M11-D completely bricked

[D-Mavignier]

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I bought my Leica M11-D less than two weeks ago and yesterday with 60% battery charge left it stopped working. I connected it to a charger  but there was no light and camera was not charging. I spoke to customer service Leica and they suggested a hard reset which means keeping the thumb wheel and the function button pressed for 30 seconds. Initially the camera did not respond, but after three times and also removing and inserting the battery the camera turned on again. I really love this camera, but I don’t know now if I keep it or return it. My question for those who had problems like this with any of the M 11 models - has full reset worked for you?

[3D-Kraft.com]

Sad to read, but I still find the title a bit misleading. "Completely bricked" would mean to me that there are no longer any measures for the end user to revive it.

[Tseg]

That stinks.   Knock on wood, no issues yet with mine.

[RobW0]

5 minutes ago, 3D-Kraft.com said:

Sad to read, but I still find the title a bit misleading. "Completely bricked" would mean to me that there are no longer any measures for the end user to revive it.

I agree, my first thought when I read it was he must of had a problem installing the new firmware that was just released today. I had just finished installing it on mine with no problem. Sorry you had a freeze. 

[darylgo]

From my own experience with Leica I would return or exchange it, it could be a one time only event however would you want to have to deal with it repeatedly or send it to Leica repair after the return window closes.    

Mr. Leica released a video that has insights about repair times:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vnqvHSm4x8

 

The hard reset is the first I've heard about, normally the advise given is battery removal.  Is this hard reset specific to the M11?  Anyone know if this can be generalized to the M10 or other models?  I might just give it a try on my M10p that works flawlessly except for the few times on/off or battery removal works, otoh I may not want to stress Leica electronics in an almost perfectly working camera out of warranty.  

Edited December 12, 2024 by darylgo

[pgh]

Any time one buys a newly released Leica this is a risk.
 

I’m a broken record but I’ve learned the hard way after a decade plus (starting with the M8). I’ve purchased 3 brand new digital Leicas in that period. All 3 should not have passed QC. All three have needed some service or fix for things that have largely taken the camera from me during the first year of ownership. (Long service times)! Which makes early adopting a wash to my mind. 

In my experience used is actually more reliable. 3 for three there in flawlessly working cameras. Better still if the model has been out 18 months or more and that body has taken a trip or two to Wetzlar to get some real individual attention. 

Of course this is all just my experience, but bug reports aren’t hard to find. 

I simply don’t think Leica have the resources (or have, but choose not to use them) on sufficient testing before release. They get early adopters to do it for them and their brand loyalty stays strong anyways. 
 

 

[lct]

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2 hours ago, D-Mavignier said:

[...] I spoke to customer service Leica and they suggested a hard reset which means keeping the thumb wheel and the function button pressed for 30 seconds. Initially the camera did not respond, but after three times and also removing and inserting the battery the camera turned on again [...]

Glad this hard reset fixed your issue. Never did it myself but i'm curious. Did it reset image numbering on your M11-D?

Edited December 12, 2024 by lct

[username]

1 hour ago, pgh said:

Any time one buys a newly released Leica this is a risk.

Not going into how shitty it is to release a 9K camera that's riddled with bugs in the first place - but the M11 is out for close to three years now.
Would have thought the M11-D shares basically the same internals, just lacking the screen? I mean there should be less things that can go wrong 😅

Edited December 12, 2024 by username

[RMF]

3 hours ago, D-Mavignier said:

I bought my Leica M11-D less than two weeks ago and yesterday with 60% battery charge left it stopped working. I connected it to a charger  but there was no light and camera was not charging. I spoke to customer service Leica and they suggested a hard reset which means keeping the thumb wheel and the function button pressed for 30 seconds. Initially the camera did not respond, but after three times and also removing and inserting the battery the camera turned on again. I really love this camera, but I don’t know now if I keep it or return it. My question for those who had problems like this with any of the M 11 models - has full reset worked for you?

Interesting info. First time that I’m aware that they exposed a hard reset option to us (at least for the M11-D), good to know if ever we need to use it.  Weird it took three times to kickstart/hard boot the camera though.  Has anyone else used this hard reset or known about it?

[Mahesh]

3 hours ago, 3D-Kraft.com said:

Sad to read, but I still find the title a bit misleading. "Completely bricked" would mean to me that there are no longer any measures for the end user to revive it.

As good(bad)  as bricking when you can't do without having to call Leica for support.

[Velo-city]

3 hours ago, D-Mavignier said:

I bought my Leica M11-D less than two weeks ago and yesterday with 60% battery charge left it stopped working.

Return it. 
If you press on and then have issues, you’ll risk having to be without it for months - covering any temporary replacement at your expense. Why risk it? 

[M11 for me]

vor 2 Stunden schrieb pgh:

Any time one buys a newly released Leica this is a risk.

I had 6 newly released Leica cameras over the past 10 years. They all worked fully fine. At the moment I still own an M11 and a Q3. Both are great and cause no problem whatsoever. And they never did. 

When you say that a new Leica camera is a risk then this is not my experience.

[pgh]

1 hour ago, username said:

Not going into how shitty it is to release a 9K camera that's riddled with bugs in the first place - but the M11 is out for close to three years now.
Would have thought the M11-D shares basically the same internals, just lacking the screen? I mean there should be less things that can go wrong 😅

Yes, I have honestly been quite tempted by the D given the mature platform- figuring maybe these issues had been sorted more concretely.

These reports have been enough to disabuse me of such a notion. Even if it's in the vast minority of sold units, I can't risk going without a project camera for months at a time - and I would need to by trading in what I've got, which has a long track record of just working. I suppose I may wait to buy a used one from someone who merely got bored of it but has had no issues with it for a year.

Even more than the faulty cameras, it's the slow service combined with it that gives me pause. I'd be less hesitant with Canon or Nikon for instance because with their professional support they could always turn stuff around and make sure your needs were sorted. Leica is a high end risk for actual working conditions - one many of us accept but there are limits. 

[Tseg]

Like a Ferrari, when it works, there is nothing like it...

[Steadimann]

This is exactly what happens on Internet  Leica and any other brand sells thousands of cameras and when something goes wrong for one person all brand is declared having bad QC etc  Influencer times... jeez.

[Crem]

5 hours ago, D-Mavignier said:

I bought my Leica M11-D less than two weeks ago and yesterday with 60% battery charge left it stopped working. I connected it to a charger  but there was no light and camera was not charging. I spoke to customer service Leica and they suggested a hard reset which means keeping the thumb wheel and the function button pressed for 30 seconds. Initially the camera did not respond, but after three times and also removing and inserting the battery the camera turned on again. I really love this camera, but I don’t know now if I keep it or return it. My question for those who had problems like this with any of the M 11 models - has full reset worked for you?

Freezing = The camera stopped working. Pulling the battery out and putting it back in brings it back to life until the next freeze. 

Bricked = No amount of resetting, power switch toggling, pulling the battery, etc will make it function again. It has to go to Leica corporate and they likely will replace parts like the circuit board. 

I had lots of freezing with my M11, but it never bricked. Full resets (erasing all settings and starting over with setup) never helped my problems. I sold mine before the new firmware came out that probably fixed many of the freezes that plagued this camera.

Personally I would put yours on the latest firmware and see if it happens again. If you are at all concerned though just return it now. Assuming the dealer will take it back of course. I wouldn’t want to deal with sending it in to Leica for warranty repair. You will wait months to get it back.

Edited December 12, 2024 by Crem

[JNK100]

1 hour ago, M11 for me said:

I had 6 newly released Leica cameras over the past 10 years. They all worked fully fine. At the moment I still own an M11 and a Q3. Both are great and cause no problem whatsoever. And they never did. 

When you say that a new Leica camera is a risk then this is not my experience.

I agree. I have had a number of Leicas all without any issues.

[summarity]

I have run into freezes like this a number of times, but it was my fault*. Each time, what I noticed is that the M11D takes a bit longer to recover from a state like this than my M11M. Sometimes I was waiting for a full minute after a restart before the shutter opened and the camera started. Multiple battery in/out have usually helped, but good to know there's an actual reset sequence! Of course no normal customer should ever encounter these states, and the fact that there are multiple reports of this happening are very concerning. 

* To clarify: I'm not implying user error in your case, just saying that I know for a fact I did something undocumented in my research on the M11D that caused freezes in my case.

Edited December 12, 2024 by summarity

[username]

Let's just take a moment and remember that Leica is not one of those companies struggling to survive, but rather
Leica Camera announced that its 2023/2024 fiscal year saw it achieve the highest revenue in the entire history of the company.
It saw 14% growth to 554 million euros ($586.3 million) over last year's already spectacular 485 million euros. 

Yet they're unable to get their shit together in regards to training & employing proper engineers / software engineers to deliver a truly stable firmware for their best selling camera or repair them in a reasonable time.
Imagine you'd buy a top of the line Mercedes, and the windshield wipers only work some of the time. Or with that particular model the trunk doesn't open, yeah it's a known problem with those, you have to start the car half a dozen times and then it maybe works again. Speaking to Mercedes they tell you that they can fix it, but it will take a while ("sorry, we're super swamped with repairs as we're selling so many cars these days, you'll have your car back in 6-12 months").

Leica can afford to not care about it, it seems, archieving record revenue regardless.
 

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Hallo,

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[username]

5 hours ago, darylgo said:

Mr. Leica released a video that has insights about repair times:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vnqvHSm4x8

..the best of this video being the fact that they returned his M10 to him in a faulty state, then told him he has to send it in again and wait some more months for them to this time actually install the proper firmware - and he then drove from GB to Wetzlar himself, and only then they fixed it right away.

Pardon my french, but what the fuck???