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M8 damaged shutter: how could this happen?


Marquinius

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Hmmm- a crash through a bird strike should not be possible with a 40.000.000,-- Euro airplane...;)

 

For warranty sake, it might be wise to be persistent that this should not be possible in any 2000+ euro camera. I did not recollect similar stories of canon and nikon shutters. Having said that, nor did I actively follow the ups and donws of those brands.

 

Boen

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For warranty sake, it might be wise to be persistent that this should not be possible in any 2000+ euro camera. I did not recollect similar stories of canon and nikon shutters. Having said that, nor did I actively follow the ups and donws of those brands.

 

Boen

 

@Marco: I am really sorry to read what happened with your camera!

@Boen: you are right, and the very same argument got me a refurbished Canon 20D 4 years ago. Took months of argueing back and forth though, but then, Canon is notoriously bad in the warranty field. Marco may have more luck!

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To all, thanks for all the thoughts. What made me wonder, was the way the material is ripped and bent outward. I'll talk to these repair guys and see what they think. Now on to check for the warranty and for my insurance (thank God I have a special "valuables insurance", that covers things like this ... I hope).

 

I'll keep u posted.

Marco, sorry to hear about your shutter problem. I would think that Leica's warranty would cover this repair unless a non-Leica cause is discovered. However, you seem to have ruled out operator induced damage.

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Here is something that I haven't seen mentioned. In the olden days of rangefinders & cloth shutter curtains, one serious caution often made was to never let your camera point at the sun, for even a few minutes, without a lens cap, because you'd chance burning a hole in the curtain. Now we have metal shutters, so probably no holes, BUT the same heat and that heat can expand one or more of the blades, throwing the shutter unit out of adjustment to various degrees. At the speed that these blades travel, a heated blade could be out of the tolerance range. I don't know if a heated blade could warp or alter shape when cooled down or accumulate distortion over several exposure to the sun.

Not saying this is what is going on here, but I think the old caution is worth repeating. I haven't this kind of thing mentioned with DSLR shutter failures, which seem few and far between. Blessed be the mirror, for it shields the shutter...:)

Bob

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David,

 

I bought the M8 07/07/07 ... now let's see what they are really made of in Solms.

 

Well with at least one of the failed shutter posts the user was deemed responsible and had to pay for the repair. In another which should of been covered under the warranty Leica suggested that the user upgrade the shutter and then charged them FULL price for the upgrade (which sounded totally wrong to me and very poor customer relations, IMHO).

 

I had something similar with a M8 that the sensor needed replacing under warranty. Since they had to remove the camera cover to fix the sensor, GripTac that I applied, I ask if they could install the newer style M8.2 covering. They want to charge me $300. So I told them just to leave is RAW but they put a standard/original M8 cover back on. Which I removed the day I got the camera back and checked it out.

 

So don't be surprised if you get a bill for $1000US or the offer to install the newer slower type shutter at YOUR EXPENSE.

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..for what it's worth...I had exactly the same problem with the M8 I bought in 2006...i didn't even notice it at first and for all i know it came that way (the pic on here looks almost exactly what mine looked like and the dent was in the same place...since it never seemed to effect pic taking in any way i just ignored it....i traded it in several months ago for an m82 but i never had a single problem with the camera

 

mike

mikecettadotcom

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Well,even if Leica declines warrantee, which is not unlikely, you do not have a problem, as that makes it a case for your insurance.:)

 

It wil work out, no doubt.

 

About not letting the sun fall to long in your camera ... worth keeping in mind.

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Well, yes that aspect has been discussed before. As a matter of fact Titanium in such a thin sheet is more flammable than cloth, so the old caveat applies as before. In fact, given that the camera body is built out of a light metal alloy, which will burn as well, in theory setting your shutter on fire through sunlight might cause the whole camera to burst into bright white flame :rolleyes::D

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Well, yes that aspect has been discussed before. As a matter of fact Titanium in such a thin sheet is more flammable than cloth, so the old caveat applies as before. In fact, given that the camera body is built out of a light metal alloy, which will burn as well, in theory setting your shutter on fire through sunlight might cause the whole camera to burst into bright white flame :rolleyes::D

 

But if you keep your other M8 at the ready, you can use the burning one for a fill flash :D

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A short update and this is interesting: I went to the Dutch Leica rep (Camtech) and this guy took one look in the camera and told me that it was caused by heat ... from the sun shining for some time into the lens. Typical thing when I'm at some watering hole: table, camera close by, glass of white wine ...

 

So I'll pop the lens cap on when I'm stationary.

 

And to Bob Ross: well done indeed.

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A short update and this is interesting: I went to the Dutch Leica rep (Camtech) and this guy took one look in the camera and told me that it was caused by heat ... from the sun shining for some time into the lens. Typical thing when I'm at some watering hole: table, camera close by, glass of white wine ...

 

So I'll pop the lens cap on when I'm stationary.

 

And to Bob Ross: well done indeed.

 

Marco,

 

Personally, I cannot believe that. Look at the damage in the picture you have posted; look at the damage on the other picture... If it was heat from sun light (loupe effect), do you believe that it could happen to the other guy exactly in the same place? The sun rays should have concentrated exactly in the same point. I find that very improbable. Do you follow me?

 

My theory will be vibration on blades, making the higher blade crashing with the lower one (or the other way round). As blades are very thin, if both blades are vibrating, they could get caught one into the other at one point.

 

My 2 cents

Edited by ArtZ
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A short update and this is interesting: I went to the Dutch Leica rep (Camtech) and this guy took one look in the camera and told me that it was caused by heat ... from the sun shining for some time into the lens. Typical thing when I'm at some watering hole: table, camera close by, glass of white wine ...

 

So I'll pop the lens cap on when I'm stationary.

 

And to Bob Ross: well done indeed.

 

Well I can't believe it was heat alone. Heat, sun shinning through the lens for some time, then using the camera before the shutter blade cooled down and them either striking one another or striking the bottom of the camera where the blade disappear to when fired or on recocking.

 

I don't remember any warning in the manual about this.

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A short update and this is interesting: I went to the Dutch Leica rep (Camtech) and this guy took one look in the camera and told me that it was caused by heat ... from the sun shining for some time into the lens. Typical thing when I'm at some watering hole: table, camera close by, glass of white wine ...

 

So I'll pop the lens cap on when I'm stationary.

 

And to Bob Ross: well done indeed.

 

There should at the very least be some sort of heat damage on the blade adjacent to this one if heat was the cause. There is no mark whatsoever on the blade below.

 

Hmmmm well I guess what happened was that at the precise moment the sun's rays were about to start burning a totally asymmetric and jagged hole in the blade below the damaged one, you picked it up off the café table and popped the lens-cap on. Or not.

 

Sounds to me like the dealer is making this into your fault.

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And looking at the images again, I can't help thinking that there's a little nick in both images, in the blade above this one (and slightly offset - not sure how the blades travel?)

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There should at the very least be some sort of heat damage on the blade adjacent to this one if heat was the cause. There is no mark whatsoever on the blade below.

 

Hmmmm well I guess what happened was that at the precise moment the sun's rays were about to start burning a totally asymmetric and jagged hole in the blade below the damaged one, you picked it up off the café table and popped the lens-cap on. Or not.

 

Sounds to me like the dealer is making this into your fault.

This was not the dealer. This was an independent repair facility, contracting to the importer. If the expert calls this as soon as he sees it, well...

I do see some debris in both camera mouths. I find the idea of heat damage more believable in Marco's case. Of course, it is a fact that the edge of a sheet will succumb to heat sooner than some spot in the middle, but still, especially the second one looks like mechanical damage to me.

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I'm going to wait and see what Solms is going to say. Because with this damage it is certainly going back to Leica as Camtech (indeed an independent repair shop contracted by Leica) is not allowed / is not able to do this kind of repair.

 

Nice thing is that I'll be in Dillenburg august 14th, which is right around the corner from Solms. Already told the wife we were going to visit. I'll give Andrea a call monday august 10th to see what's what with my M8.

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