M8 Problem

[rpsawin]

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I was out shooting in windy, 32 degree fahrenheit weather yesterday. I made less than 6 exposures when my camera quit responding. I quickly changed the battery with a fully charged spare and tried again…no luck. So I let the camera sit over night and when I turn the camera on:

 

The red "Recording" light on the lower right corner of the back lights up.

The "LCD" is blank showing no display.

The "Monitor" is blank showing no display.

 

I would greatly appreciate some input as to what happened and possible fixes other than sending the camera off to Leica.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Lenshacker]

have you tried a different memory card? I had the M9 do something like this once, the problem was the Transcend Memory Card had failed completely.

 

Have you tried hooking the camera up to a computer via USB?

 

Another "Give it a shot" is to try a firmware reload.

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[rpsawin]

Lenshacker: Yes, I tried swapping memory cards as well as no memory card. I'll try the USB and see if that works.

 

Thanks,

[satijntje]

Try to reinstall the M8 firmware.

I had the same problem and Leica Berlin (Meister) fixed it by re-installing the firmware again.

Good luck

John

[kaspar]

I had exactly the same problem. It repaired itself after a few days. I don't know how, but it did.

[Symeon]

I believe 32F is 0 Celsius, which is freezing point. Well, the M8 is not an M6 so shutter failure is a possibility at these temperatures. Try in warmer weather, see if it works, then reinstall firmware, there may be a bug there. Leave camera without battery for half an hour. There isn't really that much you can do with a "confused" digital Leica.

[rpsawin]

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I sent the camera to Leica N.J. the first week of January. Last week they notified me that a board needs to be replaced along with a cleaning. The turn around time will be four to five weeks.

 

In the interim I have been have a great time shooting with my M2!

[wda]

Bob, what a surprise to many to read that Leica are repairing your M8. Well done! Much depends on what has failed and spares availability. I am impressed.

[rpsawin]

I decided that I would proceed with the repair as long as it did not exceed $500. Any amount above that seemed better applied to a new camera. When Leica told me the repair would be $475 I jumped on it!

[Everywhen]

My M8 did this recently in almost exact conditions.

 

I revived it self later in the warm.

 

I sold it soon after.

[rpsawin]

Everywhen: I made several attempts under different circumstances to revive my M8 with no success. I am very pleased that it can be repaired within the budget I set. I like the camera a lot and would miss it if I had to "retire" it.

[Everywhen]

rpsawin:

I guess I was lucky, if indeed the faults were related, mine could have been something as simple as an ageing battery.

 

However, what with this and shutter repair the camera had I'd lost confidence in it. If it was just a battery problem I wasn't willing to spend £90 each on Leica batteries for such an old camera, so decided to move it on while values were still reasonably good.

 

Hope yours carries on working well, I liked the M8 a lot.