M9 CCD Out of Stock! (Coating issue)

[Johann Espiritu]

My M9 went to Schmidt Marketing in HK (offical distributor) for a sensor cleaning (first time in over a year of use) and it was discovered that the coating on the CCD has peeled off at one of the corners.

Has anyone else had this happen to their M9? I'm assuming this is covered by the warranty (I hope I'm right).

They also told me that the CCD's are out of stock at Leica Germany? Anyone have news on this?

 

[phaedrus]

It's a Kodak!

It's a Kodak!

Doesn't surprise me in the least (Re. your penultimate sentence). It's a Kodak sensor, and they've recently run aground economically.
What I wonder about is how some layer could peel off a sensor, I thought of them as pretty monolithic. Prooves Murphy's law. Sorry for your predicament.

 

[ChrisP]

Doesn't Leica guarantee replacement parts for at least 9 years or something like that? Maybe you'll get lucky and they'll be forced to replace it with an M10!

 

[BobYIL]

My M9 went to Schmidt Marketing in HK (offical distributor) for a sensor cleaning (first time in over a year of use) and it was discovered that the coating on the CCD has peeled off at one of the corners.

Has anyone else had this happen to their M9? I'm assuming this is covered by the warranty (I hope I'm right).

They also told me that the CCD's are out of stock at Leica Germany? Anyone have news on this?

An official distributor of Leica told you that the CCD's are out of stock at Leica Germany??? Hard to believe... Could this be just a sort of excuse to tell the customers while they, as distributor, ran out of inventory for this sensor?

I would be inquiring that again for nobody has heard something about Solms stopped production due to sensor shortage..

 

[swoop]

Kodak has gone under. This is why an imminent M10 makes even more sense. I own an M9 and I am not enthused that my $7000 camera may end up in the trash if something goes wrong.

 

[Johann Espiritu]

The word in the email sent to me was "peeling" but it may just be a rough translation. Perhaps "fading" might have been more appropriate? In any case, I'm more concerned about supply and warranty coverage.

Has anyone here had their CCDs replaced under warranty? What were the circumstances? Thanks!

 

[CameraQuest]

Doesn't surprise me in the least (Re. your penultimate sentence). It's a Kodak sensor, and they've recently run aground economically.
What I wonder about is how some layer could peel off a sensor, I thought of them as pretty monolithic. Prooves Murphy's law. Sorry for your predicament.

maybe not.

I'm told Kodak sold their sensor business.

Stephen

 

[jarski]

sounds very unlikely they run out of stock, given how long they still have to service cameras they have sold. "oops, we dont have more sensors" just cant happen.

 

[dap]

Kodak's sensor division was sold months ago. Maybe the changeover to the new ownership group is causing a delay in sensor production.

 

[hteasley]

Kodak has gone under. This is why an imminent M10 makes even more sense. I own an M9 and I am not enthused that my $7000 camera may end up in the trash if something goes wrong.

Kodak is not gone, they're in Chapter 11. They're reorganizing, not dead.

They sold their image sensor business to Platinum Equity. Sensors are still being made, and they are not burdened one whit by Kodak's situation, not being part of Kodak anymore.

This information is not hard to find.

 

[BobYIL]

Leica is not the sole user of KAF series sensors, there are many other users as well like the industrial or machine vision camera manufacturers like JAI, Jenoptik (they are couple of times larger than Leica), Avigilon, Lumenera, etc. I am in this business and did not hear a single news from these companies about sensor shortage consequently discontinued camera models.

Leica may move to implement a different sensor technology in the oncoming models however this certainly is not due to the situation of the KAF series. It's obvious that the CMOS has become the standard for the sensors sized from M43 up to FF..

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

The thread title states that sensor is out of stock because of a coating issue.

Does this mean that they're no longer manufacturing because they can't coat, because the coating is problematic...the coating is out of stock... or perhaps it's a case of telephone game?

 

[jaapv]

There have been a few delays but mostly, even if some customers got a “ waiting for spare parts” message from Leica, turnaround has been within a few weeks. Sensors are manufactured in batches, and if the demand fluctuates there may be a hiccup in the flow of supplies. This has been happening in the past and will happen in the future.
It is not a sign that the sky is falling. This specific case has been discussed elsewhere before and it appears to be a snafu at a local agent compounded by an excuse.
And as posted above by others the sensor is made by Truesense nowadays, who purchased Kodak’s sensor division a while ago, so Kodak’s troubles are as relevant as Saab’s here.

 

[Ben Z]

There are only two reasons I can think of why Leica would run out of sensors. One is, they have had to replace so many more M9 sensors than they expected, that they ran through the entire inventory of spares they had stockpiled. If that's not the case, then it means Leica aren't stockpiling very many of them. I can certainly understand Leica management's reluctance to invest in thousands of spare sensors, but to me as a customer it seems worrisome that the long-term viability of the M9 rests dependent on a third-party supplier. Then again, someone like me who intends keeping the M9 and not immediately upgrading to an M10 might not be the kind of customer Leica is courting.

 

[Nigel Meaby]

My M9 is at Solms for a replacement sensor. I had an email from them a couple of days ago stating that the sensor will be replaced. There was no mention of a delay due to sensor's being out of stock. I would imagine they would have mentioned it in the email if they were.
There are many camera manufacturer's using sensor's not made in-house so lets not get hysterical about all this. Let's keep this in proportion!

 

[Johann Espiritu]

My M9 is at Solms for a replacement sensor. I had an email from them a couple of days ago stating that the sensor will be replaced. There was no mention of a delay due to sensor's being out of stock. I would imagine they would have mentioned it in the email if they were.
There are many camera manufacturer's using sensor's not made in-house so lets not get hysterical about all this. Let's keep this in proportion!

Thanks for the info. May I ask why your sensor was replaced, and if this was covered by the warranty?

 

[Godfrey]

FYI: Kodak sold the sensor division to Platinum Equity in November of 2011. They've created a new brand ... http://www.truesenseimaging.com/ ... and are continuing to produce and deliver sensors. Certainly to Leica.

 

[Vickko]

hmmm. M9 prices are going up.

 

[jaapv]

There are only two reasons I can think of why Leica would run out of sensors. One is, they have had to replace so many more M9 sensors than they expected, that they ran through the entire inventory of spares they had stockpiled. If that's not the case, then it means Leica aren't stockpiling very many of them. I can certainly understand Leica management's reluctance to invest in thousands of spare sensors, but to me as a customer it seems worrisome that the long-term viability of the M9 rests dependent on a third-party supplier. Then again, someone like me who intends keeping the M9 and not immediately upgrading to an M10 might not be the kind of customer Leica is courting.

Actually, according to my sources at Leica, sensor replacement rates are lower than expected. The problems arise from sales being more than three times the projected number.

 

[Nigel Meaby]

Thanks for the info. May I ask why your sensor was replaced, and if this was covered by the warranty?

Hi Johann just waiting for it to be replaced. My camera was out of warranty but they are replacing it free of charge. The camera has taken less than 5000 actuations but I noticed two marks appearing on photo's that I couldn't remove by wet cleaning the sensor. They were marks with a concentric pattern.