Ben Z
Veteran
I just received one of my two free filters. Kudos to Leica for shipping the one they have, and for getting it out quickly (I placed my order on Sept 1st and today is the 14th). But it came FedEx International Priority, and just for kicks I went to the FedEx website and priced out sending the same package from Solms to here...it came to $59.55!!. Now, I know Leica probably has a special rate with FedEx, so let's say they get a third off, that's still $40. Add to that their cost of the filters, let's say they have a 100% markup (normally filters have a huge markup but these are a low-volume item), that's $50 ea. And they'll be sending my second filter separately whenever they get it in stock, another $40. That's $180 just in out-of-pocket costs, then add the cost of labor to process the orders and wrap them up...I'm going to be conservative and say it amounts to $200 per camera, just for the IR/magenta snafu. Then there's the cost of several firmware upgrades and transfering the duties from Jenoptik to whoever they have doing it now. And finally the cost of servicing all the cameras that were sent back either for the recall, and/or Sudden Death and/or other various problems like rangefinder alignment. I can easily see $1000 per camera in unanticipated costs. Not that it should make any difference to customers as we all have our own problems and budgets, but it doesn't look to me as if Leica is trying to take advantage of the M8's popularity to rake in more profits.