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The M8 was an anomaly more than anything else, and probably used an APS-H sensor because Leica couldn't get a 24x36 sensor from anyone. It was a flawed camera i

• _ph_ 9y ago
  Actually, both the M8 and the M9 use a Kodak sensor. They are even using the same sensor design, the M9 just having proportionally more pixels according the larger sensor area. But the individual pixel design is the same in both sensors (it is also the same sensor design used in the first FT-camera, the Olympus E-1, there of course only featuring 4.9 megapixels, due to the smaller sensor size). There were considerable difficulties getting a 35mm sensor working in a Leica M camera, due to the light reaching the corners of the sensor at very oblique angles. The M9 used strong offset microlenses on the sensor to fight with that, the more recent CMOS sensors are very "shallow" and thus less sensitive to the light angles. Also, the design of the infrared filter created a lot of problems. The M8 had a to weak one - which resulted in Leica giving free infrared filters for each M8 owner. The M9 one worked, but turned out to be insufficient stable, so many M9s got a free sensor exchange (fortunately free even out of warranty). With the M(240) and especially the M10 Leica finally seem to have fully succeed in making a true digital M. The M10 is especial, as the body size is finally identical to the film based M cameras, the M8-M(240) were about 3-4 mm thicker.