Monday Morning M8s

[charlesphoto99]

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Now that I've received my replacement M8 I can appreciate what a "monday morning" M8 I received originally. That term, I believe, originated in Detroit where there would occasionally be a stinker car that had things wrong with it throughout - built on a Monday morning when everyone was back from the weekend and not quite present at work yet.

 

So, the new M8 DOESN'T have:

 

a sticky shutter release (the previous one rendered the auto hold function useless - 4out of 5 times I'd end up firing the shutter instead of holding the reading)

 

too tight of a lens mount (thought this odd but read that many have tight mounts)

 

a mis-aligned rangefinder (new one is spot on with all lenses though some of the lenses still exhibit backfocus when being stopped down - but that we know)

 

a row of dead pixels

 

occasional mini-sds lockups (though of course that always remains to be seen on the replacement).

 

Funny thing is is that the replacement is a much lower serial # (by almost 9000, though I'm not sure if this translates into that many actual # of bodies). I was kind of expecting a factory fresh 1.012 (this one was a 1.09) body from Leica, but hey, if it works as it's supposed to I really don't care. Here's crossing my fingers for no sds problems.

 

Anyway, after almost giving up on the M8 as a piece of very expensive cr@p I now see that it's really a matter of poor QC somewhere along the line and not inherent design flaws. I look forward to actually taking some picture instead of wringing my hands over the list above.

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[kidigital]

Charles, I'm quite happy with my low number chrome also. I received mine in November and haven't had any issues. It's also made the trip back to the factory for the update and home again.

 

Here's the way I look at it ... I have a ramping up M8. After begining production for the first time, the gnomes took their time carefully polishing their manufacturing technique (adding a little extra TLC) to early numbers before upping the speed on the assembly line.

 

Kurt

[barjohn]

I think they should put a stamp on it if it is made on a Monday.