Monkey Checks Out The Leica M8 At Dale Labs

The invitation had come a few weeks ago. It was Leica Day at Dale Labs in Hollywood, Florida, with Roland Wolf the Leica rep there to show all the latest goodies, the new lenses, and the long awaited Leica M8 digital camera. I decided to take Monkey along. We got to attend the Friday night reception for pros instead of Saturday when it was open to the public.

All week long Monkey sat on the table by my front door holding the invitation so we wouldn't forget. Finally Friday arrived. Monkey climbed into the bag along with some film, a Leica M3 with a 21mm f/3.4 Super Angulon lens, and a Weston Master V light meter. I also had 35mm and 90mm lenses tucked in there. It was crowded! A Leica M2R wore the 15mm Heliar that I used for these photos.

The Leica rep was dressed in black as if to prove that black fabric will really come out black in M8 photographs, but he admitted that some black fabrics, in some lighting conditions, sometimes do come out magenta. Leica's fix would be available in two weeks. It seems that an infrared cut-off filter will solve the problem. As soon as he finished showing the camera to two other guys I explained about my project and he said "sure!"

When Monkey came out of my bag Elaine spotted him from across the room. She's a member of the family that owns Dale. As I told her about Monkey she got all excited and said there were some of Monkey's friends in the office. Soon Monkey was trying to check out the M8 with the help of a fuzzy brown bear and a cute little snowman.