R9 shutter release button not working properly

[YcPhoto]

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Dear forum users,

The Leica R9 I have is currently suffering from the issue with shutter release button, after it got hit by rain in early January. I did wipe the water away on the body and put it in a case with desiccant bags, the problem did not happen after the rain but happen around early February. 

The problem with the shutter release button is: it could not automatically release the shutter after pressing it, and I did not make changes on the mirror pre-release lever. I need to press the release button for twice, if I want to take a picture. I used to have a Leica R8 before and it also got hit by rain for serval times, however it did not have any issues with the shutter release button after it.

May I ask if it will have a chance of getting repaired or not? As I emailed some of the repairing workshops in UK and Netherlands with my query, and they replied to me that they do not serve Leica R9 or R8 anymore as they do not have any spare parts left. If anyone have suggestions about the workshops for repairing, please let me know about it, thank you.

Regards

Chan

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[Helge]

I had the exact same issue popping-up about 12 years ago. In my case it was definitely not related to any humidity, so it might also not be in your case. At this time, Leica was still able to repair the camera. If I remember correctly, it was caused by some minor electronic defect, the repair was not expensive.

Today we have to face the issue of R8/R9 spare parts not being available anymore in a lot of cases. The response you received sounds like some general defense (not knowing the details).

You should get in contact to a repair shop that is experienced repairing R8/R9, maybe Paepke in Germany?

And yes, at the end it might be possible that the defect cannot be repaired anymore, however I would not give up too soon.

Edited March 10 by Helge

[Helge]

@YcPhoto

I just realized that you are from Ireland (republic?), so sending the camera to a repair shop in the EU would be anyway a lot easier.

[YcPhoto]

@Helge

Thank you for your reply, I will send them a email today for the query, hopefully they still have spare parts for the repairing.

By the way I am actually from Hong Kong and studying in Ireland (Republic of).

[YcPhoto]

Hello forum users:

This is an update on behalf of the issues with my R9, I sent my camera to Paepke Fototechnik Düsseldorf in 12 March, after the inspection, they told me that my camera is able to repair. However, the price is somehow expensive, the total charges of the bill is €778.52 (I bought it with a price around €800). The major expenses of the bill is work price, and then materials and VAT, last rest of the small amount are postage and insurance.

Due to the reason that Leica R9 is somehow expensive to get in the market nowadays, I decided to pay the repairing bill. The repairing period took around 10 days and they ship my camera last Wednesday. Now the camera has arrived to my dorm today, and I will be giving a testing on my college Easter break trip from this weekend.

Regards,

YcPhoto

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[Helge]

Great result. The price is understandable and justified considering the effort Paepke has to spend nowadays. Since R9 in good shape and good working condition are traded at a high level your decision seems to be just right.

[Helge]

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I need to add:

very good to hear that Paepke is still repairing that specific failure 👍

[YcPhoto]

@Helge

Thank you for following with my topic, actually before they told me that my R9 is still available to repair, I was worry about if I may need to sell it as spare part and then looking for another chance to get another R9. But now everything seems back to stream, I hope that this refurbished R9 could follow me till the last moment of my life, then pass it to next generation if I could.

[YcPhoto]

Hello forum users,

The update on this topic was late as I got sick after my Easter trip (sad and unlucky. Now I could say the shutter works smoothly, and there no issues even though it was hit by rain.

Last week I paid a visit to Isle of Man for the heritage railway visit, the weather was cold and sweaty on the island during my visit. It rains a lot and I still taking photos under rain, this time my R9 is launched with motor drive and got the hot shoe mount covered, so there are no issues happening to my R9 or my motor drive. However, the motor drive have problem with rewinding, I will open a new topic in the platform for it.

Later, I went out to take photos with the original battery box, it still functions well. Hopefully it could lease as long as I could pass down to my posterity maybe in the coming future.

Regards 

Y.C.