Leica APS-C -- No more!

[jpreisch]

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Reminds me of when Leica ran out of replacement sensors for the M9. Same tune different lyrics.

Edited May 17, 2022 by jpreisch

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[nicci78]

16 hours ago, jpreisch said:

I'm still getting great images out of my discontinued CL.  What's the problem?

Now that TL/CL system is officially dead. You have one concrete example of the issue. 
Leica only promise 6 years of support after the date of purchase!! If you bought one in late 2017. You are only entitled of after sales care until the end of 2023. Which is tomorrow !!! 
It should be 6 years of support from today !! 

What about the first T lenses ?? They already passed the 6 years mark. 

Edited May 17, 2022 by nicci78

[lct]

"Another 6 years" should mean 8 years including the 2 years Leica warranty. This statement is not clear enough anyway.

[Louis]

1 hour ago, nicci78 said:

It should be 6 years of support from today !! 
 

Exactly!... What about people like me who bought CL when it became available!?...

 I must thank the person at Leica AG who told me about it months ago, so I could share with the forum!

What a pity!

 

[nicci78]

6 years from the date of purchase, which cristal clear to me. For faithful customers, who bought it at launch; it left almost no time

[wlaidlaw]

1 hour ago, jpreisch said:

Reminds me of when Leica ran out of replacement sensors for the M9. Same tune different lyrics.

And before that when they ran out of replacement circuit cards (rather fragile) for the M6TTL. There are loads of shops in Guangzhou which specialise in cloning old circuit cards for industrial systems, where the original chips (usually pretty simplistic) and cards are no longer available. For such a simple card as the M6TTL, it would have been child's play for them to make new ones, especially if the  original specs were disclosed. Just needed a bit of get up and go. I recall suggesting this to a director of Leica over 15 years ago and it met with blank incomprehension (Not Invented Here). 

Wilson

[lct]

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3 hours ago, nicci78 said:

6 years from the date of purchase, which is crystal clear to me. 

Would be crystal clear if "another 6 years" meant the same as "6 years". It could as well mean 8 years or perhaps 9 years in case of 3 years warranty. Leica should be more accurate on this anyway.

[nicci78]

They would have said 8 years instead. Bigger numbers is better for marketing. 
6 years probably means 6 years at most. 
Whatever, it is the worst PR handling from Leica. Assume your mess and man up. We deserve a proper communication. Not an internal memo about how to handle your customers or distributors. 

[lct]

7 minutes ago, nicci78 said:

They would have said 8 years instead.

Not necessarily because some people have a 2 years warranty while others have 3 years. So what Leica could to be doing is adding 6 years to the count. Now i say "could" because it is not crystal clear to say the least. As a couple of other Leica things (some website issues spring to mind ) this phrasing sounds amateurish at best.

[nicci78]

I think that they mean that 6 years is kind of a generous gift. So they word it as "additional" which should not be taken as 2 + 6 

We will have a confirmation soon. They will soon realised the mess and the wrath they have created.

 

M7 owners should be worried. Leica is not really concerned about long lasting repairability. I hope that they liked to shoot at 1/60th or 1/125th only. 

[zorky]

Am 22.2.2022 um 05:45 schrieb M.piras:

What make me sad In this discussion is that in the meanwhile we are crying for the end of aps-c, some company like Fuji and OM digital solutions (ex-Olympus) officially renewed their commitment for professional aps-c cameras for the years to come, approaching technologies like stacked MOS sensor and sensor stabilization. Here come the point: it’s clear leica doesn’t do research and development, using only third part sensor and being the fight of aps-c done on latest features, obviously they will always arrive later with out of date product, while the FF sensor market is less innovative and more stable.

Olympus?? aps-c????😀

[M.piras]

22 minutes ago, zorky said:

Olympus?? aps-c????😀

yep olympus digital has been acquired by a company of JIP group which is working on a new generation of aps-c sensors. this could be the start for aps-c on Olympus cameras

[nicci78]

2 hours ago, M.piras said:

yep olympus digital has been acquired by a company of JIP group which is working on a new generation of aps-c sensors. this could be the start for aps-c on Olympus cameras

Are you sure ? I cannot find any evidence of such claim on the web. 
It is totally weird and not logical. Why start a new mount ? Their ressources are already thin, why on earth would they spread them to launch another APS-C ?? 

[earleygallery]

I think the letter states the system is now discontinued (dated 16th May) and they will provide support for another 6 years from now. If your camera breaks in 7 years time you may not be able to have it repaired.

Leica previously claimed that their cameras last a 'lifetime' and after some complaints they committed to providing back up for products for 10 years from when discontinued, so it would appear they are now working to shorter timescales for product support, which given the prices should be a worry for potential customers IMHO.

[nicci78]

18 hours ago, jpreisch said:

Reminds me of when Leica ran out of replacement sensors for the M9. Same tune different lyrics.

Quite different. Leica only stopped replacing M9 sensor in august 2020. Which is effectively 6 years after acknowledging the issue. 
However Leica still provide today support for the long defunct M9 series of camera. Which is way longer than the mere 6 years they are talking about !!! 
M lenses are almost immortal and still serviceable more than 60 years later ! 
 

TL lenses are doomed : full of electro-mechanics. Without official support they will soon become useless piece of glass. 
We are talking about 1K€ to 2.6K€ lenses that will worth next to nothing in 6 years. 
 

I think that it will be wise not to buy SL lenses either. And only stick to Leica sole product : the M line up. 
I guess that Leica will shrink to a very very small company only selling few 12K€ M bodies and 10K€ APO-Summicron-M lenses. 

[Foxtwo]

On 5/17/2022 at 9:12 AM, Louis said:

Exactly!... What about people like me who bought CL when it became available!?...

 I must thank the person at Leica AG who told me about it months ago, so I could share with the forum!

What a pity!

 

So, this is all your fault! 😎

[Foxtwo]

10 hours ago, nicci78 said:

TL lenses are doomed : full of electro-mechanics. Without official support they will soon become useless piece of glass. 
We are talking about 1K€ to 2.6K€ lenses that will worth next to nothing in 6 years. 

The CL body will continue to work for a long, long time. Long enough until most are ready to switch to the “Next Big Thing”. Good chance of an adapter or commonality with a different platform down the road. If not, press on. Lots of electronic devices that we purchase are essentially consumables. They lose all resale, but still provided value in the experience of using them over the years.

I don’t blame Leica, the camera wasn’t selling, new tech in the mirrorless world has passed it by.

C’est la vie.

[Louis]

1 hour ago, Foxtwo said:

So, this is all your fault! 😎

Right!

I even received some unfriendly comments as if it was me who decided to discontinue CL; I  shared it to the forum because I thought it would be useful for some to have a heads-up! ... I am also a CL user and love my camera; as much as I am not happy at all to see it discontinued. But I will use it as long as it works!  

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[Kim Dahl]

1 hour ago, Louis said:

Right!

I even received some unfriendly comments as if it was me who decided to discontinue CL; I  shared it to the forum because I thought it would be useful for some to have a heads-up! ... I am also a CL user and love my camera; as much as I am not happy at all to see it discontinued. But I will use it as long as it works!  

You did the right thing Louis, thank you.  Something Leica should have done a long time ago. Tak 👍🏻

[Enrique Santa]

1 hour ago, Louis said:

Right!

I even received some unfriendly comments as if it was me who decided to discontinue CL; I  shared it to the forum because I thought it would be useful for some to have a heads-up! ... I am also a CL user and love my camera; as much as I am not happy at all to see it discontinued. But I will use it as long as it works!  

Thanks Louis , you just make what you must do.

What is really sad is the way that Leica reacts to all our quaestions, doing nothing and what is even worst with this last internal comunication that seems to be redacted directly for a Leica enemy.

Nobody of us  pretends that Leica continues a non productive line, but as a customer I would be glad with a little more of comunication with them and perhaps showing us future alternatives.

The CL is still my dream cam and by the moment there is no substitute at all for it and my 3 CL lenses, so I'll continue to enjoy all the kit.

In conclusion , what a big deception with Leica¡¡.

Cheers