Ergonomics and layout of the camera

Whenever I pickup the Leica R8, I think: this just works. Personally I love the way it balances with the heavier standard prime lenses available for the Leica R cameras. It’s heavy at 890 grams but it’s balanced out nicely so it doesn’t feel that bad in general.

The exposure program selection dial, is located on the top left of the camera. It works as it should but is easy to knock into another position unintentionally. Something that they solved on the R9 with a little push down button beside the dial, which has to be pressed to be able to turn the program selection dial.

On the right side of the top plate we find the shutter speed dial that goes from 16 seconds to 1/8000th of a second in half stop steps. It also has a separate X sync position and a B for bulb position. The shutter speed dial also acts as a “exposure preference dial” in P mode. This way you can smoothly choose if you prefer a fast shutter speed with a wide aperture, or stopped down aperture with a slower shutter speed. Something that works really nicely, but I rarely use to be honest.

In the middle of the shutter speed dial you can find the shutter release button, which at first I found a bit strangely placed but actually works quite well for my hands. Some people hate it, some people love it. If you don’t like it you could purchase the Leica Motor-Drive which also incorporates a shutter release button where normally you just find the battery cover/grip. Of course this makes making exposures in quick succesion possible, but also ads a lot of bulk to the already quite heavy camera. The same style grip with shutter release button you would also get if you use the Digital-Modul-R.