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It is widely acknowledged that the Canon EOS 5D is one of the finest digital SLRs on the market, so a comparison of image quali- ty between the M8 and the 5D should have shown any weaknesses in the Leica equipment. In my experience, a good test of the sharp- ness of a lens is the detail it renders in the smallest branches of trees when photographed at a distance. To test the M8 I used two tree scenes: one of a bare oak tree at the bottom of our garden and an- other of trees on a distant horizon several miles away. The compar- ison included all the lenses I had purchased with the Leica, namely the Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5, the Leica Elmarit 28mm f/2.8 and the Summicron 50mm f/2. These were set against the Canon EOS 5D with the Canon 17–40mm f/4 and Canon 28–105mm f/4 L-series lenses. The results surprised me. Almost uncannily, this small Leica cam- era was producing images that contained as much fine detail every bit as sharp as the 5D. Even the Voigtlander 15mm lens produced detail and image quality to rival the 5D. Interestingly, the M8 with these lenses was producing more color detail in the trunks and branches of trees than the 5D. Taking the real-life comparison a step further, I compared a 100%- sized Canon print to one from the Leica that had been enlarged to about 110%. Because the Leica sensor is smaller than the 5D sen- sor, this enlargement was required to render prints of equal size. De- spite any impact on image quality from enlarging the Leica print, the Leica images contained detail and quality at least as good as those taken with the 5D.