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Used M8 shutter fault


jbgeach

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I just recently purchased a used M8, it had about 500 clicks, I have put about 1000 clicks on it. Today I got the dreaded attention shutter fault message. What should I do?

Should I send it to Germany? New Jersey? Canada? I am acutally very frustrated as this is by far the most expensive camera I have ever owned and this seems like this may be a costly and lengthy repair.

 

Any advice is appreciated.

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JG--

I've never seen that message from my M8, but it may not be major. Others will likely want to know more exactly the circumstances under which it appears.

 

I will say, if you're in North America and decide to send the camera for repair, New Jersey is the right place. If necessary, they can send the camera to Germany, but it's rare that they lack the equipment to do the job themselves.

 

Sorry for the problem. You might try a search on the term 'shutter fault' on the Forum to see what is likely to cause it. I believe it's sometimes a fairly benign occurrence. But it shouldn't have happened at all, and letting Leica go through the camera would at least give you the peace of mind that the camera is up to snuff.

 

Keep us informed. And good luck!

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I had that message come up once when I was on S and fired the shutter to many times. It seemed to have acted like a hiccup where the shutter couldn't reset itself.

 

I turned off the camera, took the battery out then back in. Turned the camera on and that seemed to have fixed it. From my understanding it may be caused by a slight error in the firmware.

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When it happens I just switch the camera off, let the buffeting and writing of photo catch up and then switch camera on. I could imagine that may be a case where you would need to remove battery for a minute to hard reset.

 

Are you saying that you always have the fault now or is everything ok?

 

Most of the times when I have acidentally switched from S to C mode has been in low light shots when hard to see switch position or I move by feel.

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Update - new firmware, same problem. I really think the shutter must have had a problem.

 

jsrocket - Leica says a NEW upgraded m8 shutter is 800 Euro, so I am guessing the repair will be less than that. This experience is making me think that maybe I should sell this setup and just buy a few nice cannon primes

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One last thing to try before you abandon hope. Take out the battery, and leave the camera switched on overnight.(Or longer if possible.) This should drain the internal battery, and has been known to persuade errant cameras to come back to life once the camera is switched off and the battery is re-installed.

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This experience is making me think that maybe I should sell this setup and just buy a few nice cannon primes

I think the problem is more with your having gotten a bad camera than with Leica itself being problematic.

 

Filling out the Canon system may be the best bet for the moment.

 

This'll certainly leave a bad taste in your mouth, particularly if you need to lay out yet more money for a repair. Bad first experience.

 

You don't have any recourse with the dealer? Was the camera sold strictly "as is"? Or did you buy from a (supposed) friend? :(

 

 

There's one thing, though. Get an estimate from Leica. They will go through the whole camera and offer to repair/replace everything that needs it. You'll effectively have a new camera on your hands if you let them do it, with a full-year guarantee. But with whatever amount you've already got in the camera, it'll be a lot of money for a discontinued product.

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The shutter has two sensors, three if you include the flash contact, to allow the camera to monitor the shutter and re-cocking action. If, so example, you press the shutter release, the camera will fire the release magnet and look for the expected results.

 

If you remove the lens, is the white curtain correctly positioned across the centre of the frame? If so the shutter is likely correctly cocked. Second, when you press the shutter release, do you hear anything at all (aside from an error beep if there is one)? Third, are all the other functions of the camera working normally?

 

This is the electromagnet which is used to release the shutter; it's magnetised so that when the shutter is cocked, the moving armature is held in place against the pole piece. When the camera fires the shutter, it passed a current through the coil to neturalise the magnetic field and moving armature moves and presses a lever on the shutter ro release it.

 

If the shutter is not being release, there's either no power for the release magnet, the magnet has failed or the mechanism is jammed or stuck in some way.

 

Shutter Release Lever:

 

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Shutter Cocked:

 

 

Shutter Released:

 

 

You may be able to free things up by tapping the camera vertically onto the palm of your other hand.

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Nicole, I tried the overnight reset, However, the shutter fault is still there.

 

Mark - wow, thanks for the pics. Since it is out of warrenty I may open it up and take a look for myself. I agree that it seems that something is stuck.

oh, to answer your question yes, the shutter is correctly positioned. No, I do not hear anything except the beep. Everything else in the camera looks and works perfectly.

 

Also, tried the tapping and no luck, but thanks so much for the info. Very kind of you

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I'm sorry to hear that your camera is still dead, and I hope that Leica are kind to you and don't charge you a fortune to fix it. I'll keep my fingers crossed, and hope that your camera returns to you quickly and is well behaved afterwards. :)

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I'm sorry to hear that your camera is still dead, and I hope that Leica are kind to you and don't charge you a fortune to fix it. I'll keep my fingers crossed, and hope that your camera returns to you quickly and is well behaved afterwards. :)

Thanks Nicole

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