I’ve been taking photos for over a decade now, mostly film photography. I have owned numerous cameras in that time from Nikon, to Hasselblad, Minolta, Rollie, FujiFilm and now Leicas. My current arsenal consists of a Leica M3 , M6, R8 and a FujiFilm XPro2.
The R8 with a 28mm f2.8 R lens 3cam is a recent purchase. The reason I bought it is that my wife and I like to travel to exotic destinations – taking my M3 or M6 to these types of places can be hazardous as we are in and out of trains, buses, taxis and crawling through jungle or roaming through local villages. The R8 is a robust camera with aperture priority and a high range of shutter speeds that I don’t mind if it gets bashed about. Being an SLR means you look through the lens, which to me means better, brighter and more easily composed images when travelling. I’d rather roam around Paris, London or any continental cites with my M3 or M6, where its better suited (well that’s my rationale anyway).
We were recently in Sri Lanka – the R8 seemed well suited to the environment. As it is close to the equator, the light is very bright – the R8 has a range of shutter speeds up to 8000th of a second, which meant I could shoot wide open if I wanted to. I took five rolls of film with me: 2x Fujifilm acros 100, 1x Kodak Ektar 100 and two Kodak 400Tmax.
The R8 gives three options of metering: centre weight, spot and metric. Most of the time I used the centre weight or the spot metering which I found to be really useful, especially in dark alleyways of a bazaar.
All in all, the R8 performed exceptionally well. It felt good in the hand and did not skip a beat. Our next trip will be a remote island off the northern coast of Australia (Heron Island) so the R8 will be joining us on that trip too.
Here are a few frames from the R8.
Thank you for your time. Dominique Pierre-Nina
You can see more of my work on.
http://instagram collardphotography
Share this post:
Comments
jim on 5 Frames with a Leica R8 and 28mm f/2.8 – by Dominique Collard
Comment posted: 12/10/2018
Comment posted: 12/10/2018
Dan Castelli on 5 Frames with a Leica R8 and 28mm f/2.8 – by Dominique Collard
Comment posted: 13/10/2018
The M3 not robust enough to take into the hills and rough country? Most of the images made in Vietnam by the various news agencies as well as the US military were shot with Leica M2 & M3 series. In some cases, the camera survived while the the photographer didn’t.
The visual record of world events of the last 40 years of the 20th century were mainly recorded with tough as nails Leicas, Nikons & Canons.
Comment posted: 13/10/2018
Comment posted: 13/10/2018
Phil on 5 Frames with a Leica R8 and 28mm f/2.8 – by Dominique Collard
Comment posted: 13/10/2018
Comment posted: 13/10/2018
Comment posted: 13/10/2018