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M8.2 Sapphire screen


Gavlister

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I bought my M8.2 second hand, the previous owner had it a year and I had it 4 months (before catching the M9 bug). The screen looked like new, needing only a quick wipe with a cleaning cloth to shine. No micro scratches, no imperfections.

 

Sapphire glass is expensive stuff, and not everyone feels it is necessary (and they're right, it isn't). However in my case i loved not worrying about the screen.

 

My X1 LCD has lots of little scratches, and even though I now have a Giottos protector on the camera I hate this "bandaid" approach.

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I couldn't see any scratches on my M8U sapphire unless I fogged it with my breath to wipe off finger smudges. Fogged, there were tons of little fine scratches everywhere. I suppose those scratches are in the anti-reflective coating, not the glass itself. The same is true of watches with sapphire crystals, which is why the better ones only have the A/R coating on the inside.

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Have a look at my M8.2 after one year of daily use:

 

stuff… - a set on Flickr

 

There cannot be seen one scratch on the LCD cover, which in my opinion make this absolutely the right choice, to protect the LCD screen.

Leica should not offer any lesser solution than this sapphire screen on their digital cameras.

 

I don't know, what Nikon uses on the D3, but that screen as well is extremely tough to collect scratches.

The choice of the lesser screen on the regular M9 is a bad one by Leica IMO. People should not be worried, to use screen protectors on these cameras.

 

If you have a M8.2, be happy and don't sweat scratches on the screen, the paint is much, much less tough.

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To illustrate, my wrist watch's casing and band is made from titanium (the real stuff, not 'titanisiert'), the glass is saphire glass. I bought it early 1997 and have been using it daily since. The titanium has scratches, the glass does not.

Carl

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As some watch users here have noted, the experience we've had with sapphire glass on a watch should be very good news for users of the M8.2. A while back I used to keenly read about Rado watches and bought a couple of them off Ebay.

 

One of them has a sapphire glass with tungsten bezel and most of the watch case and glass is scratch-free. Some very fine scratches do exist, but this is for a watch that is over 30 years old. In fact, I've only occasionally seen badly scratched sapphire-glassed Rados on sale and wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot pole. Considering how hard it is to scratch sapphire, those watches must have been dragged along the pavement for several miles!

 

If Leica ever desires to produce a near scratchproof camera, they could try using a combination of ceramics and sapphire glass in the future. It would be very nice to look at and will likely be obscenely expensive. Strictly for the collectors only, who ironically are least likely to scratch their cameras.

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To illustrate, my wrist watch's casing and band is made from titanium (the real stuff, not 'titanisiert'), the glass is saphire glass. I bought it early 1997 and have been using it daily since. The titanium has scratches, the glass does not.

Carl

 

Actually Titanium is pretty bad at being scratch resistant. It scratches more easily than Stainless Steel! :eek:

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Thanks for the replies.

 

I was a bit concerned when apple said their iphone is scratch free so didn't put a guard on it and now it has many scratches!!

 

Obviously this is a bit more hardy than the iphone glass :)

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Thanks for the replies.

 

I was a bit concerned when apple said their iphone is scratch free so didn't put a guard on it and now it has many scratches!!

 

Obviously this is a bit more hardy than the iphone glass :)

 

Beware, there are still a few basic common sense rules, to be obeyed (be it iPhone or Leica M):

 

Don't throw your camera/ phone carelessly into a bag with your keys, money, tools.

 

Don't slam your camera LCD face down on a table.

 

Clean your pocket/ camera bag regularly form that beach sand, you filled it with last holiday season.

 

 

Probably my M has a non scratched LCD, because I am not a Neanderthal, handling it careless, while normal brassing occurs as of the weak paint and just use as a camera.

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