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Took a dive with the M8, and then . . . the clock stopped.


Alberti

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Well, I fell in a mountain river, and the camera went down a 1-2 second period, as a reflex I brought it up,

then recollected:

Sander Hulsenbeek from Amsterdam who warns:

' When afraid your digital M-camera is getting too wet or damp, whip out the battery. Instantly!'

 

Well, for sure I was afraid. So I whipped out the battery within half a minute. The bottom plate was not soaking but indeed I saw a few drops in the battery compartment.

I dried the camera with a dry shirt (my wife's) and took off the lens (dry lens compartment), but I of course saw drops and mist in the viewfinder and framelines windows.

 

So, I decided to dry the whole up, had it standing alternatively heads up and heads down for 48 hours (a 2.000 m altitude and 20 degrees) , reinserted the battery, and yes: IT WORKED.

 

Still there was water in the LCD, this gave a funny 3-D viewing effect.

 

After 72 hours of drying the effect on the LCD was still not gone, decided to go out anyway, and during the day the last remnants dried up and the LCD went back to normal.

 

I noticed later the camera date/clock was stuck (to 10/09/09) and when I changed it with the menu, still it didn't work.

 

What might be the problem? Is there a battery for the date/time that has been short-circuited? Or would a 'reset to factory' help me out? :confused:

 

I do plan a visit to the Factory, but any cost goes against a M9 savings account anyway . . . and lacking date time stamps in the EXIF is a nuisance but - we never had that in the film time anyway.

 

Any help appreciated

alberti

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What I'm interested in if some have experienced 'post-water' slow degradation, i.e. corrosion, printed circuit slowly becoming a short circuit so to say.

I'm not willing to just replace the motherboard. The sensor was not touched in any way with water, the camera was not soaked, just humidified (mist, thus damp inside) from condense that later developed.

alberti

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What I'm interested in if some have experienced 'post-water' slow degradation, i.e. corrosion, printed circuit slowly becoming a short circuit so to say.

I'm not willing to just replace the motherboard. The sensor was not touched in any way with water, the camera was not soaked, just humidified (mist, thus damp inside) from condense that later developed.

alberti

 

I'd suggest getting it to Solms as soon as possible. My old D2x has a small battery for the 'internal' things like clock, camera settings, user profiles etc. It needs replacing every few years and keeps things ticking over when the main battery is removed or flat. I guess the M8 may be the same. I suspect there may be corrosion occurring even if the camera is working right now. Get it checked out or risk an even bigger bill later on.

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Don't worry! All M8 clocks stopped on 10/09/09 as an incentive to buy an M9 which was announced the day before. So, just buy an M9 and everything will be alright again. :)

 

Well, I don't really expect 'sales planning' like from Redwood, Washington. LOL.

Actually I was afraid the camera jumped at me to remind me of the 09/09/09 (ach nein!) press conference. (Or maybe there was some subliminal uneasiness on my side). ;)

 

alberti

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I'd suggest getting it to Solms as soon as possible. My old D2x has a small battery for the 'internal' things like clock, camera settings, user profiles etc. It needs replacing every few years and keeps things ticking over when the main battery is removed or flat. I guess the M8 may be the same. I suspect there may be corrosion occurring even if the camera is working right now. Get it checked out or risk an even bigger bill later on.

 

As regards checking: the advice, I'm afraid, will obviously that to be on the 'safe' side is to replace all electronics, isn't it? [As a consultant i know how to trust others . . .] Well, that will land me a bill like the price of 50% of the M9, and that just for a lacking date time.

 

  • Is there evidence of a time bomb?

  • Any scary stories from Sander, anyone? On slow deterioration?

 

alberti

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Is there evidence of a time bomb?

  • Any scary stories from Sander, anyone? On slow deterioration?

alberti

 

There was one member that had his M8 fail while he was in Green or Ice land and when it was sent in to Leica they said it had previous water damage that corroded some of the contacts and boards in the camera. The bill was not small.

That member swears it had never been subjected to any water before the incident in Ice/Greenland.

 

If it was my camera and out of warranty I'd take it apart myself and try to dry it out the best I could, leaving it open to the dry air in my house for several days. Then if it failed sometime in the future I'd just right it off, in my mind that is, and look for either a used M8 or M9.

 

The bad part about sending anything to Leica is they either fix everything that is wrong or fix nothing.

 

I personally don't thing it is the internal battery because that battery only does work, to keep the settings the same as you set them, when there is no main/removable battery in the camera. And the fact the M8 really never fully turns off. The on off switch switches the camera from a deep sleep state, OFF, to a fully on state, ON. That is why if the camera hangs you can't turn it off and you must remove the battery to reset it.

The only way to fully turn the camera off is to remove the main battery.

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this exactly what happened to my Canon 5D, I was crossing a river stepping on some rocks and logs and slipped and the camera just went into the water. By the time I got to my feet, it would have been 3-4 seconds. There was water in the LCD, the lens, battery compartment, etc. I left the camera on the PC for some small heating for about a week and till now it's still working and that was more than a year ago. phew!

 

Luckily Canon didn't have a clue as to the release of the 5DMkII at that time so I didn't have a problem with the date :rolleyes:

 

Well, keep us posted

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There was one member that had his M8 fail while he was in Green or Ice land and when it was sent in to Leica they said it had previous water damage that corroded some of the contacts and boards in the camera. The bill was not small.

That member swears it had never been subjected to any water before the incident in Ice/Greenland.

 

If it was my camera and out of warranty I'd take it apart myself and try to dry it out the best I could, leaving it open to the dry air in my house for several days. Then if it failed sometime in the future I'd just right it off, in my mind that is, and look for either a used M8 or M9.

 

The bad part about sending anything to Leica is they either fix everything that is wrong or fix nothing.

 

I personally don't thing it is the internal battery because that battery only does work, to keep the settings the same as you set them, when there is no main/removable battery in the camera. And the fact the M8 really never fully turns off. The on off switch switches the camera from a deep sleep state, OFF, to a fully on state, ON. That is why if the camera hangs you can't turn it off and you must remove the battery to reset it.

The only way to fully turn the camera off is to remove the main battery.

 

Shootist, when I started the camera again, then all my settings were still there. This implies that on-board memory still worked. Just . . . the clock stopped ticking.

 

Anyway, I do plan to give my camera a visit to Solms within a fortnight.

alberti

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Alberti,

 

Just in case there is a small piece of code that's crashed, and needs re-booting, or a component of the clock needs re-starting, have you tried removing the main battery and leaving the camera switched on for a day or so to drain the internal battery? Sometimes this can resolve 'strange' effects, and might be worth a try. :)

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  • 1 month later...

Well, having the M8 standing open for several days did dry up the camera. And because it was able to take good pictures, I already was sort of smiling again.

Apart from that nasty thing: the clock didn't show in the EXIF. . .

 

So I sent the camera off to Solms, where they did indeed discover some corrosion and oxidation on connectors. As the repair staff noted the camera needed adjustment too. That was reasonable to me, because water had entered the top compartment (where many of the intricate moving parts are).

 

As a standard procedure the camera was cleaned, the sensor and rangefinder adjusted and also the faulty components replaced.

Thought it took a bit longer than I hoped, the result is very much above my expectations.

And budgetwise - it didn't clear my M9 savingsaccount I opened on 08/08/08 ;).

 

All in all I'm a very happy customer! From now on though I will be more prudent with the camera in humid situations (like not have it hanging outside of my coat when there is even the smallest of a drizzle or snow flakes - my old M2 didn't care about such a treatment, so I had continued that habit).

alberti

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One curious question - how did they 'adjust' the sensor? Do you mean Solms pixel mapped it? Thanks. -Norm

 

 

...As a standard procedure the camera was cleaned, the sensor and rangefinder adjusted and also the faulty components replaced.

alberti

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One curious question - how did they 'adjust' the sensor? Do you mean Solms pixel mapped it? Thanks. -Norm

Hi Norm,

Adjustment is adapting the register distance from the flange, I assume. They obviously take a test picture in the service lab. I didn't ask why the service engineers came up with this treatment, just like I wouldn't ask a surgeon why he would have cut here or there :o ; I wouldn't know by the way what pixel mapping is.

The cleaning of the sensor they did is much and much better than what I achieve, I had gotten an bit of smears that would show up in dark areas of a negative at times - and now that is gone.

Anyway the camera is now like new, one year warranty in the bundle.

I must restate: I am very happy.

alberti.

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One thing actually surprizes me, Dear Friends.

We write, give tips about tons of Luigi cases, small bags, big bags, backpacks carry on things.

But the most evident thing, ie at least a plastic bag around the holy gral is never mentioned.

I mean, if I went offroading with my Defender - Iceland for instance, - than we did every pre-caution before getting out of the car in sandstorm, or do not even mention fording glacier or other water.

It should be much more important than to pay a horrendous sum for a fancy Leica bag.

Man should calculate the "what if..." factor when the camera is used outdoor.

Sorry that your camera was drained.

My Lecia Digilux 2 was drained during Tsunami, when I fell into the water, and it became completeley stone dead after that flush.

3: I do not really agree with some of you regarding the "bad Leica Service". According to me they are excellent, reasonable fast, and very service minded.

Regards

zsolt

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One thing actually surprizes me, Dear Friends.

We write, give tips about tons of Luigi cases, small bags, big bags, backpacks carry on things.

But the most evident thing, ie at least a plastic bag around the holy gral is never mentioned.

I mean, if I went offroading with my Defender - Iceland for instance, - than we did every pre-caution before getting out of the car in sandstorm, or do not even mention fording glacier or other water.

It should be much more important than to pay a horrendous sum for a fancy Leica bag.

Man should calculate the "what if..." factor when the camera is used outdoor.

Sorry that your camera was drained.

My Lecia Digilux 2 was drained during Tsunami, when I fell into the water, and it became completeley stone dead after that flush.

3: I do not really agree with some of you regarding the "bad Leica Service". According to me they are excellent, reasonable fast, and very service minded.

Regards

zsolt

The use of a plastic bag is interesting. A plastic case with just the viewfinder parts open and a lens hole!

But I did use my M8 when I in the mountains, also when I was in a blizzard (very interesting scenes), and yes, after that did go in a restaurant (the cold body absorbing the condense in the air), even though I packed in my sweater.

I agree this can be seen as a sloppy habit.

 

From the S2 design documents we can see the meticolous attention paid to the lenses and body to make it water proof. In a futre M10 there culd be some attention paid to that too. For instance, when you look at the RF cut-outs, you can see the way it is fitted, this packing could as well done be with a silicone ring.

Everyone faces temperature shocks with the camera, now and then. I do have an Original Benser M-case (even two) but these do not stop a cold body from tracting moist completely, as long as we also want to take a picture.

 

Anyway, first point is my high regard for Leica service! Kudos!

alberti

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