It's 8:00AM in the USA & 2:00PM in Germany, Any Word from Leica re: M8?

[rick123]

Hi everyone,

Has anyone heard anything about M8 solutions from Leica yet?

Rick

[chetccox]

No, and they all go home at 1630 here.

[john_r_smith]

The "announcement on Monday" may just have been yet more rumour and disinformation, perhaps.

[andybarton]

Was this ever an "official" date for an announcement, or just a wishful-thinking date?

[rick123]

Good point Andy - I do not know!
I was hoping it would be soon though - Santa needs time to make his list ...

Rick

[robsteve]

Here is what Stephan Daniels posted on November 10th "Over the next two weeks we will communicate a plan to further assure you of your investment in the LEICA M8.
."

It has only been ten days. Perhaps we will know by Friday.

[marknorton]

I think we have to be patient. Give them time to get it right. Otherwise what they tell us will only create more heat than light. [No jokes about the colour of the light, please]

[chetccox]

Originally Posted by robsteve

Here is what Stephan Daniels posted on November 10th "Over the next two weeks we will communicate a plan to further assure you of your investment in the LEICA M8.
."

It has only been ten days. Perhaps we will know by Friday.

'Over the next two weeks ---' This does not say 'in two weeks'. It implies that they are going to continue communication with the customers keeping them abreast of their plan. They have done absolutely nothing except to release information via several shows through their reps which is not exactly 'official'. There is absolutely no reason why this 'Stephan Daniels' cannot even just post a message saying they are continuing to work and will let us know. I think we all have shown 'patience'. Now it is time for Leica to show us a little compassion!

[olaff]

yes, please look here: http://www.leica-camera-user.com/dig...fahrungen.html

blending: hardwareupdate in solms soon as possible til january
magenta: extra filter in front of your lenses
...and i think softwareupdates

[grober]

EVERYONE push back from their keyboard, take a few deep breaths and get after your work week without obsessing over our collective disaster, AKA "The Leica M8 Rollout."

As Robert as so correctly observed, this Friday we should learn Leica's official response to this growing mess. THEN we can make our own individual M8 decisions.

For those of us in the USA, this Thursday is our annual Thanksgiving Day holiday. Keep your Pilgrim hat handy: depending on the company's announcement later this week, maybe we can still be thankful that we bought the M8, eh?

-g

[rosuna]

...banding and magenta cast are not the only problems with the Leica M8.

The White Balance is horrible. Erratic and erroneous most of the time. (Ask Panasonic for help!).

SD-HC cards are not supported (I tried one from SanDisk an the M8 did not recognize it).

Too much noise at 640 ISO, with a strong chromatic component (I don't know if the camera does any internal processing, but Panasonic cameras does better here).

Of course, the banding problem. I see it even at ISO 640. I hope a software fix is enough.

The camera has a lot of potential, but the bugs and the software problems make the pictures unpredictable. Several have a lot of quality, but others are failed and unusable.

There are a lot of things to fix.

[grober]

Originally Posted by chetccox

I think we all have shown 'patience'. Now it is time for Leica to show us a little compassion!

NO company is built to show compassion! Companies are built to legally deliver profits to their owners and NOT destroy the market or environment in pursuit of those profits.

If I sat on Leica's board as a representative of the shareholders ("the owners"), I'd want plenty of answers why Leica product management screwed up the introduction of this new product that is so essential for the success (survival?) of the company.

I don't expect compassion from Leica's board: I expect mature corporate directors to show responsible leadership and fix a very unfortunate situation.

-g

[andybarton]

If this thread doesn't calm down, and soon, I will put my moderator hat on.

We have been over this so many times in the last month that more whinging really doesn't add anything to the debate.

If Leica said they will provide further information by the end of the week (don't forget that the original message may have lost something in translation...), at least give Stefan and his team the courtesy of the full period of time.

Thank you.

[franklinh]

I wasn't expecting an announcement specifically today.

[chetccox]

I suppose when your scheduled flight is several hours late and no announcements are made as to why you sit idly by and wait for the flight to depart. When the airline, which also answers to its owners and board of directors, does not care about the customers they go elsewhere. When the company makes announcements every 20 minutes or so I think you are a lot less apt to 'jump ship'. They may not even reveal much in the announcements, and they may not tell the entire truth, but at least an attempt is made to keep you informed. No such attempts have been made.

[abrewer]

Originally Posted by grober

For those of us in the USA, this Thrusday is our annual Thanksgiving Day holiday. Keep your Pilgrim hat handy: depending on the company's announcement later this week, maybe we can still be thankful that we bought the M8, eh?

-g

It would be a very savvy business move for Leica to announce something positive regarding the M8 before Thursday. Once Christmas shopping gets fully under way on Friday in this country, there will be no looking back.

Thanks.

Allan

[andybarton]

Originally Posted by chetccox

I suppose when your scheduled flight is several hours late and no announcements are made as to why you sit idly by and wait for the flight to depart. When the airline, which also answers to its owners and board of directors, does not care about the customers they go elsewhere. When the company makes announcements every 20 minutes or so I think you are a lot less apt to 'jump ship'. They may not even reveal much in the announcements, and they may not tell the entire truth, but at least an attempt is made to keep you informed. No such attempts have been made.

IMHO, that analogy is not relevant.

Leica have given you a time frame for further news and there are still 4 days to go.

Remember when the M8 was just a rumour? There was cries of "We must see this camera soon! I can't wait! We must see examples of it's output! Why can't I buy one of these today - not tomorrow?" (I paraphrase, but the excitement over the unreleased and even un-announced M8 was incredible). Maybe this is one of the reasons why it was brought to the market when it was? Maybe, an announcement at Photokina and a release to the market in the New Year, might not have been a bad idea. (Hindsight is a wonderful thing)

Let's not do too much jumping up and down and get a rushed response to the issues. Let them get it right this time - they will not have another chance to do so...

[blakley]

Regarding the post Olaff cited, it was interesting enough for me to try to translate it. Bear in mind that I haven't used German seriously for many years, and so it's very likely there are embarrassing errors in my translation... still, for those who are interested, here's Bob's probably incompetent English version of the message from Klaus J.A. Mellenthin ("tatibcn") today at 6:15am in this thread:

"Hello

I have spoken directly with Leica and received the following information (the most that you can know this early):

- all the problems which have been written about are known and understood, and solutions are being worked on.

- streaking and reflected highlights will be fixed through a hardware update; therefore the camera must be sent in. This service will be available sometime between now and January.

- The magenta cast will be fixed using a screw-in IR filter. This preserves the possibility to use IR effects in special conditions. Whether the cost of the filter will be assumed (by Leica) is still not decided.

I hope that with with this, a usable camera results.

Best wishes, Klaus

PS

When the M8 has been updated with all the listed work items, there won't be another camera like it."

I'd welcome corrections to this translation from those better at German than I.

[alexr]

Well I can say that "some" of us know for sure a word is coming soon. So be patient.

I have no idea what the "word" will be, but if it means mandatory use of ir filters on the lens it will be a major disappointment for me. I keep hoping...

[imported_peter_m]

Good job on the translation Bob!
Looks like you didn't lose any of your German.

Peter