SL2 bricked / dead

[sagarwal]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Really unfortunate timing because of my upcoming vacation, but my SL2 stopped showing any signs of life. Last thing I remember doing was a few weeks ago, when I saved user profiles, upgraded the firmware to 6.0, then restored the profiles.

4 days ago, I turned on the camera and no lights came on anywhere. EVF was dark, the screen on the back and the top screen were both dark / blank. Tried 4 different fully charged batteries that work with my Q2, but no luck. I looked at some of the suggestions on this forum about taking out the lens while the camera is on, but this didn't help. Also removed SD cards, connected to USB-C, and no luck.

Leica support asked me to send the camera in, so I shipped it, and it will be delivered by tomorrow.

Curious if other folks have had an experience like this, how/what Leica did to fix it, and what I should expect to pay to get back my SL2 in a fully functional state.

[Virob]

Something similar happened to me while out one day. After 10-15 min of putting in a fresh battery and turning on and off it still won’t work. When I calmed down, I noticed that when putting in a new battery, I would get that normal brief low illumination of the top screen. So I took out the battery, waited 5 min, inserted a charged battery and waited another 5 min, then turned on, and all was well. You might check if you get a top screen response when inserting a charged battery.

[sagarwal]

23 minutes ago, Virob said:

So I took out the battery, waited 5 min, inserted a charged battery and waited another 5 min, then turned on, and all was well. You might check if you get a top screen response when inserting a charged battery.

I believe I tried that too. Left the camera without battery for 24+ hours, then put in a fresh battery and saw no response anywhere. Tried switching it on multiple times over several hours with the same result. The camera is en route to Leica now, so can't check more closely to see if mine has the low illumination of the top screen that you saw on your camera.

[LeicaR10]

Sagarwal,   Your situation with the SL2 is quite rare.  Depending on the condition of your SL2, Leica might simply offer to swap out your camera for a new one from their remaining existing stock.  The backlog for repairs is about 4 months for SL2 lenses.  My 90-280 went in for a focus issue and Leica simply offered to swap the lens with a new one for a very nominal charge.  My lens was out of warranty. It was an offer I could not refuse. The new lens arrived in a week from Germany.  Maybe the same will happen for your SL2.  r/ Mark

[jaapv]

Try cleaning the battery contacts both in the camera and on the battery. Check for oxidation or mechanical damage. 

[sagarwal]

11 hours ago, jaapv said:

Try cleaning the battery contacts both in the camera and on the battery. Check for oxidation or mechanical damage. 

That's a great point that didn't occur to me at all. I had connected the camera to USBC for extended periods of time. Wouldn't that have started the camera even if the battery contact was bad? I should have first posted here so I could try out these suggestions before rushing my camera off to Leica.