Blue line suddenly showed up.

[digibeginner]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

My M9 is great but suddenly my pictures started having this blue verticle line showing at the mid-bottom of the shot.

 

 

I tried different lens with the same results. I looked at the sensor and it looked clean. Is this the same as the blue line issue of the M8? Would a reload of the firmware fix this? If not, do I have to send it in to Solm? I bought it 2nd hand but still under warranty.

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[k-hawinkler]

My M9 is great but suddenly my pictures started having this blue verticle line showing at the mid-bottom of the shot.

 

 

I tried different lens with the same results. I looked at the sensor and it looked clean. Is this the same as the blue line issue of the M8? Would a reload of the firmware fix this? If not, do I have to send it in to Solm? I bought it 2nd hand but still under warranty.

 

 

Welcome to the forum.

I would get in touch with Leica NJ and let them handle it.

Good luck.

[digibeginner]

Welcome to the forum.

I would get in touch with Leica NJ and let them handle it.

Good luck.

 

I think I need to directly deal with Solm because the original receipt is not under my name and the original owner didn't register with Leica NJ. I did register at Leica's website though.

[Jeff S]

As K-H says, call Leica NJ to discuss options.

 

Jeff

[k-hawinkler]

Here you go:

 

Leica repair service

Your Leica product requires servicing or repair? Contact our Leica repair service.

Here your Leica product will undergo professional servicing or repair with original Leica spare parts.

 

Address:

Leica Camera Inc.

1 Pearl Ct, Unit A

Allendale, New Jersey 07401

Contact person:

Sarah Mayville & Carmen Vargas

Phone:

800-222-0118 x 19930

Fax:

201-995-1686

E-mail:

NO THIRD PARTY EMAIL ADDRESSES IN POSTS, PLEASE

 

I found Carmen Vargas to be very competent and very friendly.

She will guide you in the right direction.

[digibeginner]

Thanks for the info. I emailed NJ repair center and await their answer.

[CalArts 99]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Expose a file in total darkness and you'll likely find a hot pixel at the top of the vertical column. The bad pixel will often shut off a vertical line of pixels below it.

 

Same thing happened to me. It's easy to remove in post (and as a RAW file, ACR will normally remap it.) But nonetheless, the Leica techs will remap it for you and all should be fine. I waited until I had another issue (the vulcanite started to peel off a lot) and then sent it in. They fixed both in about 10 business days (and free of charge.)

 

Try shooting a raw file and develop it either with ACR or whatever you use. You may find that it goes away and only shows up in jpegs.

 

This is fairly common with just about all digital sensors but some cameras have remapping built into the firmware. My understanding is that the Leica CCD sensor normally shows a bad pixel as a vertical colored line as it turns off the other pixels below. Otherwise it's often just a single hot pixel (like with the Nikon CMOS sensors.) I had two lines with my M9: red and blue. An additional green one would have been more colorful

 

It would have been nice if Leica had some kind of built-in remapping. I think this particular sensor might be more susceptible to this phenomenon (?)

 

fwiw, this is directly from Thomas Knoll, the developer of Adobe ACR (and Photoshop) about Nikon bad pixels:

 

"If you want, you can send it to Nikon and they can add this new bad pixel to your camera's bad pixel list (your camera probably already has a few hundred pixels that were mapped out at the factory). In most cases, Camera Raw/Lightroom will map out the bad pixel automatically anyway, as long as you shoot raw. If you shoot JPEG, this is a bigger issue ."

[Jeff S]

Thanks for the info. I emailed NJ repair center and await their answer.

 

I always get better response and service by calling a specific person. Plus, if you establish personal contact and require repair, you can then request that the person act as your intermediary to take delivery, expedite the order and advise on status. Always works for me.

 

Jeff

[k-hawinkler]

+1

 

Exactly right. My experience as well whether dealing with Leica NJ or Leica Solms.

[Jeff S]

I treat the service the same as I would with my car. Talk with the rep in advance (and make sure they are the best contact), discuss the problem(s) until all questions (mine and his/hers) have been addressed as needed and until the situation and the options are completely understood; then rely on the rep for updates, follow-up and ultimate resolution. Sometimes even talk with the technician actually working on the fix. But, e-mail the service dept. with a bunch of questions?....no thanks.

 

Jeff

[Arif]

I was having a problem which was similar and ended up getting my camera sent in. Eric Chan being a wonderful guy gave me help and sent me some code to fix my previously affected pictures.

 

You can see the conversation and links to the solution here (http://www.reddotforum.com/showthread.php/410-Any-ideas-on-the-purple-line-in-the-following-images)

 

Hope that will help you,

[digibeginner]

Thanks so much Arif for the explanation video. It was very very interesting to know the problem. The question is, it sure scars me now about flying and bringing my cameras. Remember the days with film and x-ray machine at the airport when we have those lead bags to put our films in, maybe it is time to dig those out and put our cameras in it during the flight???

 

Anyways, a little update about my situation:

 

I initially called, as others suggested calling is better than email, New Jersey Leica service center. The person answering stated that since I bought the M9 2nd hand, the warranty is not valid any more even though it still has one year left on the warranty. I already indicated that I transfer the warranty to me and registered the M9 on the website under my name. This might be true as this is what my research indicate so I ask whether I should directly deal with Solms. New Jersey's answer is NO because the warranty follows the initial owner.

 

I then emailed Solms and then called Solms directly in the middle of the night when it is 1pm in the afternoon in Germany. This is how good Leica's customer service is: the person answering the phone was very polite and professional. I asked in German whether she speaks English and she proceeded in replying that she does and talked to me in English without any sign of condescension. She directed me to the service person, sorry I forgot his name. Without me saying anymore, he already knew who I am from my email. He immediately told me that my M9 is still under warranty. He confirmed that the warranty follows the camera. He said that he already forwarded my email to Carmen at New Jersey and I should wait for her email.

 

Mind you, this all happened within 12 hour period. Later that morning, I got an email from Carmen from New Jersey service center and asked that I send my M9 to them and they will service it under warranty.

 

Now this is customer service for you. I wish all businesses are like this and we won't have to be so troubled anytime we need something fixed. I sent the M9, along with a SD card with the DNG file, Express mail the same day. I am sure that they will "fix" this for me.

 

Will update further as to the result when I get my beloved M9 back. Hopefully the flight back will not kill any more pixels, LOL.

[jaapv]

Scared about flying , LOL. One should be more worried about some esoteric particle hitting a vital part of one's anatomy, I guess.

Seriously, an advice I read that appears quite sensible to me is the carrying of the camera in an upright position when flying, as that minimizes the target area. A fine piece of lateral thinking that I saw on this forum, I forget by whom.

 

The video Arif alludes to can be found here: