A Chat with Leica AG CEO about the M9 Sensor

[pyeh]

Thank you Herr Amin for your initiative and for eliciting these reassuring responses from Herr Schopf.
Thank you splitimageview also for setting other people straight on the import of Schopf's statements.

 

[ray*j*gun]

Thanks Raid, I didnt quite get Leica working on sensor correction on senors they didn't manufacture. In fact I still don't know why/how Leica has to correct the issue if they are sourcing the sensor from another supplier (Kodak ET El). The engineering on these devices is like black magic to me and I am always grateful to the tech gods when my M8 actually works.

 

[raid]

The glass cover to the sensor is not part of the sensor, it seems. Other types of glass have been used on sensors for lab optical devices, Brian told me, but it seems that with a camera, there are other issues involved, such as image quality ... etc. The other issue is thickness of the glass.

Mr. Schopf told me that the "old technology" in the M9 did not allow for quick back to back photos. I asked him why I have to wait so long between consecutive image making with the M9.

 

[uhoh7]

Great Job , Raid 🙂
Cudos to My Schopf for taking the time to speak with you. I hope you use you email contact to allow our expert friend at L-Place to formulate some additional questions 🙂

 

[Baby of Macon]

Well done Raid. It's valuable to post the fact that the CEO was willing to speak to you in person. I'm sure that these are difficult times for Leica - it reminds me of how it must have been for NSU after they introduced the RO 80.

 

[drinkingeye]

Vielen Dank, lieber Herr Amin. Du hast unsere Sorgen würdigst eingebracht 🙂

By the way: Mr. Schopf is generally known to be a gentle & polite person. I have a friend who has met him personally a few times. I think this kind of behaviour belongs to the Leica corporate culture as well.

Thanks again for taking the initiative!

 

[raid]

Great Job , Raid 🙂
Cudos to My Schopf for taking the time to speak with you. I hope you use you email contact to allow our expert friend at L-Place to formulate some additional questions 🙂

He seemed to be honest about what he was saying to me, and I am hopeful that Leica will soon find a new type of glass sensor cover. He offered me to email him with suggestions/questions, and then we could chat on the phone about them.

 

[raid]

Well done Raid. It's valuable to post the fact that the CEO was willing to speak to you in person. I'm sure that these are difficult times for Leica - it reminds me of how it must have been for NSU after they introduced the RO 80.

As I said before, there was nothing to lose by trying such contacting.

 

[raid]

Vielen Dank, lieber Herr Amin. Du hast unsere Sorgen würdigst eingebracht 🙂

By the way: Mr. Schopf is generally known to be a gentle & polite person. I have a friend who has met him personally a few times. I think this kind of behaviour belongs to the Leica corporate culture as well.

Thanks again for taking the initiative!

Thanks! I thought that I needed to contact him, but he surprised me by calling me first this morning. I had the phone turned off then!

 

[willie_901]

All sensors have a cover glass. Everything in front of the pinned diode photodetector assembly will impact the final image. Brands generally do not have much freedom in changing the sensor cover glass. For instance, when Nikon decided to eliminate the effects of anti-aliasing filters, they could not simply replace the AA filter with clear glass. They had to use different optical layers in order to cancel out the effects of the AA filter assembly while keeping the other transmission properties of the sensor cover glass unchanged (link).

Eventually Leica will engineer a solution to the M9 delamination problem. But this is not a simple task.

 

[raid]

The CEO told me that the cost for an upgrade to the M240 costs about "EURO 3500". Is this what some of you guys paid?

 

[bushwick1234]

Raid, wusste gar nicht, dass Sie Deutsch koennen. Ich bin in D geboren und dort auch zur Grundschule gegangen bevor ich nach NY gezogen bin.

 

[silverbullet]

I did not know that Leica is actively developing a replacement glass cover for the CDC sensor, and that they were working on it throughout the Christmas season, Godfrey.
I also had no clue that the CEO is using a RF Leica. 🙂

Raid, did Mr. Schopf mentioned the year of the Christmas season? This issue is so old now that it must have been 2013…….

Ich schäme mich als Deutscher für solch ein lausiges Verhalten den Kunden gegenüber. Sorry.😡

 

[raid]

Raid, wusste gar nicht, dass Sie Deutsch koennen. Ich bin in D geboren und dort auch zur Grundschule gegangen bevor ich nach NY gezogen bin.

Hi,
I was 6-12.5 years old when we lived in Germany. This meant elementary school (in Germany, four years) Matthias Claudius Volksschule plus about 3 years in middle school, Nikolaus Cusanus Gymnasium in Bad Godesberg.

 

[raid]

Raid, did Mr. Schopf mentioned the year of the Christmas season? This issue is so old now that it must have been 2013…….

Ich schäme mich als Deutscher für solch ein lausiges Verhalten den Kunden gegenüber. Sorry.😡

Take it easy. Leica is working on it now.

 

[Vince Lupo]

Raid, this is good news, and I appreciate your having taken the initiative to contact the CEO.

 

[raid]

Thank you, Vince. People had quite a few of different suggestions on what to ask the CEO, and I went with was most obvious and reasonable, and I let him do the talking so that I could find out what Leica was doing.

 

[awslee]

This post must be one of the root cause for BlackStone to have Leica's CEO replaced.

 

[Huss]

Yes, and still no news about the replacement M9/M-E sensor. The one that does not have a design flaw.
It's been 3 months since this thread, and who knows how many years that Leica has known about it.

 

[CameraQuest]

Raid,

Why not email the new CEO and have a followup conversation ?

Stephen