How long do we think digital Leica M cameras will last?

Coldkennels said:
Even with optical components like those eyepiece lenses: if there's demand, they can be manufactured. Someone in Japan is making replacement elements for haze-etched elements in one of the Canon LTM lenses.
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Got some info about that? Who, what, how, where? I'm interested because I like Canon's LTM lenses and it would be good to have that in my back pocket if I needed it.

Chris
 
I bought my factory refurbished M8 then sent it off for warranty repair and pixel mapping within a couple months. I bought my M9 new then turned around and sent it off for a sensor remap and new shutter within a week. So, MTBF = < 1 month in my experience. In the nearly two years that I owned both of those cameras, roughly 60% of that time they were at Leica for repair. This is just my experience and my opinion, but they were in the top three worst gear decisions I ever made, right along with the Contax AX.
Who knows how long Leica may be able to take care of their digital offerings.
Phil
 
Phil_F_NM said:
I bought my factory refurbished M8 then sent it off for warranty repair and pixel mapping within a couple months. I bought my M9 new then turned around and sent it off for a sensor remap and new shutter within a week. So, MTBF = < 1 month in my experience. In the nearly two years that I owned both of those cameras, roughly 60% of that time they were at Leica for repair. This is just my experience and my opinion, but they were in the top three worst gear decisions I ever made, right along with the Contax AX.
Who knows how long Leica may be able to take care of their digital offerings.
Phil
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Thanks for the reminder. All good reasons why some people avoided buying them (anticipated a rush to market without in depth testing)...or thought they were poor value for big money......
By contrast look at the products of Leica's competitors or their own much maligned M5..... which still keeps on ticking....50 yrs later.
 
DownUnder said:
Some 16 year old digital cameras keep on going. Leicas, not sure, I own only a 70+ year old Barnack, almost as old as me and it's still doing okay - as I am, but when something inside me fails it won't be a camera repair shop job.

I had a Canon 450D kit, my first digital - a gift in 2008 or 2009 from my SO, who bought it dirty-cheaply from a work colleague who didn't care for it. I recall he paid AUD $1300 for the (two lens) kit. I bought it for half that, and I thought I had a real bargain.

I soon learned otherwise. For everyday snaps it was adequate, but I didn't like the colors, I had to do too much post processing to get those right for me. Ditto the mid-tones. White cat fur came out blue or green and no amount of in-camera adjusting ever fixed this. Friends who had similar Canons all complained of the same problems, so mine weren't unique.

To my dismay I found I was getting better results with a dead-meter Nikkormat and a Weston Master. Quite a sobering revelation when everybody and their cat had a digisomethingorother.

The crunch came when a stock photo buyer I sent a shipload of D450 images to (at the client's request), rejected them all, saying the colors and the mid-tones were "unsuitable" for reproduction.

Many I know love Canons and do good photography with them. So maybe I just had a crap shooter. Anyway, I sold the thing at a loss and bought the D90 which we still have. Never regretted this decision.

That D90 now has 130,000 clicks on it and is still going. Last week we were gifted another D90, with a whoppingly low 4,000 on its snapmeter. So we are now set up for at least nine lives (thanks, cats!).

It takes all kinds to make a village, so the old saying goes. Ditto to make a camera. For me Nikon is that camera (with Fuji a close second).
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Looks like some particular sensors might be bad or color calibration. My М-Е 220 is not as good after sensor change by Leica.
 
too many people expect a sensor replacement to be exactly perfect... doesnt work that way sadly.

However no one can deny the original M3 is a great piece of gear. I love mine, dont use it much but i loves it...
 
mtnbkr said:
Thanks! Hopefully I'll never need their services, but I've got them bookmarked just in case.

Chris
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I bought the Kanto rebuilt Canon 50/1.2 that was for sale here on RFF. I also have a perfect-glass early production Canon 50/1.2, after going through several others. The Kanto repaired lens has the edge, higher contrast and sharper. Better than new.
 
Sonnar Brian said:
I bought the Kanto rebuilt Canon 50/1.2 that was for sale here on RFF. I also have a perfect-glass early production Canon 50/1.2, after going through several others. The Kanto repaired lens has the edge, higher contrast and sharper. Better than new.
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That's the kind of information worth knowing.
 
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