Eventually, if it gets sold it will be great adventure travel reality show. As I am bound by confidentiality agreement, I can not disclose more about it, but I can say that show revolves around young people and one of the greatest adventure travel companies in the world. 

Leica M8 camera report

As I was a DOP on this project, my main role was shooting with HD video camera. This time it was Sony EX1. This relatively new handycam performed great in harsh condition in Amazonia. But, more about it some other time.

I will report more about my digital still kit: Leica M8. This story comes on the tail of recent online report of one of the war photographers that used M8 on location in Iraq: his Leica gear failed his demands. Mine was great. 

Leica kit I had with me consisted of:
2 M8 bodies
90/2
50/1.4
35/2
24/2.8
15/4.5
2 Leica chargers
5 Leica M8 batteries
Lowepro Omni sport bag.

This kit was with me at all times while shooting in jungle. In humid, rainy conditions (while raining, camera was in the bag and my EX1 was in Petrol rain cover). Now one thing very important: I did have professional grade silica gel case permanent part of each camera case. I believe there was no great moisture inside the zipped up Lowepro case. If I am wrong even better: M8 did not stop working because of high humidity.

As soon as rain would stop, when I had chance I would have my M8 out and clicking away...

Both cameras did not have any glitches. Not a single time. The only annoyance was that I would get a foggy eyepiece when the camera body would be too long hanging on the side, pressed against my wet t shirt. 

At the end of each day, after returning to hostel in Tena where I spent nights, in the evening I would charge batteries and transfer my video footage from SxS memory cards to MacBook Pro, and copy SD cards from M8 to Epson P2000. 

 






At the same time all gear would be out of the cases, laying  out on the bed for "extra drying". I did not use any air conditioning in my room. Big overhead fan was running most of the night.

Battery life was amazingly good. I did not notice any extreme shortening of battery "juice" over these seven days.

Now, we all know the limitations of high ISO shooting with M8. I will not elaborate or explain this. I will just say, that my working ISO were 160 and 320. That's it. No high speed, sorry. M8 is no D3....

The lens I used the most was Leica 24/2.8. It was on one body all the time. Other body had the rest of the 4 lenses. 

Again, the little dynamo CV 15/4.5 gave it all and more. I still can not believe that such a tinny piece of glass can deliver better optical quality than any of the Canon extreme wide angle lenses I tried. 

Why Leica (and not big Canon)?

My other digital still system is Canon. I do use it a lot for my architecture/interiors, stock and weddings. I would not change it when doing  those applications. I am a Canon guy.

But, when going on location primarily shooting video, there is no room for big 1Ds and 3 lenses. Add to this that most of my international travels so far included going over US customs at airports, showing up with another big camera bag can cause just more hassle. I do have Canadian passport, but inside it says that I was born in Belgrade, Serbia and for most US custom officers it is additional eyebrow lift. No need  stressing them with extra photo gear. 


Now, here comes M8 kit: small bag, 2 cameras, 5 lenses. Hanging at the back bellow my video gear back pack (almost invisible for customs people). Practically, no issue.
Another good use of small rangefinder digital is when I would take it out on the set, nobody stepped back getting distracted by big DSLR. Everybody in my crew thought it was old fashion film camera. I was no different from any other crew member cricking away with point and shoot. Local kids posed for me looking at my face, not my camera...

This was another memorable experience using M8. Images I captured will eventually end up in final TV pilot as part of graphics and montage sequences, some will be part of another book that I will produce at Blurb and some will be added to my  iStock collection.