From 1959 to 1970 the Nikon F and the Leica M3 and M2/4 were the two top products that a serious professional wanted/had to use. Both cameras incorporated the highest level of engineering that the precision mechanical industry had to offer. And the optics were state of the art too. Not only the professional user used both cameras, the passionate amateur followed the lead and bought these models too. Both the F and the M3 followed spartan morals and offered only the minimal set of features. Not a sprinkle of automatics was available. Coupled exposure metering is available, but only as an add on (Leicameter and Photomic. Otherwise you have to set the aperture and speed by yourself on experience or on guidance by a handheld exposure meter. The Nikon had as add on a motor drive and the Leica had the Leicavit (on a special model). Basically both cameras were manually operated based on user expertise, just as photographic lore would dictate. The main difference was the rangefinder here and the ground glass there. Both systems had advantages and limitations and therefore many photographers had an M3 and later the M2/4 with wide angle and an F with telelens. Larry Burrows is the prime example.
From 1970 more and more functions become automatic as electro-mechanical and electronic functions are incorporated into and do replace mechanical functions and processes. The role of the micro-processor is greatly enhanced. When the capture medium has been changed from silver halide to a CCD-sensor the transformation from analogue to digital is complete. The complete photographic chain has been digitized.
The Nikon F6 is the ultimate camera for AgX photo technology . The Leica M7 might be seen as the true comparison. Handle the F6 and you still feel the vestiges of the original F body, but enhanced and amplified by numerous electronic features. A study of the manual is necessary to fine tune the options and study their operational value.
The D3 is a totally different machine If the F6 is from Mars, the D3 is from Venus.
The M7 on the other hand is hardly different from the M8 and indeed the M8 is intuitively identical to the original M3. But you keep searching for that lever wind.
Speed versus skill
If the M8 has the philosophy of a mountain bike, the D3 feels like a Formule 1 racer.
The M8 does offer only a minimalist set of options and choices, just as what you get with a mountain bike. You can ride a bike if you do most things yourself and you need experience and training to get somewhere. You can do wonderful things with a bike, but it does do nothing itself.
When using a Nikon D3, you can get very good pictures without knowing much about the photographic principles. When you are able to frame the scene and on automatic pilot, the software goes quite far in ensuring a technically well balance picture. The main characteristic of the D3 is speed and customization. Exactly these are the aspects the Leica is lacking. With the D3 you can customize almost every aspect and function to the wishes, situation and application of the photographer. The amount of choices and parameter options is almost limitless and you need a handbook to find out what and how to customize. You have three main picture formats (24x36, 24x16 and 30x24), and an endless list op compression options, several exposure meter options (3D matrix, spot metering and a range of centre weighted circle diameters) five stops exposure compensation, exposure and flash bracketing, AF focusing on one or 11 or51 points , dynamic AF with pattern recognition, flash control with DDL and matrix and a very sophisticated flash slave system. The menu has a list of more than 40 items than can be programmed and adapted to personal preferences. The choice of options allows one to optimize the camera to a certain set of photo assignment and/or personal style of working. The display and finder show a large amount of information so much that is not easy to see what the camera is telling you.
The Leica M8 has hardly anything to offer in this area. A handful of options are available, you can switch between automatic exposure with aperture priority and manual setting, you can select the white balance operation and you can do some exposure compensation by hand. And you can set a few flash options.
Compared with the D3 the Leica is really frugal and costs much more. The Leica is quite slow, the buffer overflows easily after a few pictures and above ISO 640 the noise becomes quite visible.
And the Nikon is fast. The speed is indeed incredible.
Then the race is over? Not really!
In the final analysis, you can capture with the Leica many of the images that you can make with the D3. The core of every picture consists of one single shutter speed and one aperture combination (however sophisticated the decision to select a certain exposure) and one sharpness plane with more or less depth (selected automatically or manually) and last but not least the framing and shooting angle for the scene. Whatever the software algorithms and automatic detection systems, in the end you have these simple parameters for every picture: distance = 3 meters, aperture = 5.9 and speed = 1/1250, focal length = 70mm. There is no difference here between the D3 and the M8. The main point is that the D3 does select these numbers mostly automatic, with user weighting for the selection, that changes in circumstances are accommodated for superfast and continuously, based on pattern recognition algorithms and a database of exposure and luminance distributions. The Nikonian can make 20 pictures in two seconds, where the Leica-ist can handle at most 3 pictures in two seconds. The Leica-ist has to set the exposure and distance pro-actively and must anticipate how the scene or motive will change. With aperture automation the Leica has a modicum of exposure automation, but this is not as fast and accurate as the Nikon automation. The classical scene where the Leica may have troubles is the theatre where the actors move quickly and the lighting changes erratically. Here the D3 user operates with ease and confidence, where the M8 user needs a substantial amount of anticipation and even empathy to wait for the perfect image. The scene must fall into a shape at the moment and location where the Leica-ist is prepared to take the picture and has set the parameters accordingly.
You need experience and some luck to get the picture you want.
Here we meet the second group of differences between the D3 and M8. The Leica user has to be in command of the camera to create the picture and when the act of photography is successful, there is this element of proud of having accomplished something. With the Nikon you have always the feeling that the camera is in control and that you are simply guiding the camera. This is not bad in itself: a Formule-1 racer does not brake or steer by himself, but is reacting to processor controlled monitoring of speed and forces. But there is a difference in type of pride. Playing the violin takes years of training, but a pretty melody out of a synthesizer is much easier to do. Both pieces of music are valuable, but there is an intrinsic distinction.
You might not see a big difference between a picture made with a D3 or an M8, but the way to get there is of totally different order.
Take as example the Nikon flash control system that is built into the camera. The i-DDL program allows the use of five remote controllable flash units and the automatic exposure control for balanced lighting based on pattern recognition and highlight background analysis. This is a very sophisticated system, and relatively easy to use and set up. The Leica user has a very restricted range of options here. With the Metz SCA system you can go someway to emulate the same functionality. In fact an external flashmeter and a modicum of knowledge about balancing main lights and supporting lights in the studio or on location would suffice to get the same results. But you need time and some expertise to set up the lighting for the scene and the analysis of the results of the flash metering.
The Leica M8 is at its best when the photographer has a strong rapport to the scene or motive, when he/she stands in the midst of the action and can anticipate what is going to happen, based on an emphatic understanding of the situation. Wide angle lenses form the majority of focal lengths in the M scuderia and the high speeds of the lenses compensate for the slower ISO sensitivity and add to the impact of the picture with the aspect of selective sharpness and environmental background.
The very clear finder and frames support the focus on the subject and the simple handling of the camera does not detract from the actions in front of the camera. But you need to stay in contact with the subject and the camera: one moment of lack of concentration and you may miss the opportunity. With the Nikon you work more relaxed and with a bit of detachment. You know that the camera takes care of most unexpected changes in the scene. You can even change on the fly some parameters if you want to do this without interruption of the workflow. The Leica has only a few options and these have to be operated manually and this is not always easy to do. The camera has not been designed, nor built to allow dynamic changes during the photographic act. You select in advance what you want and wait for the scene to develop into a shape that matches the idea you had in mind.
For a comparison between the D3 and the M8 we regarded the Leica options as the rule and used with the D3 just these options, but allowed every automatic support that is available. Especially impressive in the D3 is the pattern recognition of the camera when you use the focus lock option. If you compare feature lists the Leica loses instantly. When you turn the table and use the D3 with simple advance, simple Aperture priority exposure, and selective metering as in the Leica, you set the same basics and then you are able to compare the cameras.
For the D3 works the speed of operation, the AF is very fast, transport is silent, response is immediate. But the many buttons, wheels and display items always give you the impression that you are overlooking something and the many symbols and display items in the finder are too complex to quickly grasp their value and you have that feeling of insecurity that you might be missing something. Ergonomics of the Nikon are excellent, but the camera is heavy and even a bit unwieldy. The selection of the speed or aperture with a wheel and a display symbol is definitely slower than the turn of a ring on the lens or camera.
The manual focus of the Leica is really slow, compared to the D3 and the rate of success is lower too. But with the Leica you know where you focus and here the D3 is a bit annoying: at unexpected moments the D3 surprises you with a blinking AF point out of 51 or 11 possible points at a position of the subject where you do not want the sharpness plane.
With the rangefinder you are slower, but you can precisely locate the plane where you want it. The concept of the rangefinder implies that only the centre of the finder can be used for sharpness selection. The Nikon can even focus at the outer regions of the finder.
With experience and much training the rangefinder can be operated with speed and accuracy, and that is part of your pride.
The pictures made with the M8 and the D3 do not differ greatly is image quality, colour reproduction and exposure.
Conclusion
The Nikon D3 blows away the Leica M8 when you look at the possibilities, speed and range of photographic assignments that you can cope with. The D3 can handle almost every task with ease and good performance. The operative speed is impressive, the sensitivity of the sensor is amazing and the scope of customization leaves no wishes. The Leica M8 is more restricted in its area of deployment, but can score points when the photographer needs to be intimately involved in the subject or scene and wants to operate at close range, where selective sharpness, the precise framing and the conscious focus are required.
The very low noise of the D3 (shutter, mirror, AF) is really amazing and the M8 has trouble to match that level of decibels. The new M8.2 is more silent than the M8, but the classical claim that the Leica has the most silent shutter noise in the industry is no longer as true as it was in the past.
With the M8 you have the best lenses in the industry, but only an experienced user who has trained and is in command of the skills and feels proud of his/her accomplishments can exploit the performance potential. The Leica does not necessarily make better pictures than the Nikon (I want not to fall in this easy trap!). Both cameras are formidable performers. The Nikon scores with speed and dynamic automation, the Leica needs skill and dedication. But when you see an excellent Nikon picture, the camera takes the credit for 75%, where in the case of the Leica the user takes 90% of the credits. When using the Leica M8, you use the bare essentials of the photographic process and your own skills to get the picture. The Nikon D3 is a most flexible instrument to get the job done, but you are more removed from your own skills and thus the pride of accomplishment is less.
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