sean_reid Posted January 20, 2007 Share #1 Â Posted January 20, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Just posted this update to the "M8 Updates" rolling review: Â "As I was shooting a set of test pictures for a lens review recently, one of the M8 bodies (second generation) I was working with failed. I turned it off to change lenses and when I turned it back on again there was no display in the top readout window and no response to the shutter. I was able to access the LCD functions but the camera didn't always seem to know that it was turned off (ie: it would sometimes behave as if it were switched on even when the switch was in the "off" position). Leaving the battery out of the camera for several hours and then replacing it, fully charged, did not fix things. I've worked with several M8 bodies and this is the first time I've seen this happen although I'm aware of it happening to a couple of other photographers. This doesn't seem to be a widespread problem but the camera is off to Leica for repair or replacement. There had been some question as to whether the M8 has problems with certain SD cards but for this shoot I was using the same 1 GB SD Sandisk Ultra II cards I've been using all along so that doesn't seem to be a factor in this case." Â Disappointing but not the end of the world. Glad that I have a second (albeit Gen 1) body here. There was a lot of electrical static in the room where I was photographing and I don't know if that could have had any affect on the camera. Certainly it shouldn't have. This reminds me of what happened to one of Guy's M8s. Â Cheers, Â Sean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
skimmel Posted January 20, 2007 Share #2 Â Posted January 20, 2007 Sean: Â Sorry to hear that this happened. Hope you get it fixed soon. Â I would be very curious to hear what you find out from Lecia is the cause of this and whether it's a problem they've isolated and fixed/(will fix soon) in newer production models. That is, would be interesting to find out if the similar problems others have had are all related to a specific issue that can be easily fixed and how (firmware or hardware). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean_reid Posted January 20, 2007 Author Share #3 Â Posted January 20, 2007 Sean:Â Sorry to hear that this happened. Hope you get it fixed soon. Â I would be very curious to hear what you find out from Lecia is the cause of this and whether it's a problem they've isolated and fixed/(will fix soon) in newer production models. That is, would be interesting to find out if the similar problems others have had are all related to a specific issue that can be easily fixed and how (firmware or hardware). Â Indeed, I'll be finding out as much as I can about what may have caused this, the fix, etc.. Â Cheers, Â Sean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveF Posted January 20, 2007 Share #4 Â Posted January 20, 2007 Sean, Â What you described is exactly what happened to my 1.09 M8 that came in DOA just after Christmas. No LCD readout on the top, but all other menu functions work. Â NJ explained it might be loose contacts on the battery terminal because I got the "insufficient charge" message on fully charged batteries when I try to clean the image sensor. Â Best, Â Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean_reid Posted January 20, 2007 Author Share #5 Â Posted January 20, 2007 That's interesting. One solution I thought I'd try was re-installing the 1.09 firmware but when I tried to do that the camera gave a message that said "insufficient battery charge", or something like that, even though I tried the procedure with two different fully charged batteries. Â Cheers, Â Sean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott kirkpatrick Posted January 20, 2007 Share #6 Â Posted January 20, 2007 There had been some question as to whether the M8 has problems with certain SD cards but for this shoot I was using the same 1 GB SD Sandisk Ultra II cards I've been using all along so that doesn't seem to be a factor in this case."Â Â There was a good suggestion made a few days ago when an SD card is suspected. Just take it out and make sure that the camera will reboot without any card. This seems like a reasonable step, since card problems could be due to funny things happening to the file systems and not simply to hardware issues. Â But the emerging diagnosis that there are units with a shaky battery connection makes a lot of sense. How many times have you removed the battery and recharged in the unit that failed? Â scott Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevez4 Posted January 20, 2007 Share #7 Â Posted January 20, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) My dead M-8 is now at Leica in NJ. The response from Leica is that I m nuts. So your experience validates my sanity. Let me remind you of what happened to mine. It died while on a shoot out of the country. Black screen no display on top, but menu and set working. Black screen appeared after pressing shutter. Reloaded firmware. Removed battery overnight, reset, and reformatted. During several days of complaining removed battery and card for three days. Dealer said "strange never happened to any other customer". No chance of return. Leica says "send in". While packaging for them I replaced battery and card, nothing. Reset reformatted and again reloaded firmware for the third time. Zingo it started up. But sent in to NJ to Bob Fisk anyway with sample of dead screen. That was two weeks ago. AS you know they have imported a tech from Germany for M8 problems.. He says can't replicate, everything fine. What to do now? I have two M-8s both with problems, twenty five thousand dollars worth of coded lenses and cameras. Have shot leica since 1976. Very distrurbing. You have experienced the hardware problems I have been posting on various threads Sean. Cheers Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean_reid Posted January 20, 2007 Author Share #8 Â Posted January 20, 2007 Did you happen to notice much static in the area where you were working when the cameras went out? Â Time to get some sleep. I've been writing....always just one more little revision. Â Cheers, Â Sean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevez4 Posted January 20, 2007 Share #9  Posted January 20, 2007 I had been X rayed several times on assignment around Italy at the Holidays. I was in Milan at Il Duomo day before Epiphany when it happened. Leica had told me no reaction to X rays with M8. Like many guys I will transport them around the world on my work. Would you like me to email you a dead screen image? The event is exactly as mine.  The dealer response (dale Labs) really bothered me more than anything. It reminded me of 47th Street Photo in the SEventies. Not a leica response. They have refused to answer my emails since.  Try leaving it sit without batteries or card for afew days after a reset and reformat. Maybe your will return to life too.  Your site has been most helpful  Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradreiman Posted January 20, 2007 Share #10 Â Posted January 20, 2007 i had a similar problem but with mine the shutter wouldn't fire and no led in the viewfinder. menu and set were fine. i turned the camera off but it remained on. finally i took the battery out and put it back in and everything was fine. mine is pre-fix ver 1.09. everything has been fine since but when it goes to solms evntually I will mention the failure....b Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
etienne_werner Posted January 20, 2007 Share #11 Â Posted January 20, 2007 I have a different problem with mine. Certainly not as severe as the ones mentioned here. The back LCD screen keeps changing brightness when looking at an image. In the first few seconds it shows a low rez images and then brings up the higher rez, so I understand that this might change the brightness at bit. Though it does that even after the higher res is on screen. It seems that it cann't decide which britghtness to use. rgds, Etienne Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean_reid Posted January 20, 2007 Author Share #12  Posted January 20, 2007 I had been X rayed several times on assignment around Italy at the Holidays. I was in Milan at Il Duomo day before Epiphany when it happened. Leica had told me no reaction to X rays with M8. Like many guys I will transport them around the world on my work.Would you like me to email you a dead screen image? The event is exactly as mine.  The dealer response (dale Labs) really bothered me more than anything. It reminded me of 47th Street Photo in the SEventies. Not a leica response. They have refused to answer my emails since.  Try leaving it sit without batteries or card for afew days after a reset and reformat. Maybe your will return to life too.  Your site has been most helpful  Steve  Hi Steve,  Thanks. I'll let it sit without a battery and try it one more time before I send it in on Monday. Thanks for the comment on my site.  Cheers,  Sean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean_reid Posted January 20, 2007 Author Share #13  Posted January 20, 2007 i had a similar problem but with mine the shutter wouldn't fire and no led in the viewfinder. menu and set were fine. i turned the camera off but it remained on. finally i took the battery out and put it back in and everything was fine. mine is pre-fix ver 1.09. everything has been fine since but when it goes to solms evntually I will mention the failure....b  Turning the camera off with it remaining on is something I'm seeing with this one right now.  Cheers,  Sean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
carstenw Posted January 20, 2007 Share #14 Â Posted January 20, 2007 Sean, have you tried cleaning the contacts on the battery and the opposite ones in the camera? It sounds from comments here like that might be the problem. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
larry Posted January 20, 2007 Share #15  Posted January 20, 2007 Sean,  Brent Nicastro has a similar problem earlier this week with a camera that died almost as soon as he got it -- check out this thread: http://www.leica-camera-user.com/digital-forum/13859-dead-m8-survey.html  It sounds like a battery contact problem to me, too.  Good luck, and keep us posted.  Larry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riley Posted January 20, 2007 Share #16 Â Posted January 20, 2007 low power, or high resistance seems most likely but to be ON while being OFF, just has to be the switchgear or something odd with an auto-OFF mode Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevez4 Posted January 20, 2007 Share #17 Â Posted January 20, 2007 Good advice Cartsten. Wiped off contacts on my dead M8,. But was no help.. Forgot to mention my 1.09 was delivered mid December 2006. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guy_mancuso Posted January 20, 2007 Share #18  Posted January 20, 2007 Just posted this update to the "M8 Updates" rolling review: "As I was shooting a set of test pictures for a lens review recently, one of the M8 bodies (second generation) I was working with failed. I turned it off to change lenses and when I turned it back on again there was no display in the top readout window and no response to the shutter. I was able to access the LCD functions but the camera didn't always seem to know that it was turned off (ie: it would sometimes behave as if it were switched on even when the switch was in the "off" position). Leaving the battery out of the camera for several hours and then replacing it, fully charged, did not fix things. I've worked with several M8 bodies and this is the first time I've seen this happen although I'm aware of it happening to a couple of other photographers. This doesn't seem to be a widespread problem but the camera is off to Leica for repair or replacement. There had been some question as to whether the M8 has problems with certain SD cards but for this shoot I was using the same 1 GB SD Sandisk Ultra II cards I've been using all along so that doesn't seem to be a factor in this case."  Disappointing but not the end of the world. Glad that I have a second (albeit Gen 1) body here. There was a lot of electrical static in the room where I was photographing and I don't know if that could have had any affect on the camera. Certainly it shouldn't have. This reminds me of what happened to one of Guy's M8s.  Cheers,  Sean   Damn Sean this sounds exactly like my one body. Same scenerio.  I'm a little worried about batteries myself. Sometimes when i get close to the battery life at 1/4 power , I may turn the camera off and it won't turn back on without putting a fresh battery in. Not the same issue but batteries are a concern of mine and wonder if they are carrying enough voltage to the camera to function correctly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfaier Posted January 20, 2007 Share #19  Posted January 20, 2007 Damn Sean this sounds exactly like my one body. Same scenerio. I'm a little worried about batteries myself. Sometimes when i get close to the battery life at 1/4 power , I may turn the camera off and it won't turn back on without putting a fresh battery in. Not the same issue but batteries are a concern of mine and wonder if they are carrying enough voltage to the camera to function correctly.   I am not sure if I experienced the same thing, but last night my M8 acted strange -- it was one of the original batches, but I upgraded firmware to 1.09. I was shooting with a coded 28mm elmarit. I was on 2500 iso. I had been shooting all night flawlessly, and I switched the camera off for a bit, and then back on. everything turned on - the monitor was accesible and lit, and I could change settigns in the SET menu (not the Menu, menu). When I went to trip the shutter nothing. I tried to turn the camera off, nothing, everything stayed on - like it was frozen. I tried everythign conceivable. Evetually, I pulled the battery and it reset. I have had this experience now 2 times. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodyspedden Posted January 20, 2007 Share #20 Â Posted January 20, 2007 While I (thankfully) don't have the problems described here I am and have been a long term customer of Dale Laboratories in Florida. My experiences with them have been so favorable that I recommended them to several of our forum members. I am shocked by Steve's experiences. I am personally going to call David Farkas and discuss this with him. I will report his responses to me. Â Woody Spedden Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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