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Leica discontinues CCD (M9 and Variants) sensor production


Jeff S

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On 9/3/2020 at 3:25 PM, jaapv said:

And incredibly (far beyond "Leica Prices") expensive... The present Leicas are for a large part third party components anyway. The problems occur when third-parties discontinue the production.

As  for "don't buy Leica" I find it equally silly as you do. What are you going to buy then? A D6 @ 7300 Euro? And expect to get that one serviced after a decade?

Totally agree, well said!

That said; I know that Nikon Pro users buying a Dx do expect (and get) service after a decade. But it does not replace having a lovely M camera. 😊

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On 9/3/2020 at 4:05 PM, jaapv said:

Not to mention that if Leica were to find a producer that is willing to produce an M9 sensor clone, the price would be such that a repair would be far more expensive than a replacement used M9.

I think it is very possible that your right about it being a more financial problem than a technical one. It will probably be extremely expensive for Leica to develop and produce such a thing.

It is very likely that it would be cheaper for Leica to give customers with the problematic and irreparabel M9 a new (or refurbished) M 240 as a replacement.

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57 minutes ago, martinot said:

I think it is very possible that your right about it being a more financial problem than a technical one. It will probably be extremely expensive for Leica to develop and produce such a thing.

It is very likely that it would be cheaper for Leica to give customers with the problematic and irreparabel M9 a new (or refurbished) M 240 as a replacement.

I’ m agree

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On 9/3/2020 at 4:20 PM, martinot said:

Yes, I checked the Apple support data base. The Mac Plus is no longer serviced by Apple (just like the Apple II machines I collect):

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624

The Mac Plus (I had one in 1984) is an interesting parallel to the M9. It was a good machine with a serious design flaw. In the Plus' case it was (if I remember right) the flyback transformer which tended to fail (or even catch on fire) when it overheated. The "fix" for customers was to buy a fan that would slot in the top and help to keep it from overheating. A friend of mine's Plus (at E Systems in Florida) started to smoke on his desk. He disconnected it and avoided a fire. I added a fan to my home one. I'm not sure Apple ever offered any modification to fix the problem. From the beginning though, computers were sold with a limited effective life span which (for the mac) has increased over time. 

I still have 2 iMacs, one is a 2007 model which has been my youTube server for a few years now after retiring from home computer duty. The CD drive failed years ago and the hard drive failed yesterday! It's still running on an external drive but not well. Still, 13 years. My 2012 model is 8 years old now and it's still my basic home computer and its pretty effective at it. Macs tend to do very well in service, but nobody expects them to last for 80 years. And no other modern manufacturer tries to make cameras like that these days. Even the old Nikon and Contax rangefinders which were built quite well aren't quite up to Leica's longevity standards. After all, camera manufacturers WANT you to buy new cameras ... eventually. Building an M2 that will last 60 years isn't exactly the way to make you buy more Ms... or is it? Certainly that rugged longevity did kind of make me want to keep buying Leicas (I've only bought 6 Ms so I'm pretty much a piker, and they've all been used models too). 

As I said previously, the Q (and Q2) are interesting Leicas to look at relating to the M models. It kind of looks like an M. It's really well built (but not to M standards). It has a fixed lens but a very good one (to keep from competing with Ms?). I think it's weather sealed (I don't think the Ms are). It has AF and I think it has image stabilization too as well as a macro mode. It gets rid of the rangefinder in favor of a really nice EVF. In a way, except for the fixed lens, it's a fairly modern spec camera. And the cost for the camera and lens is pretty amazingly low (for Leica). If the Q2 was turned into the Leica M11 by giving it an M mount (sadly losing the AF) but retaining the image stabilization, it would be (presumably) way cheaper than an M is now (on a par with the Cls at least) but would be a full frame camera with modern specs. It would NOT have the build quality of the Ms or the expectation (even if implicit) of long survival. Owners wouldn't expect lifetime service or longer service than a Sony RX1R or a Sony a7R4. It would reflect a total transition from the "we make cameras that last forever" model to the "we make great cameras with reasonable life spans." Leica might not be ready to cannibalize their sales of Ms (with all the special editions and variants) yet, but as more digital Ms become doorstops, it might result in failing demand for them and we might end up with a new "M" based on a camera like that. Maybe that would be a little sad to us M owners, but maybe it would be for the best.

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