Vertical Line Problem

[maggieo]

Looking through my ISO 1250 shots, now that I'm looking for it, I see it as early as February 2009, Ted. It's started to creep into underexposed ISO 640 shots now. Here's an ISO 1250 shot with it:

Chocolatini At Blue Orchid, February, 2009

 

[ampguy]

Thanks Maggie, I can barely see the line in your photo. Am going to re-check mine at 640, 1250, and 2500 underexposed.

 

[blimey]

Thanks Maggie, I can barely see the line in your photo. Am going to re-check mine at 640, 1250, and 2500 underexposed.

barely is an understatement. the line in the middle is pretty prevalent in her photo. it is the first thing i saw in that photo.

 

[Jeicob]

M8.2 @1250, underexposed (cropped at both sides)

 

[Jeicob]

Here we go again 🙁

 

[ampguy]

hmm, where's jaapv? He seemed to know what serial #'s got free sensor upgrades, and which one just needed some parts.

 

[Doug]

Jeicob, sorry to see you have this problem; I expect Leica can fix this at no charge to you, and extend the warranty one year. Is this new problem in the same camera as the one last April? What happened later with that camera?

The interesting thing about this instance is that there is a hot pixel on the line about 20% of the way down from the top, while the line goes from top edge to bottom edge. Some I've seen, if I remember correctly, that have a hot pixel, the line extends from the hot pixel to the edge in only one direction. And many do not have a visible hot pixel at all - mine did not; I don't see one on your previous problem example - and the line goes from edge to edge. The line on mine was blue...

 

[Jeicob]

Here in Denmark I'm secured by a two year warranty, no problem (except perhaps for the goatskin cover and the 6 week of waiting - both for the second time in one year). It's the same camera and last time (December 2009) the sensor were replaced with a new one (came back dirty though).

The hot pixel in the previous picture is very near the bottom of the frame (so It's there).
The new picture is cropped for better visibility, but the line extent from edge to edge.

It starts with only a dead pixel showing up in more and more pictures, then it starts to make these lines (sometimes short, sometimes only on one side of dead pixel, sometimes from edge to edge) while the errors keeping coming more and more often. My last session had errors in say half the pictures. And I'm only use Phase One and don't have tools like Photoshop to correct any problems, so I'm kind of screwed.

 

[dfoo]

Lightroom/ACR automatically corrects for the problem. So if you only produce and examine your images in lightroom you'd never know you have the problem. Of course, if you can't see it what is the issue again?

 

[Doug]

Lightroom/ACR automatically corrects for the problem. So if you only produce and examine your images in lightroom you'd never know you have the problem. Of course, if you can't see it what is the issue again?

Interesting! Didn't know that, but I think I'd like the problem fixed, visible or not... I use CaptureOne also, then open the TIFFs in shareware GraphicConverter.

 

[Nemo]

I had the problem and had to send the camera to Solms. They replaced the sensor or motherboard, I don't know for sure, and the camera now works fine. Well, a few months later the 6 bits sensor on the mount started to fail in recognizing my Summilux 35mm. The first lamp failed. I had to send the camera to Solms again, etc. But the vertical line problem was a problem known by Leica.

 

[sharkytowers]

Lightroom/ACR automatically corrects for the problem. So if you only produce and examine your images in lightroom you'd never know you have the problem. Of course, if you can't see it what is the issue again?

Is there something you have to specifically do in Lightroom to get rid of the dreaded "vertical line"? Because for me it's still there. I have the latest version of LR.

And just to be clear... is it the general consensus that this problem gets progressively worse? I bought an 8.2 hoping to avoid issues like this. My camera is having this problem with only @200 actuations! Boo!

 

[menos]

sharkytowers, don't look for a workaround, don't settle with the issue.

There is only one solution: send it in to Solms and have it taken care of.
When I bought my M8.2, I specifically searched for this issue and tried to force it, to show up in all known ways. I got lucky and picked a camera with an excellent sensor (mine doesn't show the also known different sensor half illumination in very high ISO).

As I understand it, Leica Solms acknowledges this issue as an sensor issue, to be solved under warranty. If the camera is out of warranty, ask nicely … if this doesn't work out, bite, scratch and swear and have it repaired.

If you bought the camera from a dealer, push the dealer to the issue, if from a private person, you are on your own with Leica, which shouldn't be less productive.

Good luck!

 

[Jeicob]

New sensor and I'm back in buisness 🙂

Came back with a dirty sensor, but not as bad as last time.
Perhaps it's just me, but the rear panel has an unfamiliar look and feel to it 😕
Any easy way to tell the M8 and M8.2 rear panels apart?

Guess what; my goat skin cover survived!

 

[menos]

Congratulations!
As far, as I am aware, there is no difference between the rear panels of the M8 and M8.2.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

hmm, where's jaapv? He seemed to know what serial #'s got free sensor upgrades, and which one just needed some parts.

How? I'd like to verify my M8's s/n.

 

[flyalf]

Hi all,

Any advice from you; I assume I need to send my M9 to Leica?

I discovered black/blue vertical lines on all my photos from outdoor session 30.01.2012 on my M9 s.n. 3834853, FW 1.162. The line starts aprox 1/3 from top and goes all the way down on left hand side of photos. All are night exposures with f/4 and 2- 30 s and ISO range from 160 to 1250. All are taken on uncompressed DNG only, and all photos, aprox 50 have this line.

After discovering this I did a series indoor with same card / lenses with formatted card. I used different level of lightning, ranging from ISO160 / 0,5s / f/2 to ISO1250 / 12s / f/11 and imported in LR 3.5. The lines do not appear on all, only on the low light photos (6 out of 26). There are also long exposure photos without lines.

I have also checked older low light photos without finding these lines.

Please see sample photos:
http://flyalf.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/leica-m9-column-defect-black-stripes-on-photos/

 

[Doug]

Yes, Alf, the M9 will need attention from Leica. They may only need to "map out" a bad pixel. I had two bad pixels on my M9 but they didn't produce lines. But on my M8 I had a 1-pixel line from top to bottom. Both cameras were fixed by Leica at no charge, with no indication of what they did to fix the problems. Best of luck!

 

[flyalf]

Thanks for advice. Now sent to Leica through retailer. But how to live without :bang:?

 

[NickTrop]

I don't own this camera but have been reading these M8 threads for a while. Between the IR/UV sensitivity and sensor issues, and their sluggish customer service, this camera is a way-overpriced dog. Reviews show no better IQ than any other APS-C camera, and it costs way more. It has more issues, and appears to be less durable, than any entry-level Japanese DSLR, the Canon Ti/Rebels, the Pentax K's, the Nikon D's - what have you, whose bodies are a fractuon of the price. The M8 should have been recalled by Leica, which is exactly what Nikon did when early D5000s had issues. Bit the bullet, took'em off the shelves, had them sent them back to the factory, fixed the issue, and sold them -below cost probably/guessing- as sub $500 body refurbs. I think it's a disgrace, personally. No - I don't own this camera. It's the last digital camera I'd ever consider purchasing, and you're welcome to flame away... be my guest.