Leica, as most will know, started the 35mm revolution 100 years ago, back in 1925. But the digital revolution seemed to catch it off-guard. Eventually, the company decided to catch up and develop its first digital rangefinder camera, the Leica M8, which was introduced to the world in September 2006 and available in stores that November.
In August that year, I got to use a pre-production M8 for review purposes. It was a delightful camera to use, handling just like any M-series Leica since the M3 from 1954. But it had a flaw: it used Kodak’s KAF-10500 sensor – an APS-H-sized 10.4MP CCD sensor, which was particularly sensitive to infrared… and the camera had not yet been fitted with an IR filter.
