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The Leica R8 is a manual focus 35 mm single-lens reflex cameras produced by the German firm Leica as the final models of their R series. Development of the R8 began in 1990:the camera was introduced at the 1996 Photokina trade show.
It can be fitted with the Digital Modul R (DMR) digital back (discontinued in 2007 [1]) and used as a digital camera making them the only 35 mm SLRs to take a user-installable digital back. The R8 was the first R-series camera to have no association with Minolta, being solely a Leica design and showing a clear stylistic change compared to prior bodies.
Industrial designer Manfred Meinzer was chiefly responsible for the R8 design, along with a team of designers largely new to Leica or drawn from outside. The R8 was intended as a clean break from the previous generation of Leica R cameras, which had been developed in cooperation with Minolta. A key design goal was to evoke the Leica M and its smooth top plate instead of a raised pentaprism as in previous R series cameras, the R8 has sloped "shoulders" that blend almost seamlessly into the pentaprism housing. The shape is strongly asymmetrical, especially in plan view, with a bulged right handgrip and smaller, tapered left-hand side.
Another goal was to improve the ergonomics and to place controls so they could be easily reached and operated without removing the eye from the viewfinder. Although the R8 is capable of fully automated exposure and (with the addition of the integrally-styled motor drive or winder) automated film transport, the location of the shutter speed dial lends itself to manual exposure control, as many Leica customers preferred this. In this it differs strongly from other contemporary SLRs, which were designed primarily for automatic operation. The top control wheels are sunk into the top plate, with knurled edges protruding at the front where they can easily be operated by the photographer's fingertips.
The R8 is substantially larger and heavier than the R4-R7 series cameras, being about a third heavier at 890g than the R7. This is partly explained by being built to take and balance the heavier zoom lenses in the Leica R lens range. The styling of the R8 proved controversial, some photographers consider it ugly and dubbed it the "Hunchback of Solms" (Solms is the German town where Leica is headquartered). The size and bulk of the camera attracted a lot of criticism.
The R8 was without doubt the most complex camera Leica had ever constructed containing extensive electronics including a microprocessor, despite its manual operation bias, and in addition was built in a very modular fashion to integrate seamlessly with motor drive units and new backs such as the Digital Modul R.
Shutter:
The shutter used was a Copal vertically
running metal-leaf unit[1] capable
of speeds between 1/8000 and 32 seconds steplessly in automatic modes, or to 16
seconds in half-stop steps
in manual mode, as well as Bulb.
The flash X-sync speed
is 1/250 sec.
The shutter release is in the center of the shutter-speed dial and is threaded
for a cable
release. The optional Motor-Drive gives
additional front and vertical-grip releases.
Metering:
The highly sophisticated metering system allows free choice of metering mode and
exposure mode. By contrast, the earlier R4-R7 series
lacked multi pattern metering and offered only pre-set combinations of metering
and exposure.
Three metering modes are offered:
Integrated centre weighted
Selective
Multi pattern (Matrix)
Five exposure modes:
Manual
Aperture priority semi automatic
Shutter priority semi automatic
Program fully automatic
Flash pre exposure measurement
Mounted on the secondary mirror itself was a single cell for selective measurement and in the camera base was a five segment cell for integrated measurement with multi-pattern measurement. Using both provided six measurement areas. Switching of both metering mode and exposure mode was electronic. Flash pre-exposure measurement was provided allowing the camera's meter to measure manually controlled flash such as studio flash. Pre-flash measurement was always selective and in addition to automatic TTL flash measurement during exposure with suitable automatic flash units which was always full field using two small light cells either side of the main multi-pattern cell. Exposure compensation was available in all exposure modes.
Program mode can be biased towards longer or shorter shutter speeds by using the shutter speed dial. Also in program mode automatic flash exposure was fully controlled by the camera: off in daylight conditions, fill in flash with low light, full flash when dark. Normal flash synchronisation speed is 1/250s and with suitable flash units can be up to the camera's highest speed of 1/8000s.
The viewfinder display was digital LED visible in any lighting.
Illustration with a R8 in silver chrome finish and DMR coupled
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Illustration with a R8 in black chrome finish and DMR coupled
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Illustration with both versions and DMR coupled ( actually my R cameras favorites to use )
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