new upgrade prices

[rami G]

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Does anybody know what price will they charge from those of us who have already standing on line waiting for the upgrade? My upgrade is due on February. I registered it before the price increase. Do you think they will ask me for the increased price? If they are, I am not going to do it, and I am not going to get the dream 24 1.4...

[jaapv]

What has the upgrade to do with the lens? If it is indeed your dream lens, and it has the quality to be just that, it sounds a bit like cutting off your nose to spite your face.. Just call them and ask. It may well be that pre-booked upgrades are exempt.

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[stunsworth]

As you can see, they've pretty much applied an arbitrary 50% increase across the board. Perhaps they needed to fund the Christmas Party...

 

You don't put your prices up by 50% in an economic recession to fund the party, you put your prices up by that amount because you either want to reduce demand for the service, or you think that the increase in price will more than cover the number of people who will not want the work done at the higher price. Why you'd want to do that is a different question.

[Guest wls.shanghai]

What has the upgrade to do with the lens? If it is indeed your dream lens, and it has the quality to be just that, it sounds a bit like cutting off your nose to spite your face.. Just call them and ask. It may well be that pre-booked upgrades are exempt.

 

 

....maybe the price for the lens will also increase 50 %

 

wls

[rami G]

What has the upgrade to do with the lens? If it is indeed your dream lens, and it has the quality to be just that, it sounds a bit like cutting off your nose to spite your face.. Just call them and ask. It may well be that pre-booked upgrades are exempt.

 

simple, since I got my M8 (06) I am unhappy with the shutter, not because of the noise but because of the camera shake. Maybe it is particular to my camera, but the shake is very noticeable. With my 5D and 35 1.4 I can shoot (in mirror lockup mode) at 1/4 of a second (as I can with my Leica film bodies and with my Epson RD-1.) but with the M8 I don't get a single shot sharp under 1/30th of a second. I don't have any reason to make such an investment if I don't get a decent low light camera to use it with. I would rather get the new Canon 24 1.4 (mark II) and maybe even the 5DII (I don't mind black dots. In fact I love them. They remind me of film scans ;>)).

[rami G]

Just call them and ask. It may well be that pre-booked upgrades are exempt.

 

and thanks, I will call them right in the morning (called them as soon as I saw this post but it was too late in the day). I hope I will get it for the price I registered it for.

[mlesser]

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What a surprise, Leica is in business to make money! I enjoy my M8 for what it is and never expected Leica to adjust their practices to my liking. Here in Sweden a local dealer WIBERGS FOTO-Allt i Foto Nytt & Begagnat has been announcing a coming 15% upgrade for over a week, so this was not all that much of a secret. I had intended to get the shutter and frame line update, but the 50% increase is just too much for my current resources. On the other hand I've just saved 1000 euros so I'm not feeling all that bad, and like Mark I'm looking forward to putting my M glass on my new Panasonic toy. Also, while I certainly have no quibble with Leica and in fact would like to see the company prosper and put out exciting products I'm going to have to think carefully about what I buy from them in the future. As I'm sure they read this forum I also think it's a good thing for people to express their opinions here, both positive and negative as this may help the company make the right survival decisions in these woeful financial times.

 

Marty

[marknorton]

KÖP NU! PRISHÖJNING MINST +15% 1 JANUARI

 

Doesn't "Minst" mean "At least" in Swedish?

[mlesser]

KÖP NU! PRISHÖJNING MINST +15% 1 JANUARI

 

Doesn't "Minst" mean "At least" in Swedish?

 

A good point! Well at least it's a lower bound.

 

Cheers,

Marty

[jaapv]

simple, since I got my M8 (06) I am unhappy with the shutter, not because of the noise but because of the camera shake. Maybe it is particular to my camera, but the shake is very noticeable. With my 5D and 35 1.4 I can shoot (in mirror lockup mode) at 1/4 of a second (as I can with my Leica film bodies and with my Epson RD-1.) but with the M8 I don't get a single shot sharp under 1/30th of a second. I don't have any reason to make such an investment if I don't get a decent low light camera to use it with. I would rather get the new Canon 24 1.4 (mark II) and maybe even the 5DII (I don't mind black dots. In fact I love them. They remind me of film scans ;>)).

 

You must have one of the rougher shutters, my now-upgraded one, which I thought a bit noisy gave a slight kick on the closing of the shutter (which my other, still original one does not) but that can hardly explain bad handholdability. I have been shooting both with confidence down to 1/16 on a 35 mm lens, 1/8th on a 21 and often even slower.. What did help, gained me one shutterspeed, was the combination of the handgrip and cameraleather.

[marknorton]

That wil allay the fears of those who were worried the price increase was going to be less than 15% LOL...

[rami G]

You must have one of the rougher shutters, my now-upgraded one, which I thought a bit noisy gave a slight kick on the closing of the shutter (which my other, still original one does not) but that can hardly explain bad handholdability. I have been shooting both with confidence down to 1/16 on a 35 mm lens, 1/8th on a 21 and often even slower.. What did help, gained me one shutterspeed, was the combination of the handgrip and cameraleather.

 

Thanks for your info. You might be right. That means that even if they are going to charge me the increased prices and hence I will skip the upgrade I might improve things by asking Leica to look into my shutter and see if it needs replacement (by a new "noisy" old shutter). As I said, I generally have no problem in holding a camera at low shutter speeds. My hands are rather sturdy, generally, when I have such a problem it is because of the camera, not me (had similar problems with the Kodak slr/C which had a very shaky crunchy shutter, but never with any other camera). Thanks again.

[Guest Luis D]

I checked the US website, and prices have not changed. I called to my dealer, and then after to Leica USA, and was told that prices for upgrades are not planned to rise in the USA. They said their service depot is independent of Solms. Of course they can be untruthful, or else change their policy quickly. At this time they said the Europeen prices are reflections of the erosion of the Euro and also oppressive taxation (VAT). Grain of salt perhaps, but that is what I was told.

[chris_livsey]

It will be interesting to find out if the upgrade that I scheduled with Leica for week 3 of next year will be at the old or the new price. If it's gonna be the new one, I'll will skip it completely.

.

 

Let us know, I'm booked for week six.

[jaapv]

Rami. plenty of M8 owners in NY. Maybe you could get together with one and just try another M8, and even maybe an M8u or M8-2

[rami G]

Rami. plenty of M8 owners in NY. Maybe you could get together with one and just try another M8, and even maybe an M8u or M8-2

 

Thanks for the idea... that could be very reassuring, just that I no longer live in NY. I didn't change my profile since I left the city (not knowing where I am heading and if I'll return). Where I live now, there are very few. I will send my camera to Germany next week, to make sure that I get the service before the end of my warranty, even if I don't get the upgrade and the extension. I will report on the outcome. It is strange if there is indeed such a significant variation in the shutter. I assume I am not the first to think that that might the case. I hear from people with few M8 bodies that some of them are quieter than others...

[charlesphoto99]

You must have one of the rougher shutters, my now-upgraded one, which I thought a bit noisy gave a slight kick on the closing of the shutter (which my other, still original one does not) but that can hardly explain bad handholdability. I have been shooting both with confidence down to 1/16 on a 35 mm lens, 1/8th on a 21 and often even slower.. What did help, gained me one shutterspeed, was the combination of the handgrip and cameraleather.

 

The use of handheld slow shutter speeds (below 1/60th) with my M8 has been pretty awful, compared to almost every other camera in my stable (including the behemoth nikon D3). I find it has a lot of "kick." I use to hand hold my M7 at 1/8th with very little problem. The M8.2 I tried in the store I seemed to be able to handhold at slower speeds. I have a pretty gritty shutter release though so that may be some of it.

[like_no_other]

What has happened?

Usually at least a few Leica fans pipe up to emphasize that it's a question of honour to help the company when they adjust prizes.

 

Ok, to get back to reality. The last financial numbers signalized that M8.2 sales must be very low. I think Leica is in deep shit, really deep shit. They have to do everything to sell more M8.2 cameras. They don't want to stop the upgrade programe officially. So they might have choosen the second worst solution and priced it prohibitive. After everything have calmed down again a good percentage of former potential upgrade customers will not be able to withstand the M8.2 and buy it.

[charlesphoto99]

Okay, I was initially told I would be able to do my upgrade in Dec. Now I'm told it might be March. Problem is I need Leica to re-repair something they didn't get fixed right the first time around (sticky framelines) so I need to send the camera back for god knows how long and then send it back again for the upgrade! At this point it's probably a no go for me as I'm having my first baby in Feb. and would like to have the camera around.

 

My warranty runs out in March so I want to get this re-repair done first. I thought since I was getting the frameline upgrade they could kill two birds with one stone. Oh well....

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[paga]

What has happened?

Usually at least a few Leica fans pipe up to emphasize that it's a question of honour to help the company when they adjust prizes.

 

Ok, to get back to reality. The last financial numbers signalized that M8.2 sales must be very low. I think Leica is in deep shit, really deep shit. They have to do everything to sell more M8.2 cameras. They don't want to stop the upgrade programe officially. So they might have choosen the second worst solution and priced it prohibitive. After everything have calmed down again a good percentage of former potential upgrade customers will not be able to withstand the M8.2 and buy it.

 

I suspect the same, after I was told I would get it done in December, now it is postponed to March best case... my first thought was "scr*w this , let's sell this M8.0 and go straight to the M8.2". But then I talked to B&H about this and realised there is no bid for my M8.0 oups! and so I calmed down and decided to wait anyway because it would mean writing off a lot of money quite rapidly, and these times are not the best to throw money away