Yet Another Breakdown. Enough.

[Riley]

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On the subject of product recalls, and company behaviour, this is about Canon and the 2/3" sensor fault, from a sensor that was Sony supplied.

 

we pick it up when the troubles began, common on forums this is the response

 

S2 IS Question: black screen in S1IS canon camera - DigitalCamera-HQ

 

Bad news on this. Tired on browsing in the Internet, I called Canon costumer support, and after explaining the situation, I've been explained that it sounds like the image sensor has gone bad in the camera, and that it is not a common problem for this model.

 

So I need to mail the camera to the Canon Factory Service in Illinois and they will fix it.

 

If the camera has been purchased in less than a year, the waranty will cover the fix cost. If not they will charge you about $119.

 

After literally thousands of these examples, Consumer Advocate and Affairs groups are beginning to act. Formal proceedings have taken place, but still the manufacturer fails to post any notice about free repair, or offer any policy on free repair. Tiring of this response Consumer Affairs acts with threats of legal issues and formalises a complaint process in lieu of any procedure being apparent from the manufacturer. They set-up an online complaint form.

 

Canon Leaves Camera Customers in the Dark

 

If your camera does fail, notify Canon in writing, citing this article and the numerous complaints on our site. File a complaint with ConsumerAffairs.Com. Complaints filed with our site are made available to class-action attorneys, including Doherty.

 

If you are willing to spend a little time and a few dollars, head for your local Small Claims Court and file against Canon. Check our state-by-state listings to learn more.

 

By now Sony has long made its formal admission stated in typical publications like this here

 

Slashdot | Digital Camera Failures

 

"In the past week, four major camera makers have quietly published service advisories admitting their digital cameras are dying. In each case, the flaw appears to involve Sony CCD sensors using epoxy packaging that eventually lets in moisture. Sony's own cameras are among those affected, and the company also has dozens of affected camcorder models. Sony is believed to be picking up the tab for the repairs for the other camera makers as well, regardless of warranty status. (If true, a laudable approach.) Given the large numbers of cameras that are potentially involved, this can't be good news for Sony, who apparently already is expecting losses, and who has also recently announced major layoffs."

 

Forced to respond to Litigation and a PR nightmare, Canon finally responds

 

Canon in South & Southeast Asia

Canon’s Response

Affected products that exhibit this phenomenon will be repaired free of charge, regardless of the warranty status, if disconnection of the internal wiring of the CCD is confirmed.

Customers who have previously paid repair fees to have their products repaired owing to this phenomenon are kindly requested to contact the nearest Canon Service Center.

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

[barjohn]

Riley,

 

Your post reinforces my view that compaines need to realize that the days they could hide their warts are gone with the Internets advance. Therefore, the smart thing is to learn to use it to your advantage rather than trying to cling to the old ways.

[Jamie Roberts]

Riley,

 

Your post reinforces my view that compaines need to realize that the days they could hide their warts are gone with the Internets advance. Therefore, the smart thing is to learn to use it to your advantage rather than trying to cling to the old ways.

 

John, again with respect, culture and corporate culture plays a role here. Many companies will simply not admit fault or failure until they have convinced themselves they actually have a root cause and a full solution. And a way to not look bad.

 

That's not a particularly US view of best communication practice--though in politics "spin" is always important.

 

IMO, a distinctly American view of what the Internet means or doesn't mean won't change global cultures overnight, and probably never anything like completely (though technology does carry culture with it too).

 

So you may never see the changes you're looking for here. BTW--did Leica respond to you yet?

[rosuna]

I would like to share my case.

 

I have a M8 from the first batch (November). I reported a problem -by including a note in the box when I sent the camera to Solms for "upgrade"- related to the shutter. Sometimes, randomly, the shutter doesn't respond. The blocking of the shutter occurs in these conditions: the "above dot" of the metering memory lock is lit, and the camera is set to aperture priority mode (or manual mode), and the shutter doesn't fire. Sometimes I can make the shutter work again after turning the camera off and on, or by putting the camera in manual mode, or by removing the battery, but sometimes it isn't enough and the problem happens after those "resetting operations". Suddently, the shutter works again.

 

The electronic functions of the camera seems to work without problems (light meter, screen, etc.), even if the shutter doesn't. This blocking of the shutter is annoying. I cannot find a reason for it.

 

I have updated the firmware to the 1.092 version. The problems haven't gone.

 

The causes for a shutter release lock are listed in the page 90 of the instructions manual. None of these causes are an explanation in my case.

 

I would like to know if this problem is known by Leica and if the they are working on it.

 

Please Guy, can you give me some insights, some clues?

 

This is (and was) my only problem with the camera (and the magenta cast, of course).

 

Other people with this "shutter blocked" problem?

 

Thanks.

[Guest guy_mancuso]

Ruben when you hit the shutter to fire you push the shutter down and nothing happens. But the meter lock works and such on the way down. Sounds mechnical or am I reading this incorrectly

[rosuna]

Ruben when you hit the shutter to fire you push the shutter down and nothing happens. But the meter lock works and such on the way down. Sounds mechnical or am I reading this incorrectly

 

That's correct.

 

When I sent the camera to Solms I included a note in the box explaining this. But the problem wasn't solved.

 

This problem arises randomly. I can take 30-50 pictures normally, and then, suddently, the shutter stops firing. The rest of the camera works, except the shutter. I push the buttom until the end and nothing happens. I turn the camera on and off, take out the battery, etc. One of this "operations", randomly, finally works, and the shutter comes to live again.

 

The battery is full and the card (SanDisk Extreme III 2GB) if far from being full.

 

Thank you Guy.

[FastFashnReloaded]

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well Dana I dont agree, the camera is the man's bread and butter, and if he feels hard done by given the circumstances he ought be at least have an opportunity to be heard.

 

Then he should have stayed with something else until the bugs were worked out. Why would you bet your job on some device with an unproven track record?

 

Do you carry a spare camera? Who here doesn't?

 

Then he can rely on his spare for his work if he has to, assuming he has a spare. I have NO sympathy, as I have said, for early adopters who then turn around and whine about the bugs in their systems.

 

-Dana

 

"The pumps will buy you time... but minutes only. From this moment, no matter what we do, Titanic will founder."

 

But this ship can't sink!

 

"She is made of iron, sir. I assure you, she can. And she will. It is a mathematical certainty." - from the movie Titanic

[FastFashnReloaded]

I *paid* someone to model in front of a local monument. We got there, the M8 didn't start up. In the end I persuaded it to take images, though the screen wouldn't display them, and I couldn't set ISO etc.

 

Edmund

 

Ah, then apparently you did NOT carry a spare camera? Oy...

[Guest guy_mancuso]

That's correct.

 

When I sent the camera to Solms I included a note in the box explaining this. But the problem wasn't solved.

 

This problem arises randomly. I can take 30-50 pictures normally, and then, suddently, the shutter stops firing. The rest of the camera works, except the shutter. I push the buttom until the end and nothing happens. I turn the camera on and off, take out the battery, etc. One of this "operations", randomly, finally works, and the shutter comes to live again.

 

The battery is full and the card (SanDisk Extreme III 2GB) if far from being full.

 

Thank you Guy.

 

 

This sounds mechnical but just in case i would try the camera/battery reset also. Drain the battery and camera overnight and let it die than recharge and try that. But it sounds when it bottoms out it loses contact to release. i would also try different card also. Try to do a processof elmination, obviously a lot going on but make sure it is not the battery and/or card and try different things. Also try a cable release and see if that operates okay

[FastFashnReloaded]

As an amateur using an M8, I feel I am in the lucky position of being like someone who owns an old Ferrari as a second car. You can get in it on a Sunday morning and press the starter button . There is that brief frisson when you don't know if you will get varrrrooom or a Magnetti Marelli moment (anyone who has ever had an old Italian car knows this one). If it works - great you go and have a nice drive. If it doesn't - no great tragedy you can always use your other car.

 

A professional with an M8 is like the two occasions I have tried to use an old Ferrari as an everyday car (I must be a masochist). On a wet November Monday morning it says no thank you; you then have to go and wake your other half up and ask her to take you to the station again; you bring a large bunch of flowers back in the evening and try to avoid the questions as to how much is it going to cost this time. You can do it but it's damned hard work. You tend to become quickly bored and go out and buy a BMW.

 

Wilson

 

There was a time when I had only one car, a Porsche 924S. I was at my dealer's and they had a GT4 Ferrari for sale. Ferrari GT4 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia One of that model. It was nice, had a rebuilt engine, price was good... However, I had to think, would it start every day? So, I didn't buy it.

 

Ferraris (the old ones anyway) are not to be the only car.

[fotografr]

There was a time when I had only one car, a Porsche 924S.

 

What!?! No backup?!? Gads, anybody who owns a Porsche should know you need two so you can drive one while the other is in getting the oil leak fixed.

[wlaidlaw]

What!?! No backup?!? Gads, anybody who owns a Porsche should know you need two so you can drive one while the other is in getting the oil leak fixed.

 

.....or having the Tiptronic transmission oil changed at a cost of a mere GBP300. However I have to say I never even think of mine not starting in the morning, which I do every time I turn on the M8.

 

Wilson

 

PS the water cooled ones don't leak oil nearly as much as the air-cooled ones did but the downside is that the front radiator hoses on mine are about 5" off the ground and can have holes rubbed in them when you go up and down multi-storey car park ramps. W

[rosuna]

Thank you Guy.

[barjohn]

Jamie,

 

I understand the cultural isues but the Swiss watch company example I gave clearly was able to overcome those cultural issues and they are next door to Germany. I know German culture is different and look at Chrysler to see the result. The Internet s a fact of modern business life. Use it effectively you win, don't at your peril.

 

No response yet.

 

John

[eronald]

Friend of my family's when I was a kid had 3 gullwings and a Porsche mono, cylced them 6 months each, used them as main cars. Old german racer kept his factory cars, I rode in a gullwing, it was fun.

 

Lots of people around where I grew up used Porsches or MGs as main cars. Rollers too, I used to hitch a ride in one that was carpooled with its driver to ferry us kids to school and it seemed sound; even the local Jag seemed to run ok, with that funny overdrive feature, and we all know where their rep went later. I guess mechanical engineering then was better then than now, or maybe it was the full time chauffeurs who doubled as mechanics. The one car that I liked most to be in at the time was the big DS21 Pallas. That one ran well, I guess because its owner was the country rep..

 

i do agree that I've never seen a Ferrari in movement for very long although every time I go to Monte they seem to be breeding

 

Edmund

 

.....or having the Tiptronic transmission oil changed at a cost of a mere GBP300. However I have to say I never even think of mine not starting in the morning, which I do every time I turn on the M8.

 

Wilson

 

PS the water cooled ones don't leak oil nearly as much as the air-cooled ones did but the downside is that the front radiator hoses on mine are about 5" off the ground and can have holes rubbed in them when you go up and down multi-storey car park ramps. W

[jaapv]

Where is the world going these days? My modern Jag is the most reliable car I've ever seen Where did the fun go? Life gets dull!

[tjv]

Where is the world going these days? My modern Jag is the most reliable car I've ever seen Where did the fun go? Life gets dull!

 

Maybe this is the crux of the matter. A car is a tool to get you from A to B. A camera is a tool to capture A and print B. A vintage car or a super moden one, or anything in between for that matter, has the potential to make you smile. Just like a camera. I swapped my M8's for a beautiful old M3 and new Nocti. The M8 kept dying and the M3's shutter I've just found needs tweaking to stop a light leak. Same s*&^ different day. Either way, I know I'm going to enjoy the "ride" of my M3 more than my super modern M8's when all is fixed. But that's just me. I always liked Connery playing bond and the cars he drove compared to Brosnan (sp?) and his new speed machines.

 

Tim

[FastFashnReloaded]

I always liked Connery playing bond and the cars he drove compared to Brosnan (sp?) and his new speed machines.

 

Tim

 

Oh yes, those old machines were kewl... I rather liked that big roadster John Steed rode around in... Was it a Bentley?

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[AlanG]

Where is the world going these days? My modern Jag is the most reliable car I've ever seen Where did the fun go? Life gets dull!

 

My mechanic used to think my old 1985 Jag XJ6 was very reliable.

[ustein]

>Ferrari in movement for very long although every time I go to Monte they seem to be breeding

 

There is a Ferrari dealer in our little town Los Gatos (they sell Rolce and Bentley too). Ok, Los Gatos is in Silicon Valley :-)

 

Uwe