M Digital Lens Bayonet Coding

[Mark Norton]

It's easy to see what the $125/€95 is buying you. A new bayonet ring to replace the existing one; labour to change it and carry out a visual inspection of the lens and test it on a rig to verify correct recognition of the lens type. That includes (in Germany), sales tax, shipping, administration, overheads. By any measure, that is good value.

As for the cost of Leica parts, I paid something like €39 for a new distance ring on a 90mm Elmarit-M and similar amounts for the accessory carriers on a couple of wide angle lenses and a similar amounts again to fit them. Precision manufactured parts and skilled labour. Again, good value.

Call me foolhardy, but I'm more than ready to commit to buying this camera sight unseen. I have no doubt at all it will rank with the best. It has to, Leica's future depends on it.

 

[Mark Norton]

My reservations won't stop me from having them coded, Mark. 😉 I'm just waiting for them to return my Digilux2, so that I will have a daily camera to carry around whilst I send in my lenses. I have a feeling they have a large number of mounts to do, as the turnaround time on normal repairs seems to have gone from three weeks to seven weeks.🙁 🙄

Jaap, I think it's more likely to be the holiday season which is creating any bottleneck. At least the World Cup is over now.

I'd be surprised if there were huge numbers of people having their lenses upgraded already. Certainly there are not many people here and on leica-camera-user.com saying they are.

 

[jaapv]

Call me foolhardy, but I'm more than ready to commit to buying this camera sight unseen. I have no doubt at all it will rank with the best. It has to, Leica's future depends on it.

I would't call you that, Mark, we'll be happily snapping away whilst others, who only ordered after reading the reports- assuming the tests in the popular magazines will be of any value -which I doubt based on bitter experience-- will be waiting for half a year until Leica has cleared its order backlog.

 

[Ben Z]

Are you saying that if Leica is selling something for less than $BIG_AMOUNT then it must be obviously worthless?

Philipp

Reminds me of a famous quote from Mae West. A judge asked her "are you trying to show contempt for this court?" and she responded "No sir your honor, I'm trying my damndest not to" 😀

we'll be happily snapping away whilst others, who only ordered after reading the reports- assuming the tests in the popular magazines will be of any value -which I doubt based on bitter experience-- will be waiting for half a year until Leica has cleared its order backlog.

Just about the time Leica will release their first firmware update to solve all the glitches the early-adopters will have been moaning about for six months, and also the same time some of the early-adopters' M8s will be returning from Solms from 2-month repair "holidays" 😀

 

[Bob Ross]

We can also imagine that the field testers are experienced and severe nit-pickers and "all the glitches" have been found and delt with, before we get our hands on one. The field testing of digital cameras has also come a long way in a few years. Cameras that have been professionally field tested are distinctly better than those coming directly off of the designer's bench. Where they all need some work is on the PP software side. Field testing aggravates customers by the delays, but when you hold a camera in your hand that you know knowledgeable professionals helped to design, it is a good feeling.

 

[Mark Norton]

Yes, I certainly hope the testers are real sticklers for detail.

It would be interesting to know how many people have been involved in the field testing. They've certainly done a good job keeping it under wraps, to my knowledge, not a SINGLE spy shot of the camera and, when it comes right down to it, only a handful of facts released so far for us to try to figure out what this thing is going to be like.

 

[Ben Z]

We can also imagine that the field testers are experienced and severe nit-pickers and "all the glitches" have been found and delt with

We could imagine that, but it would take quite an imagination 😀 Especially with the number of reported incidents of DMRs needing repair (and assuming not all incidents have been reported on the internet) and the number of even staunch supporters champing impatiently at the bit for an anticipated firmware update.

 

[Ben Z]

We can also imagine that the field testers are experienced and severe nit-pickers and "all the glitches" have been found and delt with

We could imagine that, but it would take quite an imagination 😀 Especially with the number of reported incidents of DMRs needing repair (and assuming not all incidents have been reported on the internet) and the number of even staunch supporters champing impatiently at the bit for an anticipated firmware update.

Guys (and gals if you're out there), I love Leica to death but QC hasn't been one of their strongest points.