urgent action required!!

[JPH1962]

Hi;
A demo body should be in perfect shape, have the latest firmware and work perfectly.

In Germany (Meister Kamera), you find demo M8 black or chrome for around EUR 2352.- excl VAT coming with a year of complete Leica warrabty. Further more, a Leica dealer demo unit should not be registered, so a potential buyer is entitled to receive his 2 UV IR filtres.

If i am offered a body as you describe, plus having to decide very quickly... I would just forget about it! A serious dealer will never keep a demo unit with such a display.

Hope you make the right decision

rgds

JPH

 

[Ghiom]

I would also wait for mid-september...
🙄

 

[leicashot]

A grey market product from a trusted seller is the 'same' product from Leica Germany as AD's, minus warranty conditons, etc. From a trusted grey market importer, the M8.2 is the better camera unless you need the 1/8000 sec shutter. From my comparisons, the new shutter and framelines make it worth it, and the sapphire LCD is a bonus.

 

[Merkin]

Definitely wait a month, and don't buy this demo M8. If the brown ring comes from high heat and humidity environments, and a store demo camera was exposed to enough of a harsh environment to develop that brown ring, I would suspect that the camera is either a lemon, more than just a demo, or it was not cared for very well by the store. A demo camera's only acceptable flaws are fingerprint smudges from people handling it, and even those should have been cleaned off. With an M8, i would consider any problem the 'first' problem, and not the 'only' problem.

 

[leicashot]

Depends, buy an M8 used now for $2500 or M9 later for $7700ish. Sounds like price would have something to do with your decision or you'd definately be waiting.

 

[JNewell]

A grey market product from a trusted seller is the 'same' product from Leica Germany as AD's, minus warranty conditons, etc. From a trusted grey market importer, the M8.2 is the better camera unless you need the 1/8000 sec shutter. From my comparisons, the new shutter and framelines make it worth it, and the sapphire LCD is a bonus.

To my mind, the absence of a warranty, if true, would be a deal-breaker.

 

[Merkin]

Depends, buy an M8 used now for $2500 or M9 later for $7700ish. Sounds like price would have something to do with your decision or you'd definately be waiting.

Or, Buy a used M8 now, or a cheaper m8.2 in a few months when the prices drop because of the M9...

 

[adrianzg]

thank you all who gave your opinions. i've caved in and bought it. 🙁 the dealer said that leica will honour the warranty (full 2 year warranty excluding the lcd) and that they will take care of me when (if) things do go wrong. the price was brought down to less than half that of a new m8.2 and that was really irresistable.

i've updated the firmware from 1.2 to 2.004 and the difference is tremendous! the shutter is still clunky but i can live with it..*gulp*

 

[__hh]

That M8 sure is worth more than 1/2 the value of the 8.2 (or the 8.2 is not worth twice as much as the M8). Great deal!!!