A _plausible_ fix for the Digilux 2

[jrethorst]

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I had a real interesting talk with the two Leica people today at Glazer's Camera, the Leica dealer in Seattle. They know about the D2, its fortunes and foibles, although they haven't sold one in years (their M9 did look nice though). I asked them if the most serious drawbacks of the D2 could be fixed at the user level; see detailed discussion at Digulux2. My main interest was not in whether updates are physically possible, but whether I could afford them. Apparently, if we can get a competent repair shop interested, the answer is yes.

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[carlosecpf]

Very interesting!

 

Keep us posted.

[AlbertoDeRoma]

I had a real interesting talk with the two Leica people today at Glazer's Camera, the Leica dealer in Seattle. They know about the D2, its fortunes and foibles, although they haven't sold one in years (their M9 did look nice though). I asked them if the most serious drawbacks of the D2 could be fixed at the user level; see detailed discussion at Digulux2. My main interest was not in whether updates are physically possible, but whether I could afford them. Apparently, if we can get a competent repair shop interested, the answer is yes.

 

Good luck with that . You'd have to not only change the components, but make significant changes to the code that runs the camera. Even if the wiring, voltages, timing, etc., could be made compatible, you can't just swap an EVF of one resolution for one of a higher resolution and expect it to work. It might be somewhat easier for the RAM, but I doubt that as well. The clock of the CPU running the camera OS might not be fast enough to take advantage of faster RAM.

 

Sure, given enough money and motivation it could be done (even reverse engineering the code is possible - although probably not entirely legal). People have hacked and modded and updated all sorts of HW; but in this case, I doubt it's something that anyone would do other than to prove a point. And it probably won't be affordable - unless your definition of affordable and mine in this context are way off.

 

I will take a self-portrait of myself in a dunce hat and post it here if you can get a competent repair shop to do it affordably (i.e. <$1,000) and successfully .

 

Alberto

[andybarton]

I can pretty much guarantee that neither Leica nor Panasonic will be interested.

[krabat]

Completely agree, Alberto. I don't believe that it would be possible to exchange single electronic components, such as RAM or EVF, or the chip. The only way would be, in my opinion, to exchange the complete electronics. Even in this case, it would be a lot of work to ensure correct communication between the lens and the electronics. Well, if there is any freak outside who is able to do so - I am curious to hear about the result...

[John Thawley]

The camera is just fine as is.

 

After all, it's the Indian, not the arrow.

 

JT

[Riley]

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you describe upgrades for RAM, EVF and sensor, I dont think you can make any of this happen.

 

Although we are used to swapping RAM in computers, it still needs to be compatible. The EVF power supply voltage and pinout is likely to be quite different, and the heart of the machine is the sensor, which Sony discontinued so there are no compatible upgrades for that. The most they got to was the 8Mp version on the Olympus C8080, Konica Minolta Dimage A2 and Sony DSC-828

 

There remains this possibility for the brave or perennially stupid though, you could gut a later 2/3" sensor camera such as the Fuji, and use it in manual mode with MF. Generally your controls would be as on the Fuji, so you would lose shutter speed control, but you might be able to regain aperture control giving crude AP.

 

heres a slideshow of the internals for the wonderlust

LC1 sensor replacement

[daveleo]

listen . . . grab a pencil . . . the D2 was the last of her kind . . . someone in decades to follow will make a commemorative replica and you young kids will buy it with your pension checks and reminisce (sp?) about these "golden days of digital".

 

i think the X1 is Leica's first evolutionary step forward from its D2 design.

 

(i use the word "forward" here with reckless abandon, and you should not think that i am pleased with my prediction.)

 

would someone help me down from this soap box, please ?

[elansprint72]

Riley,

Thanks for showing the dismantling sequence; now I know what Solms did when they replaced my main PCB; shame they did not take the opportunity to replace the sensor whilst they were at it (or maybe mine is not in the vulnerable range).