It's not only Leica who recall cameras...

[J_Brittenson]

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One only needs to read the posts from pros who went back to their 1D2s

Wanna guess how many of these and predecessor flagship $5000+ cameras went to CPS, repeatedly along with a crate of lenses, for recalibration? Multiple bodies, a box of lenses, to be recalibrated as a system.

 

Like the M8, the buyers of those cameras have high expectations, and justifiably so. If there were a way to guarantee every unit is perfectly calibrated out of the box I'm sure Leica, Canon, and others would adopt it in an instant... The best they can do is aim for a high percentage and then adjust the remainder until the customer is happy.

 

No huge difference. The biggest difference is turnaround - Canon Irvine vs Leica NJ is no contest; Canon will have it back in your hands before Leica even acknowledges receiving it.

[Guest s.m.e.p.]

The irony is quite amusing. Canon recall their cameras to fix an auto focus problem and Leica charge roughly the same amount of money for a camera that has no auto focus to fix.

 

And thank god for no AF.

 

Money is not charged on the basis of AF...

 

The irony is that Leica charge roughly the same amount of money for a camera that has no auto focus and most of the lenses and the camera have to be sent to Leica to get the manual focus o.k..

[rob_x2004]

Carsten please dont accuse me of making excuses for canon. I dont particulary like the brand but that isnt really relevant.

I wonder who gives a rats arse about whether you got a personalized letter. Did it apologise for selling you gear without disclosing issues known to them?

Canons tracking fault was hot news pretty much on release. Anyone at the "bullseye" would know about it and of course a number returned or decided against it.

You are right. Unless you are tracking sports at 10fps it might not be a big issue.

[delander †]

At the present state of progress, Canon will fix the problems and it will be history before Leica stops shipping M8s with the same old problems,

 

Jeff

[carstenw]

Rob, everyone who bought an M8 before the filter problem was sorted out got the letter, not just me. Canon has not even admitted guilt yet, although they now announce a fix. Read robgalbraith for the full story. Pretty disappointing.

[Photoskeptic]

ALL the major players in the highend digital game have had recalls or problems which have plagued early adopters. This is nothing new.

[Jamie Roberts]

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ALL the major players in the highend digital game have had recalls or problems which have plagued early adopters. This is nothing new.

 

Exactly. The main difference here is cultural: Canon doesn't ever apologise; Leica did. Canon doesn't "recall"; Leica did. Neither is better, IMO, though I must admit Leica's raw speed in acknowledging the problem made me feel better than sitting around waiting for Canon to fix my 1ds2 when it wouldn't write properly to CF cards

 

But in both cases, the net effect is the same: the companies fix problems to the best of their ability. These are complex things, these 10 fps dSLRs and ground-breaking digital rangefinders. It's not surprising they have bugs at all. Making a bad call on the severity of a bug happens all the time (no-one wants to hold back a product for a minor flaw).

 

I think what people are reacting to is the hand-wringing that went on over Leica's IR bug. The notion, BTW, that Leica was somehow negligent or evil in releasing the M8 before its time or withholding information for the purposes of "fooling" people is just dumb. We know they knew about the IR issue; they obviously made a mistake in assessing its severity. They do need better testing protocols, but I bet if they could go back and do this all again, they would, and the filters would have shipped in every box before they released the camera.

 

Now, did Canon know beforehand about the 1d3 focusing flaws? (IOW, did a prototype have flaws that needed fixing and they got through to the final release)? Well, no-one knows, or isn't telling. But I'm not sure which is better: if they didn't know, then they hardly tested the camera for its target audience If they did, well, then they're just the same as Leica, no? Or any other company who releases an inventive and complex product (where engineers have made tradeoffs)

[johnastovall]

The all time recall was by all the makers who used Sony sensors several years ago.

 

Look at this list of makers.

[adan]

Not bashing Canon - just pointing out to the Leica-bashers that all the manufacturers sometimes have feet of clay. Canon 5D - bands from AF motor interference. Nikon D200 - bands from some source. Leica M8 - bands from a bad component of some kind.

 

All acknowledged and fixed - eventually.

 

A tip of the hat to Sony and the users of its sensors because a lot of them were replaced/repaired out of warranty, and in P&S cameras so cheap that the recall cost surely ate most of the profits

 

As to the cost of AF - yep, I wound up paying $4800 apiece for cameras in part to AVOID AF (and all the compromises to lens and camera and viewfinder design that follow with it).

 

I would pay extra for Canons or Nikons if they offered crisp split-image focus screens instead of a sea of little red squares in the finder, and were fully functional with their own MF lenses from the peak of prime lens design (i.e. 1980).

 

Canon has the screens (in big heavy cameras) and Nikon has fair (not great, fair) backwards compatability. But I wish they would both produce cameras (in addition to feeding the AF market) that are digital equivalents of their F/F-1 bodies of yor, just as the M8 is a digital equivalent to an M6.