How Can You Tell if an M8 Has Been Fixed in Solms?

[photolandscape]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I'm thinking about buying a second M8, this one used. It appears to be a great deal. It has the latest firmware, 1.107, and for all intents and purposes seems to be functioning as it should.

 

I assume if I buy it, there will be no Leica Warranty--I'll be on my own for any repairs or adjustments.

 

How can I tell if it received the fix in Solms? I know serial numbers aren't a great indication of its age, but I would guess it is an early model--probably bought about 9-10 months ago.

 

If it hasn't had the fix, is that something that Leica will do whether I am the original owner or not?

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[ArtZ]

I'm thinking about buying a second M8, this one used. It appears to be a great deal. It has the latest firmware, 1.107, and for all intents and purposes seems to be functioning as it should.

 

I assume if I buy it, there will be no Leica Warranty--I'll be on my own for any repairs or adjustments.

 

How can I tell if it received the fix in Solms? I know serial numbers aren't a great indication of its age, but I would guess it is an early model--probably bought about 9-10 months ago.

 

If it hasn't had the fix, is that something that Leica will do whether I am the original owner or not?

 

Very easy to know. Everytime a camera/lens has been fixed/repaired in Solms, you get a document from Solms explaining what they have done. It looks like an invoice but the amount to pay is 0. Just ask to the seller to provide this document.

 

I keep all these papers with my bills and I'm sure that all people here do the same.

.

[GarethC]

Alternatively, if you actually have it in your hands it probably hasn't been to Solms because judging by their slowness in coding lenses the deal is that you send it there and it never comes back, just disappears into a black hole

[robsteve]

 

How can I tell if it received the fix in Solms?

 

If it hasn't had the fix, is that something that Leica will do whether I am the original owner or not?

 

Ask the seller if he has sent it off for the upgrade. If he tells you yes and you don't believe him, email Leica support with the serial number to get a confirmation. m8.support@leica-camera.com

 

If it hasn't been upgraded and was one of the original cameras, Leica will upgrade it.

 

The warranty starts from the date of purchase by the original owner. Make sure the seller gives you a copy of his original sales receipt in case you need to have warranty work. The warranty is two years, unless it is a Leica demo unit, which have one year.

 

Robert

[Shootist]

Unless the original owner bought it before December 2006 and never sent it back for the fix it is the updated version. All leica M8's sent out from Solms to dealers, and or sold by dealers to the public, before December 2006 were callled back to Solms for the fix. If it was originally purchased after December 2006 it is the updated version.

 

The simplest think to do is ask the present owner when he bought it and have him supply the original sales receipt. If he can't do that, IE tell you when it was bought and give you the receipt, I wouldn't buy it, no matter what kind of good deal you get.

[asfeir]

Unless the original owner bought it before December 2006 and never sent it back for the fix it is the updated version. All leica M8's sent out from Solms to dealers, and or sold by dealers to the public, before December 2006 were callled back to Solms for the fix. If it was originally purchased after December 2006 it is the updated version.

 

The simplest think to do is ask the present owner when he bought it and have him supply the original sales receipt. If he can't do that, IE tell you when it was bought and give you the receipt, I wouldn't buy it, no matter what kind of good deal you get.

 

Actually it is sometimes in December 06 that the second series was shipped. I got mine on 27 December and it was already the new series.

 

However, there was a second problem. The infamous SDS that caused a number of cameras to go dead. This problem was also solved by replacing a faulty part. Mine had to go to Solms for this.

 

I do not know the date after which this problem did not occur with new M8s.

[ArtZ]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Actually it is sometimes in December 06 that the second series was shipped. I got mine on 27 December and it was already the new series.

 

However, there was a second problem. The infamous SDS that caused a number of cameras to go dead. This problem was also solved by replacing a faulty part. Mine had to go to Solms for this.

 

I do not know the date after which this problem did not occur with new M8s.

 

My first M8 (bought June 9th 2007) came from the factory with firmware 1.094 (never released to the public). It was made at the end of March or the beginning of April (firmware 1.10 was released in the middle of April).

 

SDS arrived after 24 hours use.

 

As I said, the best way to know what has been done to a camera is to check the documents produced by Leica after each repair or fix.

 

Though, even if the price is interesting, I would never buy a second hand M8 because warranty is not transferable. I'm afraid that our M8s must go to Solms in the future before the warranty period expires

.

[asfeir]

My first M8 (bought June 9th 2007) came from the factory with firmware 1.094 (never released to the public). It was made at the end of March or the beginning of April (firmware 1.10 was released in the middle of April).

 

SDS arrived after 24 hours use.

 

As I said, the best way to know what has been done to a camera is to check the documents produced by Leica after each repair or fix.

 

Though, even if the price is interesting, I would never buy a second hand M8 because warranty is not transferable. I'm afraid that our M8s must go to Solms in the future before the warranty period expires

.

 

I agree.

However, and unlike the first bug that made Leica stop shipping new cameras until they fixed them around November 2006, there has been no announcements as to when was the issue with the SDS discovered, and after what date new M8s became immune.

Any M8 produced up to that unknown date, may develop SDS.

[Guest guy_mancuso]

My first M8 (bought June 9th 2007) came from the factory with firmware 1.094 (never released to the public). It was made at the end of March or the beginning of April (firmware 1.10 was released in the middle of April).

 

SDS arrived after 24 hours use.

 

As I said, the best way to know what has been done to a camera is to check the documents produced by Leica after each repair or fix.

 

Though, even if the price is interesting, I would never buy a second hand M8 because warranty is not transferable. I'm afraid that our M8s must go to Solms in the future before the warranty period expires

.

 

Are you absolutely sure you had SDS

[ArtZ]

Are you absolutely sure you had SDS

 

Guy,

 

Yes, confirmed by Solms. As this camera seemed to have more problems than usual, Solms wanted to check it thoroughly. It was sent directly to a person. About 10 days later, I got a phone call for this person who confirmed SDS, the viewfinder LEDs didn't work either in "AUTO" mode and the light mesuring system was defective in particular when the subjet was very close.

 

They said that it was also a problem with WB but this was a common problem to all M8s and it will be solved with firmware. Same thing for the venetian blind store effect.

 

This guy (sorry, I cannot remember his name) asked me the SN of my second body (it was just a few numbers below) and he asked me if it worked properly. I said yes.

 

In fact, with this body I didin't have any major problem. I haven't see yet the mad wheel or even the venetian blind store effect yet. The only problem is sometimes I get a wrong format in the SD card (my computer reads the SD card as if it was formatted using NTFS). Since I format the SD card on FAT with my laptop (instead of formatting on the M8) as stated on the FAQ September 2007, I don't have this anymore.

 

With the lastest one (the one I bought last week), I've seen already the venetian blind store effect and mad wheel is very common. Grrrrr.

.

[Guest guy_mancuso]

Most of the stuff you mention is just firmware issues and annoying, venition, mad wheel and that fix is coming.

 

SDS is a weird one reason i asked because even leica was not sure in the beginning. I have had it on one body twice from a Novemeber camera puchase and your timing seems a little off but no matter it could have sat in a shop for awhile and we don't know that plus there is no true time period that we know when it stopped happening. What happens or the most common cause of SDS was and actually they think it was from dry climates and static. I'm in Arizona and drier than a oven here but that is a theory and not proven by testing it. But what happens is the camera shutter stops working you press the button and nothing there happens than you remove the battery and replace it with another and you are actually able to shoot again but no Playback and no menu or set selection . But if you take the plate off the warning comes up that the plate is off. so the LCD works but not with menu, playback and set. Than you do the baterry trick again and than able to shoot and it repeats. than finally it just dies. Now that was the most comon cause that happened to most folks that had it. Off the top of my head it happened to Shawn ,Brent, Me and several others . It was rare but real. But anything new today does not seem to have it and anytime a body went to Solms they replaced a circuit be it a problem or not. they just replaced a transitor they thought caused the issues. Also you can't go by serial numbers either becuase some of these transitters are in a bin and they just pull from them , some were bad or conditions were right to fail. I worked a lot with Leica on this and luckily i was a beta tester for them when this happened becuase my camera was in Germany within 24 hours on the bench being analized the second time to see what the issue was.

 

pardon my spelling been up since 4 am

[ArtZ]

Guy,

 

The camera stopped working. I removed the battery, reinserted it, replace it. Nothing. When I had the M8 support on Monday they said that a technicien will call me back.

 

He suggested to leave the camera ON for more than 12 hours (24 better). So I did. On Tuesday, after a few tries at the Leica Shop, the camera turned on for a while. After two shots, same problem.

 

Some of the LEDs in the viewfinder didn't light on AUTO mode.

 

The guy from Solms (I was in Russia when he called me) said that the problem of "sudden death" was known at Solms (I didn't know that problem) and he explained that they had to change a "composant". He said also that the LEDs didn't work because the metering system had a problem. This was the explanation given for the LEDs but also for the wrong exposure when a subjet was very close.

 

As I said, for all other problems he said they were firmware problems. He was very kind and apologized for all the inconvenients.

.

[Guest guy_mancuso]

Yea that sounds about right . It is a weird issue and took them some time to figure it out so when it happened to you at your time frame they pretty much knew what it was. My first time went down in Dec than came back and it happened again in March maybe and went back and finally figured it out than and been working fine ever since . The hard part is the timing on it when the last one went out of the factory that had a transitter that could go bad. Today it seems like a dead issue and we don't hear about it. we may have some battery issues or a replace battery with a fresh one but nothing as serious as SDS which is the worst issue that happened to the M8. Glad that is all past