Leica R8-R9

Industrial designer Manfred Meinzer was chiefly responsible for the R8 design,[3] 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;[1] 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.[1] 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"[4] (Solms is the German town where Leica was headquartered; the company moved back to its original home town of Wetzlar in 2014). The size and bulk of the camera attracted much criticism although the R8/9 fitted with motor winder were almost exactly the same size and weight as the preceding R7 with motor winder.

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.

R9

Overview
Maker	Leica
Type	Still image camera
Lens
Lens	Leica R bayonet
Sensor/medium
Sensor type	Film
Sensor size	24×36 mm
Recording medium	135 film
Focusing
Focus	Manual
Shutter
Shutter speeds	1/8000 to 32 s & bulb

The R9 was an evolutionary step from the R8 and appears superficially very similar; enough so that some have opined that it should have been simply a Mark II of the R8, or in Leica nomenclature, an "R8.2".[2]

The silver top-plate color available on the R8 was replaced by an 'Anthracite' color on the R9; black remained available. Another external change was the addition of an LCD frame counter on the top plate between the wind lever and the shutter-speed dial. The mode selector dial gained a lock, after many R8 user complaints that it was too easily moved from the desired setting when handling the camera. The rear LCD display gained a backlight so it could be viewed in dim lighting.

The mass of the R9 was reduced by 100g (to 790g) from the R8, achieved by switching to a magnesium casting for the top plate (formerly zinc alloy) and substituting aluminum for steel at the bottom plate's frame.

Electronic changes included the ability to tune the sensitivity of matrix metering in steps of 0.1 EV independently of the other metering modes, and several improvements to the flash support. Metz's HSS (High Speed Sync) flash mode was now supported, allowing fill flash at shutter speeds greater than the X-sync speed by the use of many repeated small flashes of the electronic flashgun. This mode could be used from 1/360 to the camera's shortest 1/8000 of a second shutter speed. Also improved was the use of fill-flash at slower shutter speeds and wider apertures, by enabling lower-power illumination modes on modern Metz equipment. The manual flash exposure compensation ability in Program mode was improved, and AE lock was now possible in all automated modes.

Leica sell a number of dedicated accessories for the R8 and R9. In addition to the Digital Modul R, these comprise the following:[5]

• Motor-Winder R8/R9: gives powered film transport (loading/advance/rewind) and continuous 2 frame/s shooting. It affixes to the camera's base, adding 20 mm in height, and replaces the right handgrip as well, this containing the two CR-123 lithium batteries it uses. A switch enables leader-out rewinds. An additional battery pack may be affixed to the base for extended use.[6] This winder is much lighter and more compact than the previous version, the combination of R8 + Winder is almost exactly the same overall size and weight as the previous equivalent R7 + Winder
• Motor-Drive R8/R9: like the Motor-Winder, but larger and gives continuous 4.5 frame/s shooting in addition to single-shot and 2 frame/s. It provides additional shutter releases ― on the handgrip and on the vertical grip on the base. Enables three-shot auto-bracketing of exposure in 0.5 or 1 EV increments.[7]
• Remote Control R8/R9: an electronic unit that attaches to either the Motor Winder or the Motor Drive; it cannot be connected to the bare camera. In addition to triggering the shutter, the Remote Control can turn the camera on or off, control mode and exposure, control auto-bracketing, and can function as an intervalometer triggering at rates between one per second and one every 24 hours. It comes with a 5-metre cord and can be fitted with up to 4 25 metre extension cords for a maximum length of 105 metres.
• Electric trigger switches: If the functionality of the Remote Control is not needed and all that is required is to trip the shutter, two electric trigger switches are available; one with a 5-metre cord that can also take extension cords, and one with a 0.3 metre cord for shake-free trigger release on a tripod.
• SF 24D flash: Leica's dedicated flash unit enables camera-controlled TTL flash output on the R8 and R9. Covers the field of view of 35–85 mm lenses (with diffusers, 24–135 mm).
• Focusing screens: the standard focusing screen, ground-glass with split-image and microprism collar, can be replaced by any of five other screens for specialised tasks. For the Digital Modul R, an additional set of six screens marked with the Modul R's sensor crop area can be substituted.
• Other accessories from Leica include a rubber eyecup, right-angle finder, diopter correction lenses, cases, straps, tripods, cable releases etc.

On Wednesday, 4 March 2009, Leica announced via the L-Newsletter that no further stock was available and production of the R series cameras and accessories had ended.[3]

[8]

• Media related to Leica R8 at Wikimedia Commons
• Media related to Leica R9 at Wikimedia Commons
• Thorsten Overgaard: Leica R8 and Leica R9 with Leica DMR digital back