[Leica] M8 magenta problems - Leica offer a solution

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 10:50 PM -0500 11/8/06, Leonard Taupier wrote:
>Henning,
>
>The IR sensitivity you described with the one IR photo you shared 
>appears to be much better then the D1H I purchased (very used) just 
>for IR work. That high sensitivity is a big plus for me in 
>considering the M8. I can easily filter out IR or UV but going the 
>other way if the sensor doesn't have the sensitivity it's absolutely 
>no good for IR sensitivity. IR photography with a RF camera like an 
>M7 or M8 is a big plus since you can keep the filter on the lens at 
>all time.
>
>I'm also shooting UV using an EL-Nikkor on a bellows and I find a 
>very large difference in different sensor sensitivity to UV. A D200 
>has absolutely no sensitivity to UV (blank frames no matter the ISO 
>setting and the time exposed) where a D2X has very good sensitivity. 
>I use black light as a source, a B+W 403 filter and a Tiffen hot 
>mirror. So I'm curious if the M8 has good near UV sensitivity down 
>to about 350 nm as well.
>
>Len

Len,

Yes, the IR sensitivity is excellent, as demonstrated by the good 
response with the 87 filter. Michael Reichmann on 
luminous-landscape.com today has written some on the M8 IR 
sensitivity, and said he had a hard time getting technically good 
photos, but I don't know what lenses he was using. Just because a 
lens is good in the visible spectrum does not mean it's useable in 
the IR region. Also, he didn't feel the sensitivity was that good, 
but this time of year the IR levels outside in northern climates does 
go down. He got about the same exposures with the 87 filter that I 
got at the end of August with the 89B.

I really don't know about the UV sensitivity. I don't have any lenses 
that I know transmit UV reasonably, and the Leica lenses themselves 
have very good internal UV filtering, so that doesn't work. I also 
don't have any UV pass filters.

The only lens I could readily mount on the M8 that possibly has UV 
transmissivity is a 120 Photar. But then, I had to give the M8 back. 
:-(

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