Leica announces update plan for buggy M8 digicams
posted November 25th 2006 3:03PM
For Leica enthusiasts and digicam freaks alike, we're sure the day that uber-expensive M8 landed on your doorstep was one of pure elation -- or maybe not so much, depending on your luck. Turns out the nearly $6,000 piece of kit wasn't as refined and ready to shoot as the lofty pricetag may lead you to believe, but Lieca is apparently aiming to please those deep pocketed customers by offering up some quick fixes and a few bonus filters to boot. Folks suffering from "banding issues, mirror / ghosting effects, and IR sensitivity quirks" can register on the company's website by December 6th in order to have Leica contact you to set up a return. Unfortunately, this means your finicky M8 will be out of your palms for a few days (or weeks), but at least it'll come back with a "firmware upgrade" to eliminate the banding / ghosting problems, as well as "a basic kit of two UV / IR filters with diameters of your choice" to counteract the "faulty color rendering." While we aren't sure how long the gurus in Solms will hold your precious M8 captive, we do know the additional filters won't ship until February of next year, and if you're worried about picking up a buggy M8 as of now, Leica has assured us that all units shipping after November 27th will sport the internal upgrades right out of the box.
[Thanks, Derek M.]
Oh, come on!, you gotta be kidding me. Six grand and you still have to use a hot mirror filter to get accurate color and block IR? Ridiculous, I thought we were done with that when everyone stopped using the DCS2000.
I'm a photography professional who's always had a lust for Leica products, but never bought or owned one.
With that said, if I was a Leica M8 owner, I'd find this solution completely unacceptable. To spend that much money on a camera then be "forced" to use front-lens filters to stop dark shadows / grays / blacks from turning magenta? To have to go through a process of sending my camera in, not having it for weeks or months why Leica does some hack on it to fix the banding issues?
The only acceptable solution is for Leica to fix these issues permanently and in-camera, and offer a complete replacement, with as little hassles as possible, to early adopters. No filters, no hacks - replace the camera with a new body that completely resolves these issues.
This is not the Leica of old... this kind of QC wouldn't have passed any kind of scrutiny within the company in the past. That's how they built their rep. This camera may destroy that rep, unless they resolve this the only proper way - fix the issues, and replace the cameras.
Hey guys, I was looking to get a new camera, and was thinking about either a Leica DLX-3 or the Samsung NV10. They both are being reviewed well i think, and both look super sexy, but which one should I pick?
Thanks in Advance
Find it hard to believe that you need to return the camera for a firmware update. Can't this be done online by the users themselves? Come on! My 5 years old canon camera has downloadable, upgradeable firmware in it.
I bought an R8 waiting for the digital back to materialize. It was going to arrive late, and I took this as a very bad sign selling my setup. If the engineering for a digital back is a larger effort than expected, then my expectations for the basics (image quality) may be more than compromised.
Leica has half the battle -- lenses -- but needs to find an ergonomic and technological approach which matches the M's... Not easy!
Leica totally blew it, and then they blew it again. However, thanks to Leica's shills, many M8s have been sold. Nope. They won't get their "5 Grand" back.