What happens to the M9 if Kodak goes out of business?

[rxmd]

When using critical parts from a vendor, we would get "end of life" notices and do a life-time buy of the part. In the worst case, it was necessary to Rev the board to accommodate a new part. In the case of a Sensor change-out, that would be a major redesign.

Would anyone do that for servicing out-of-warranty devices, even if they were sold in the tens of thousands?

 

[Roger Hicks]

Would anyone do that for servicing out-of-warranty devices, even if they were sold in the tens of thousands?

Because they're decent human beings, and have given their word?

Cheers,

R.

 

[jamato8]

There is some good and very interesting information here.

 

[Nikon Bob]

Because they're decent human beings, and have given their word?

Cheers,

R.

I would really like to believe that but considering what has gone on in the past 3 years in the global economy leads me more to the "I will believe it when I see it" camp. Sure hope you are right though.

Bob

 

[Tom Niblick]

It is not if Kodak goes under but when. In years passed, my little pre-press/art repro studio spent $10k per month on Kodak film and chemistry. My studio was dwarfed by countless thousands of printers, newspapers and medical facilities all adding millions, if not billions, to Kodak's bottom line. Today they make sensors and supply small quantities of film and printing plates to a dwindling market. It is nearly impossible for a giant like Kodak to get small enough to survive that change in fortunes.

As for our M8s and M9s, well they will not last forever. No doubt Leica will fix or replace sensors for many years after the great yellow father has passed but the day will come when another brand of sensor rests behind the lens of our M10s or M11s. Hopefully, when that time comes, Leica and PhaseOne will have put aside their differences and work together on a truly revolutionary new camera.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Would anyone do that for servicing out-of-warranty devices, even if they were sold in the tens of thousands?

All the time with PC's in the 90s.

And PDP-11 Upgrades.

Boards are not that expensive to design and build these days. i could see a repair shop offering upgrades to high-end cameras like M9s. You can get "old" cameras converted to Infrared, buffer-upgrades, etc.

Just to add, the KAF-1600 in my DCS200ir has picked up 3 hot pixels after all these years, and the original SCSI disk drive in the camera still works. I have a spare on the latter. 80MBytes internal storage, Baby. The Pentium Pro running Win95B that I use with it still works, and Photoshop 3.0 still runs.

 

[semilog]

Sony is becoming a leader in this area.

Sony has been a clear leader in this area for a long time. Sony was considered a leader -- maybe the leader -- by 2001, when I first started learning about digital sensors for scientific work. That's at least a decade at the forefront.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I was on an NDA with the Kodak sensors group in the 1980s. Even then, they were projecting affordable detectors at $50 each, and consumer-oriented digital cameras.

 

[rxmd]

All the time with PC's in the 90s.

And PDP-11 Upgrades.

Boards are not that expensive to design and build these days. i could see a repair shop offering upgrades to high-end cameras like M9s.

So much the better!

PCs had a fairly open architecture though, and the Unibus specifications were available before there was even a PDP-11. That was the time when manufacturers published circuit diagrams for their computers. I don't see that happening with sensor boards for modern cameras, let alone software. Leica would slap people with a DMCA suit faster than you can say "Protection from Law".