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Dust on sensor outside of warranty


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Hello everyone,

 

I am new to Leica and forum (not quite bought the camera yet!), and seek some help :)

 

I have read many threads over the last week on this forum so I am more familiar with the Q and any issues.

 

I have demoed a Q at the Mayfair store London, took a few pics outside the shop, then viewed at home on a big monitor.  Very nice indeed !  The lens on their demo was pretty dirty, marks and finger prints all over it !

 

I didn't know the Q was to order from Mayfair so I popped into another Leica dealer in London who was very helpful to ask if they had stock etc.

 

After reading several posts regarding dust on sensor appearing, my concern is what happens outside of warranty.  I just spoke to the Leica dealer (not Mayfair), and he shot me down in flames and said it doesn't exist and can't happen.  We chatted further and he said drop it in to us and we send to Leica.  Outside of warranty, he couldn't reply (for this non existent issue !) so I am no wiser or confident, how it would be handled.  Dropping it back to London would mean a 5 hour round trip so not on the doorstep !

 

I am just trying to gain some idea of cost of cleaning outside the warranty.  Does anyone have experience of costings, I guess this may be difficult as its prob around 2 yrs or approaching since it came out ?  

 

Out of all the little quirks the Leica has, this is stopping me buying one until I have a clearer idea on the cleaning.    Appreciate its not every Q that suffers. 

 

I really like the Q, image quality is fantastic looking at pictures :)  I am after a 2nd camera, fixed lens to go with my Fuji X-T2.  I know the obvious thing would be to buy a 100f but I cannot get away from the Leica quality !

 

Thanks for any help :)

 

Gill

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I had serious dust on my sensor and reported it on this forum and also to my Leica agent in the UK. The agent referred the problem to the main UK dealer who contacted me and arranged for my camera to be collected, taken to the London service centre, cleaned and returned to me. Dust should not be able to enter the body but it definitely does. My Q was under warranty but a design fault is the responsibility of the manufacturer and you should expect a free repair. In fact, I was informed that early released bodies may have had inadequate seals. The dust doesn't enter via the microphone holes! Just because it hasn't happened to another owner is irrelevant. You should be aware that it had happened to more than one owner but the sensor can be cleaned at the uk service centre and takes about one week. Only buy from a Leica dealer to get the best support.

Since the repair, I have had no problems and I'm currently in Istanbul and shooting constantly.

Hope that helps.

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Macberg.

I do think that early releases suffered this problem. I contributed to that thread in 2017.

My camera was almost 2 years old so my advice to anyone buying second hand is to check the age. London -Mayfair were very cooperative so I really don't understand how the OP received such misleading information. The camera can be cleaned at the Mayfair facility.

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To update, I have exchanged a few emails with Leica Mayfair today who have been very helpful and informative.  They said early Q's, dust is a known issue on early batches, but have found a permanent solution to stop this, so the key is for me to buy new stock to be sure.

 

'Should' I have a problem, Mayfair will arrange collection and cleaning, returning back the same method.  Out of warranty they would also sort this FOC and to quote them 'this is something that shouldn’t happen on a “sealed” compact cameras like this'.

 

Excellent customer service reply, so now no excuses... !!  Well apart from the 4 weeks they need to get some more in so I need to go on wait list !  I did know that when I demoed their camera though.

 

Back to bag hunting, I do like the handbag they do for it.. xmas is coming, time to drop hints !! :D 

 

Thanks for all the replies :)

Edited by Minigill
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To update, I have exchanged a few emails with Leica Mayfair today who have been very helpful and informative. They said early Q's, dust is a known issue on early batches, but have found a permanent solution to stop this, so the key is for me to buy new stock to be sure.

 

'Should' I have a problem, Mayfair will arrange collection and cleaning, returning back the same method. Out of warranty they would also sort this FOC and to quote them 'this is something that shouldn’t happen on a “sealed” compact cameras like this'.

 

Excellent customer service reply, so now no excuses... !! Well apart from the 4 weeks they need to get some more in so I need to go on wait list ! I did know that when I demoed their camera though.

 

Back to bag hunting, I do like the handbag they do for it.. xmas is coming, time to drop hints !! :D

 

Thanks for all the replies :)

Great to hear that Leica is being very responsive to you.

 

I hope you know that the perfect bag does not exist. There are many great ones, but until we can buy one with magic included like in Harry Potter movies, we’ll just keep buying more bags. I have a closet full of them now. I NEVER complain about how many shoes and purses my wife has. :-)

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I hope you know that the perfect bag does not exist. There are many great ones, but until we can buy one with magic included like in Harry Potter movies, we’ll just keep buying more bags. I have a closet full of them now. I NEVER complain about how many shoes and purses my wife has. :-)

... and to prove it there are many threads here about who likes what. My problem is that they seem to be breeding in the cupboard. ;-)

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... and to prove it there are many threads here about who likes what. My problem is that they seem to be breeding in the cupboard. ;-)

Yes. I understand. Mine prefer to multiply in the closet. At least my wife doesn’t routinely look in there. A bit like Tribbles from Star Trek.

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To update, I have exchanged a few emails with Leica Mayfair today who have been very helpful and informative. They said early Q's, dust is a known issue on early batches, but have found a permanent solution to stop this, so the key is for me to buy new stock to be sure.

 

'Should' I have a problem, Mayfair will arrange collection and cleaning, returning back the same method. Out of warranty they would also sort this FOC and to quote them 'this is something that shouldn’t happen on a “sealed” compact cameras like this'.

 

Excellent customer service reply, so now no excuses... !! Well apart from the 4 weeks they need to get some more in so I need to go on wait list ! I did know that when I demoed their camera though.

 

Back to bag hunting, I do like the handbag they do for it.. xmas is coming, time to drop hints !! :D

 

Thanks for all the replies :)

Make sure you save that email in case you ever need it!

 

Unless the camera and lens are weather sealed dust can get inside and onto the sensor, it's happened with every fixed lens compact camera I've owned!!

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I have a selection of bags all hanging on a wall in the spare room, but it doesn't stop me looking (and dreaming!) of some... Wotancraft Ryker springs to mind !  The number of times I go armed with my camera and len(s) + filters into a shop, then start packing them in the shop after I have got several different bags/rucksack to try, then you buy another lens or camera combination (like I am about to do) and so the saga starts again :)

 

At least I only have one normal day handbag!  Never been a handbag girl, just camera bags instead !

 

I had recently done some testing of bags for the X-T2 + xf 16mm and potential 100f purchase, so back to square one, insert Leica, remove 100f  :D, back to shops !

 

At least I know that should I need to sort out a clean, its easy to do via Mayfair, and gives me a good excuse to have a day in London, which I love.  So many photo opportunities :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I attended a Leica Mayfair demo yesterday and was advised that a Q's sensor clean requires extensive camera dismantling / reassembly taking 4½ hours … thus unlikely can be done 'while you wait' and needs to be 'booked in' … but all sensor cleaning for all Leica cameras is done free of charge. Early Q models were assembled with a thinner gasket than later models thus the early Qs are more prone to sensor dust … but there is no way of ascertaining which earlier SNs have the thinner gasket. However, all current models have the thicker gasket as do all titanium models.

 

And a sensor cleaning tip from David Slater the Leica Mayfair technician:  When cleaning mirrorless or rangefinder Leica camera sensors (or when changing lenses ) please ensure the camera is switched OFF; if switched ON, the resultant static change across the sensor will immediately attract any dust onto the sensor. 

 

dunk 

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