 20-megapixel+ found on some DSLRs. Colour and image rendering, especially into the shadow areas, is superb, though we detected noise in shadows at ISO320 (ISOs range from ISO160 to ISO2500), while the top sensitivity ISO2500 has a very speckled digital look.

Then there's the weak IR cover glass over the sensor. We saw magenta-tinged skin tones under incandescent lighting along with colour shifts caused by infrared reflectance from mainly black-coloured synthetic fabrics. This can be corrected using an UV/IR absorption filter or by shooting in mono, but even so, it isn't a deal-breaker.