My M8 died

herbkell@shaw.c

herbkell@shaw.c

Peter Kelly
Local time
8:24 AM
Joined
May 27, 2006
Messages
63
I started having freeze ups wihich initially could be fixed by removing the battery and reinstalling it. The resets became more difficult and the last two required a couple of attemps and fiddling with the on/off switch/

Now it has died altogether and no amount of cajoling will bring it back to life. I have tried both batteries but it now seems totally dead.

I am going to leave the battery out overnight and see if this helps

Any suggestions/miracles/words of wisdom or sympathy would be appreciated.
 
send it back...it seems lots of users have reported poor performace from these cameras. I would say send it back and see if you can get your money back...then wait for all the bugs to be worked out and the price to come down a bit, and then get one.

I would contact the retailer you purchased the camera from, im sure your camera will not be the 1st to be returned.
 
Peter, sorry to hear. I think the others are correct, give that Passport a workout. The fortunate thing is that most Leica dealers, actually all of the Leica dealers I have dealt with are excellent folks to do business with, and Leica appears to be standing behind their product. Good luck.

I have largely stayed out of the M8 discussions as I have little interest, but as a spectator feel quite disappointed that Leica released a product with this this type of result. Simply put, it should simply work.
 
flipflop said:
send it back...it seems lots of users have reported poor performace from these cameras. I would say send it back and see if you can get your money back...then wait for all the bugs to be worked out and the price to come down a bit, and then get one.

I would contact the retailer you purchased the camera from, im sure your camera will not be the 1st to be returned.
Click to expand...

Hear, hear!
 
herbkell@shaw.c said:
I started having freeze ups wihich initially could be fixed by removing the battery and reinstalling it. The resets became more difficult and the last two required a couple of attemps and fiddling with the on/off switch/

Now it has died altogether and no amount of cajoling will bring it back to life. I have tried both batteries but it now seems totally dead.

I am going to leave the battery out overnight and see if this helps

Any suggestions/miracles/words of wisdom or sympathy would be appreciated.
Click to expand...


Could you tell us about the temperature and humidity around you when this happened?

I suspect this is a static electricity problem. Those are not possible to correct with any firmware up dates. It needs a hardware fix. This 'turning-dead-problem' is the most serious of all the M8 issues. I could live with all the others.
 
I had the same problem and exchanged it with the dealer. The second body is working well exept my 50 lux back focuses quite a bit. I wil be exchanging this one also.
 
My sympathies, too, Peter. Load up the other Leicas with some Portra, K64, etc., and in a few weeks you'll have lots of daffodils etc. popping up there in Lotus Land. :D
 
Yes what is the humidity where you live? I am sailing the Hawaiian Islands in a few weeks and if mine likewise develops an issue then this could have something to do with it. My Digilux 2 would develop intermitted electronic problems where I could not turn it on at times and this seemed to be related to humidity. BTW the Digilux 2 was a camera I grew to loath.

A different possibility- EFR (Early Failure Rate). This Affects all electronic devices from all manufactures (though some more often then others). The basic premise is simple- if an electronic devise is going to develop a problem due to electronic / circuitry / component failure then it will do so early on in it's life. Once you get through this critical period the failure rate for the devise as it relates to its electronics drops significantly.

Lastly this could be a firmware issue as I also expect. If so then this underscores the need for Leica to be in a position to supply frequent and measured responsive firmware updates. The grandiose one firmware fix fixes them all approach so advocated by some will lead to more issues associated with the last “Firmware fix to end all firmware fixes.” Smaller proactive firmware fixes in response to the last small proactive firmware fix will lead to a smoother running camera for us all. This is why I am so concerned in regard to the Jenoptik fall out and speculate as to what this could mean to M8 users.

T

PS. Hawaii has zero static electricity.
 
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Add my sympthies to the stack, Peter. I also can add some hair as I scratch my head wondering why anyone would stick with a camera with this many problems if they had a chance to get their money back, move on, and wait until Leica fixes the bloody thing.

I keep hearing (mostly from Ted) that it's not unusual for new electronic equipment to have teething problems, and that's true, but the problems the M8 has exhibited are a bit over the top. Clearly, not all M8 owners visit the RFF, so it's likely that what we have here is a pretty small sample, yet we read one horror story after another.

Ted keeps talking about the absolutely incredible IQ from the M8, and maybe that's true. People also talk about how much the M8 produces "film-like" images. Which film? Kodak, Agfa, Ilford, Fuji, and which version of one of those films? Come on. Different films give different results, and different digitals give different results. Whether or not one result is better than another is a value judgement valid only for the judge.

The really big problem with the M8 is the one Ben Z has mentioned again and again. When Leica finally fixes their digital rangefinder, it'll either be called the M9, the M8s, or something like that, or just the M8 with hardware fixes. (yes it obviously needs some hardware fixes.) When that finally happens, if it does, where is that going to leave the early M8 owners who've held on loyally through thick and thin? Whatcha gonna do Alvie? Just dump your defective $4,800 baby and buy a second, fixed one? Is Leica going to retrofit all the earlier cameras? No one knows the answer. For now it's just "let's keep our fingers crossed."
 
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rsl said:
Add my sympthies to the stack, Peter. I also can add some hair as I scratch my head wondering why anyone would stick with a camera with this many problems if they had a chance to get their money back, move on, and wait until Leica fixes the bloody thing.

I keep hearing (mostly from Ted) that it's not unusual for new electronic equipment to have teething problems, and that's true, but the problems the M8 has exhibited are a bit over the top. Clearly, not all M8 owners visit the RFF, so it's likely that what we have here is a pretty small sample, yet we read one horror story after another.

Ted keeps talking about the absolutely incredible IQ from the M8, and maybe that's true. People also talk about how much the M8 produces "film-like" images. Which film? Kodak, Agfa, Ilford, Fuji, and which version of one of those films? Come on. Different films give different results, and different digitals give different results. Whether or not one result is better than another is a value judgement valid only for the judge.

The really big problem with the M8 is the one Ben Z has mentioned again and again. When Leica finally fixes their digital rangefinder, it'll either be called the M9, the M8s, or something like that, or just the M8 with hardware fixes. (yes it obviously needs some hardware fixes.) When that finally happens, if it does, where is that going to leave the early M8 owners who've held on loyally through thick and thin? Whatcha gonna do Alvie? Just dump your defective $4,800 baby and buy a second, fixed one? Is Leica going to retrofit all the earlier cameras? No one knows the answer. For now it's just "let's keep our fingers crossed."
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I agree.

Leica seems to be banking on selling them faster than they get returned so as to show sales growth.

Let's see if the M8 story follows the same story line as the RD-1 saga. With that one, folks returned their "problem" cameras and started getting replacements with lower serial numbers. A clear indication that Fuji was "recycling" the repaired ones as new replacement items.

Wait and see....
 
Athena said:
I agree.

Leica seems to be banking on selling them faster than they get returned so as to show sales growth.

Let's see if the M8 story follows the same story line as the RD-1 saga. With that one, folks returned their "problem" cameras and started getting replacements with lower serial numbers. A clear indication that Fuji was "recycling" the repaired ones as new replacement items.

Wait and see....
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Simply eliminating the digital area and those "polls" should make the site much more emjoyable for me.

you make no sense.
joe
 
Peter, I was really sorry to read this... That said I am sure POPFLASH will give you the excellent service they are known for.

Regards. Terry.
 
back alley said:
Simply eliminating the digital area and those "polls" should make the site much more emjoyable for me.

you make no sense.
joe
Click to expand...

Elimination removes the temptation to respond! Where one's willpower is weak - other tools can be useful. ;)
 
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