M8 Oh Drat

[mike_j]

Clicking away happily this morning, loud buzz and on LCD: Err - shutter fault.

Changed batteries and tried everything but it is the real deal so off to Solms. But how much will it cost and is it worth it? The M8 is unmarked but getting brassy at 14,000 actuations and I have been thinking of upgrading to a user M9. So is resale value of M8 - repair costs - ebay and paypal charges worth the hassle or should I just put it on the shelf with the other once loved but now unused cameras ?

 

[Arvay]

try to install firmware once again.
sometimes it helps

 

[Chyn]

When my shutter gave out around 30,000 actuations, I sent mine back to Solms. Leica usually mandates an estimate (around €40) and then charge for the camera repair and a CLA. In total, the final cost amounted to €600, with a turnaround time of a month. The M8 came back like new, and has a year's warranty from Leica.

14,000 actuations is on the low end. I would email or call customer service and see what they can do about it. Worst case, you could resell the fixed M8.

 

[Vickko]

Tough call, I see ebay sold's at $1500 and up.

If you get Solms to fix it, you'll be getting a warranty, I assume. That warranty may be worth every penny, especially if it is a year long or so.

If you but another M8 off ebay, it wouldn't come with a warranty and might fail without warning, leaving you with two dead cameras.

 

[ramosa]

Back in April 2012, I had the shutter replaced on my M8 (after 20,000 actuations). The cost through Leica NJ was $475. In addition, they'll CLA your camera and provide you with a one-year warranty. It was worth it then, and IMO would be worth it today. However, if it happened to me now, I would push to see if I could pay extra to trade for an M9 or M9P or ME instead. (They do that for LCD problems, but I'd push to see if they make an exception for a shutter problem.)

 

[Monochrom]

I think you´ll get the current silent up to 1/4000 speed shutter, the camera is far softer with such improvement....and nicer i think you won´t want to sell it....after all is a terrific camera!!!

 

[Clint Troy]

I am apaled to Realize how these shutter go bad after extremely low usage. It seems that 30k clicks is as far a M8 can go. Aren't these shutters rated for at least 150K??
Any DSLR is considered mint when i has 20k on the shutter count.

What's 30k clicks... 20 weddings? 30 serious assignments? That's bad.

 

[jaapv]

It may not be as bad as you think - there is one shutter fault which can easily be rectified without taking the camera apart - and the repair is cheap. Send it in.

 

[Kent]

Shocking experience, always. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

 

[raid]

With such a camera, it seems that you limit tbe number of actuations as if you used a film camera.

 

[sig]

With such a camera, it seems tht you limit tbe number of actuations as if you used a film camera.

Just another way a leica make you a more real photographer 😀😀

 

[Clint Troy]

With such a camera, it seems tht you limit tbe number of actuations as if you used a film camera.

I hope you aren't serious. A film camera is only limited by the roll of film. If film rolls had 1000 exposure capacity, would you be saying the same thing?

 

[Godfrey]

15000 actuations is pretty low, but mechanical things can fail unexpectedly, even the best ones. Did you make all those actuations yourself? Was the camera new or used when you got it?

I'd just send it in, see what it costs to fix, and repair it if I liked the camera. Same as I do with any camera, including my 1950s folders and Rollei 35S most recently. Sure, I can often replace the camera cheaper, but what's better: a camera you like that you know has been inspected, repaired, etc, or another camera in unknown condition?

At any rate, 15000 exposures is about 415 rolls of film. I don't know about anyone else, but for my use that represents a good bit of value for the repair money. Better than the repairs and CLAs on most of my film cameras...

G

 

[Clint Troy]

At any rate, 15000 exposures is about 415 rolls of film. I don't know about anyone else, but for my use that represents a good bit of value for the repair money. Better than the repairs and CLAs on most of my film cameras...

G

That's only about 22 rolls of bulk film. I'd be in total shock if my csmeras would need a CLA after only 22 bult rolls.

The reality is that Leica totally cheaped out on cheap items such as the shutter. Even the worst dslrs have standardized shutters that are rated for at least 150K.

 

[raid]

I hope you aren't serious. A film camera is only limited by the roll of film. If film rolls had 1000 exposure capacity, would you be saying the same thing?

I was thinking of the cost of film photography and that some people take more photos with digital cametas.

 

[Pablito]

does not seem like a parallel comparison. It's NOT a film camera. For better or worse, whether you like it or not, digital lets you shoot a ton more pictures without worrying about running out of film, or cost of processing. It's up to the individual photographer whether you make the best of this, or just waste a ton of clicks. but it seems to me that a digital camera should be able to accomodate the very working style that it lends itself to.

 

[raid]

Just another way a leica make you a more real photographer 😀😀

I am not happy at all for such a weak spot in the M8. It is shameful of Leica not to better cover such camera failure.

 

[Godfrey]

That's only about 22 rolls of bulk film. I'd be in total shock if my csmeras would need a CLA after only 22 bult rolls.

The reality is that Leica totally cheaped out on cheap items such as the shutter. Even the worst dslrs have standardized shutters that are rated for at least 150K.

I think you're being overly negative and making an unwarranted over generalization, Clint. ANY mechanical device can fail, even extremely good ones, even at a very young age for reasons that might not surface in the inspection process during QC. I've seen this happen with Nikon, Canon, Leica, Hasselblad, Linhof ... film or digital.

No one's "cheaping out" ... some bits simply prove more fragile in actual use than any testing can determine. Or have flaws in materials or design that were not apparent in development and testing. Or QC. The whole point to incremental, continued development of a camera, from the manufacturer's point of view, is that you find some things that didn't work out as well as you hoped and improve them in subsequent models.

I can point you to a friend of mine who's new M6 and Summicron-M 50mm lens went back and forth to Leica four times in the first six months he owned it during the early 1990s. They just couldn't seem to figure out why it wouldn't focus correctly, and why the meter was so far off. They finally replaced the entire viewfinder/rangefinder mechanism and the entire meter circuitry. He's been shooting with it happily ever since, now alongside his M8.2 (which, btw, has already made four times as many exposures, since he got it used two years ago, as the M6 has in the past 19 years).

G

 

[louisb]

I had the same fault on my M8. Took the battery out and left it for a day. I also changed the SD card. Put the battery and a new card in and the shutter finished its cycle and worked perfectly until I sold it over a year later.

Here is what I think. The firmware is basic and uses a simple 'state machine' principle that it must complete each state before moving on. If, like me, your SD card is suddenly defective mid-write then the cycle cannot move to the next state and a shutter fault shows.

Incidentally, it was a SanDisk card and I switched to Kingston thereafter.

Of course, in your case it may be a genuine shutter fault. It could be dirt on the shutter blades, which if you can get the shutter to actuate again will eventually disperese, or it could be the shutter fault I had where a recharged battery and a new card is all that was needed.

Hope it resolves itself.

LouisB

 

[Benjamin Marks]

Mean Time Between Failures is just that: it is an arithmetic mean between the two ends of the bell curve. The shutters don't get "rated." In order for the MTBF to be accurate, there has to be something to the left of the mean failure point, if you know what I "mean."

Ben