Announcement Published on Leica Website

[marknorton]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

While we know that no compensation can completely overcome this unfortunate inconvenience, we hope that you will allow us to mitigate the circumstances.

 

I'm wondering whether the 30% thing is a hoax - this statement from the "draft letter" is a little too apologetic, to the point of appearing to be BS.

[M'Ate]

This is dissapointing...

 

M8 going back into box and onto Ebay...........

 

Tim,

what is so disappointing ? Is it performance or money ?

 

My reaction to the release is positive. We have a clear statement from Leica (not before time) that defines their position and gives the camera a Leica Seal of Approval. It didn't meet their standards and now it does.

 

I'm not pleased about the need for 4 filters, and more so the cost of those, and the cost of coding, but at least I finally know Leica's contribution and can make my own decision.

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[larry]

Because I haven't yet received my M8, this solution works for me. I don't have a problem with using filters.

 

Larry

[chetccox]

I'm wondering whether the 30% thing is a hoax - this statement from the "draft letter" is a little too apologetic, to the point of appearing to be BS.

 

This draft letter was not a hoax. Perhaps they changed their minds overnight or perhaps the release today inadvertantly left it out. The letter came directly from Leica yesterday morning.

[osera]

Might there be a component of this that would come through the dealers? I mean, they may not want to cut their dealers out of the sale of a bunch of lenses, or other kinds of sales incentives. Just wondering.

[marknorton]

Maybe the dealers have thrown their toys out of the baby carriage at the loss of profit...

[rosuna]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

The problem is not in the filters. Leica will provide free filters in February of 2007, so we are forced to buy something meantime (a B+W filter).

 

The IR and White Balance issues make the M8 results unpredictable. The Leica M8 is supposed to be a working tool.

 

We, actual owners of a M8 and early adopters, will send our cameras to Solms for repair. That is the point. Leica calls it "upgrade", but it is "repair".

I can see the banding in ALL pictures with direct points of light at ISO 640 or above.

 

I hope Leica has planned an effective system por retrieving the cameras. If I send the camera to my dealer, he send it to the importer, the importer send it to Solms, Solms needs 10 days, and the same way back... I will lost my camera for one month.

[blovitch]

>>Tim,

>>what is so disappointing ? Is it performance or money ?

 

I have a camera that I am unable to use commercially at the moment (unable to locate 486 filters) and this is likely to continue until February at the earliest.

 

I have a number of social photography jobs booked (where I saw myself using the M8) and will have to use existing equipment in my inventory. Thus the M8 is at present redundant.

 

I enjoy using it, but it cannot be trusted to provide results I can sell. Hence my dissapointment.

[sean_reid]

I will try to get additional clarification from Leica regarding aspects that were not discussed in this statement.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

[osera]

If there are sales incentives from the factory but through the dealer, the dealer's profits might be, at least partially, preserved. If I were a dealer, which I am not, I wouldn't be real happy that some of my potential lens sales were now "directly from the factory." If I were a dealer, I might feel a bit caught in the middle of this, but would certainly be happier if I also received some benefit here.

[hammam]

In combination with the "old coding" that tells the camera which frame pair to display, it is three times 64.

 

Well, the "old" coding, ie the framelines, is already taken care of mechanically, isn't it? No need to program it. I guess the coding will help the in-camera image processing exploit the optical characteristics of different lenses, besides telling it the focal length and max aperture. Nothing to do with framelines in the VF.

[terrycioni]

I will try to get additional clarification from Leica regarding aspects that were not discussed in this statement.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

 

Sean, thank you for that. As has been pointed out, I suspect we could easily be without the camera for a month - and frankly there should be some sort of acknowledgement of that on the part of Leica, what form that takes I am not sure (I don't need any lenses). I can only hope in terms of logistics that they are paying for shipping.

 

I don't have a problem with the filters to correct the IR challenges of the engineering choices, but I am not happy about having to return the camera to Solms. Thank you for your dedication - I for one totally appreciate it.

 

Kind Regards. Terry.

[tashley]

I have seen both the draft letter to customers letter to dealers. They do offer a 30% discount, max $1000, and they also state that future firmaware updates will tackle the WB issue.

 

In the meantime the 6th Dec is the date from which the website will be able to take registrations for 'upgrade' (upgrade... oh really! LOL)

 

The free filters thing contains a useful wrinkle which I will not reveal until I have exploited it.

 

Sorry

 

Tim!

[Jamie Roberts]

Unacceptable.

 

Um, why?

[Jamie Roberts]

The problem is not in the filters. Leica will provide free filters in February of 2007, so we are forced to buy something meantime (a B+W filter).

 

The IR and White Balance issues make the M8 results unpredictable. The Leica M8 is supposed to be a working tool.

 

{snipped}

 

Uh, no, the WB is very predictable wrong unless you shoot RAW and use a WB workflow, or use custom WB with JPEGs.

 

You can't get around this everyone. No digital camera on earth nails mixed light WB or, really, even simple daylight ('cause it's not simple in actual fact).

 

The IR can be worked around. It really can. It's also very predictable; I know when I'm shooting what the problem will be, so I'd say that's the definition of predictable.

 

These are neither better or worse than the conditions imposed on my other digicams (like not shooting into the light with my 1d*2s, or I get highlight banding, or not turning full time continuous AF on the 5d, or I get banding).

 

Look, I'm sorry to say this, but the M8 is NOT a point and shoot. Go get the Leica / Panasonic 4/3 SLR camera (which, by the way is a joy to use) if you can't work with the images.

 

The M8's images really are the overall best I've seen to date, and while the IR thing has been handled incredibly badly, I'm truly glad they're going to fix the blobbing readout problems with a replacement.

 

That's the real final piece of the puzzle here: low light capability, which coupled with the detail in these files, will make this camera unparalleled for my work.

[albertwang]

Looks like now I am not as interested in the M8 with having to buy a screw on filter! I don't want too many stacked filters as expected... especially this will affect much of the workflow.

[davidada]

I am more concerned with the way Leica is handling professionals who need the camera for work, there really should be a hot swap program- this is very common in mission critical businesses. Leica needs to institute this as a basic courtesy to the customers who work with these cameras.

[sean_reid]

Sean, thank you for that. As has been pointed out, I suspect we could easily be without the camera for a month - and frankly there should be some sort of acknowledgement of that on the part of Leica, what form that takes I am not sure (I don't need any lenses). I can only hope in terms of logistics that they are paying for shipping.

 

I don't have a problem with the filters to correct the IR challenges of the engineering choices, but I am not happy about having to return the camera to Solms. Thank you for your dedication - I for one totally appreciate it.

 

Kind Regards. Terry.

 

Hi Terry,

 

Thanks. It's my understanding (and I need to be vague about this for now) that the public statement does not fully describe the actions Leica is taking, making available, etc.

 

More when I have something official.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

[j. borger]

A new camerabody sounds unrealistic to me ...... never got a new car either having a problem after i bought one.

Carry in service at Solms .. that would do the trick for me

 

30% Rebate on lenses would sound like a sales-trick to me because i need no new lenses ..... besides i bougt a lot of my lenses for less than factoryprice -/- 30% off!

 

I am happy with the solutions .... although there is nothing in it i did not anticipate!

 

Now let's all get out shooting and enjoying our M8's

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[sean_reid]

Ed wrote:

 

"Clearly to avoid cyan in the corners one needs to tell the camera which lens is mounted if the lens is a 35mm or shorter lens (we had the impression that the cut off was at 28mm, i.e. shorter than 28mm required coding, so this will effect more lenses)."

 

That's still an open question, hope to know more after today's tests.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean