Guest flatfour Posted October 19, 2006 Share #1 Posted October 19, 2006 Advertisement (gone after registration) I switched on my Digilux 2 this morning to see nothing but vertical streaks of colour in the EVF and the LCD screen. It played back earlier frames perfectly. The menu sytem was all ok. It took pictures but all were bright vertical streaky lines. I telephoned Leica UK and they said it had to go back to Germany. Has anyone else had this fault ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted October 19, 2006 Posted October 19, 2006 Hi Guest flatfour, Take a look here Digilux 2 fault. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
marknorton Posted October 19, 2006 Share #2 Posted October 19, 2006 I think it has been seen before - unless it's something simple like a loose connection, the camera needs a new sensor which is about as bad news as it gets. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlm Posted October 19, 2006 Share #3 Posted October 19, 2006 http://www.leica-camera-user.com/digital-forum/4091-color-banding-d2.html Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest flatfour Posted October 20, 2006 Share #4 Posted October 20, 2006 May be naive, but how can a sensor go wrong ? Surely it either works or it doesn't. It's not like a moving component like a switch. PS. When I told my wife that the camera was u/s and had to go back she said " I bet the bit that's broken isn't made by Leica ". Wow, there's confidence in the brand. (She has two Leicas and loves them) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andybarton Posted October 20, 2006 Share #5 Posted October 20, 2006 PS. When I told my wife that the camera was u/s and had to go back she said " I bet the bit that's broken isn't made by Leica ". Wow, there's confidence in the brand. (She has two Leicas and loves them) Isn't that a bit like saying "My car has broken down and left me stranded 100 miles from home in a torrential downpour and it's due to the fuel injection system, but it's OK, it's not [-- insert your prefered brand of car here --]'s fault, because that bit's made by Bosch" At the end of the day, in a D2, NONE of it is made by Leica Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stnami Posted October 20, 2006 Share #6 Posted October 20, 2006 ... and our good fortune Leica take responsibility Images……………………………… Imants Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
marknorton Posted October 20, 2006 Share #7 Posted October 20, 2006 Advertisement (gone after registration) Well of course, nothing in this camera is made by Leica... it's all done by Panasonic. One Tuesday about 2 1/2 years ago, they started delivering silver instead of black parts to the line in Japan and the girls started making a Leica branded Panasonic camera instead of a Lumix branded Panasonic camera. They did that for a few weeks, built thousands of them and then moved on to something else. It's perfectly possible for the sensor to develop a fault where it basically keeps working but not properly which is likely what has happened here. It shouldn't happen but I've seen a handful of people here report the same fault. Here's a picture of the back of the lens. The sensor is on the reverse side of that metal plate, soldered on the flex-print in two rows of connections. You can see curling round is the flat connection to the circuit board and it's just possible that a bad connection is preventing some of the power lines or timing signals required by the sensor from getting there. If the sensor has failed, replacing it involves removing the three screws, replacing the part, hopefully without getting dust in there and then adjusting the alignment with the screws so that the sensor is square to the optical axis. The camera then has to be re-calibrated to adjust for different sensitivities and colour balance between the old and new sensors. I don't know about the cost, but I'd be surprised if the bill was less than £300. You might try to convince them that a £1200 camera should not fail so catastrophically and they should do it for a much reduced price... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest flatfour Posted October 20, 2006 Share #8 Posted October 20, 2006 Thanks Mark. So my wife was correct. I think my camera is still under guarantee so I'm not expecting a bill. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_r_smith Posted October 20, 2006 Share #9 Posted October 20, 2006 After keeping an eye on this forum and others over the past year or so, there have been enough reports of exactly this failure on Digilux 2 and LC-1 cameras for one to think that a batch of sensors are in fact defective. This sort of failure is uncommon for digital cameras in general - our collection of digicams here at work has never had any sensor problems, despite rough use and the oldest of them now being five years old. Leica will honour the warranty up to three years from purchase, I believe, but if you have a Panasonic over one year old it is basically hard luck. Pretty poor service life for a £1,000 plus camera. John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest flatfour Posted October 20, 2006 Share #10 Posted October 20, 2006 Andy - funny you say that. I had a new Jaguar in the late 70's and it packed up - all the engine electrics failed. I was surprised because it was Bosch equipment. When we got it back we found it wasn't the Bosch bit but a Lucas connector. Ah well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andybarton Posted October 20, 2006 Share #11 Posted October 20, 2006 After keeping an eye on this forum and others over the past year or so, there have been enough reports of exactly this failure on Digilux 2 and LC-1 cameras for one to think that a batch of sensors are in fact defective. This sort of failure is uncommon for digital cameras in general - our collection of digicams here at work has never had any sensor problems, despite rough use and the oldest of them now being five years old. Leica will honour the warranty up to three years from purchase, I believe, but if you have a Panasonic over one year old it is basically hard luck. Pretty poor service life for a £1,000 plus camera. John Don't dismiss Panasonic quite so lightly, John. I have an LC5 (the Digilux-1 sister). The lens stopped focussing about 2 years after I bought it. I sent it back to Panasonic (expecting to get a quote for the problem) and it came back with a completely new lens and a service, all free, gratis and for nothing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
marknorton Posted October 20, 2006 Share #12 Posted October 20, 2006 I had a new Jaguar in the late 70's and it packed up - all the engine electrics failed. Was that before or after you took delivery? Good that it's still in warranty! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_l Posted October 20, 2006 Share #13 Posted October 20, 2006 OT!!! Flatfour - Joseph Lucas was known as the "Prince of Darkness" (I share your pain, I had a Triumph) see here: Lucas Electric@Everything2.com and Lucas Electric for some great jokes about Lucas... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stnami Posted October 20, 2006 Share #14 Posted October 20, 2006 The Lucas(DLUX) motto: "Get home before dark." Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riley Posted October 20, 2006 Share #15 Posted October 20, 2006 is this the sort of job that requires special tools? other than the part that is Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
marknorton Posted October 20, 2006 Share #16 Posted October 20, 2006 Ideally a clean room - otherwise you risk doing the fix only to find a lump of dust in there. Swapping the part is easy, the recalibration procedure will require some sort of special rig and a PC to drive it and program flash memory in the camera. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riley Posted October 20, 2006 Share #17 Posted October 20, 2006 ah thanks Mark cleanroom i could get around but i never contemplated recallibration Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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