Leica R8-R9 - Design

Design

Industrial designer Manfred Meinzer was chiefly responsible for the R8 design, along with a team of designers largely new to Leica or drawn from outside; the previous Leica design department had been largely dismantled.

A key design goal was to evoke the Leica M and its smooth top-plate; 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. Although the R8 is capable of fully automated exposure and (with the addition of the integrally-styled motor drive or winder) automated film transport, a major design goal was that the camera be easy to operate in manual mode, since many Leica customers prefer this. In this it differs strongly from other modern SLR designs, which are 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 turned by hand.

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" (Solms is the German town where Leica is headquartered). The size and bulk of the camera attracted a lot of criticism.