[LRflex] Re: M8 Kaput!! O.T.

At 27/08/2007, you wrote:

Morning Flexers,
I am writing from cottage country in Ontario and am plenty grumpy. Last night, taking panorama pictures off the boat deck of a neighbour's cottage, my M8 stopped working. I got a message on the back which read "shutter error" and an "ERR" message in the view finder. It is now morning and the battery has been out of the camera over night and when I install it and turn on the camera I get the same messages. So, it has to go to Solms, I certainly won't have it for the rest of my Canadian trip and for God knows how long after I get back to Hong Kong. I feel a darkness coming over me - a foreboding of an experience like David had with his digital back - and I am not a happy camper this morning in Muskoka!! 
Howard (where it is also cold this morning)



Good Mornin' Howard!
Sorry to hear of your problem. A quick run through the various forums shows a small number of folks which have had this problem... sometimes coincidentally after upgrading the firmware, though many feel it is within the shutter and not firmware related. (You could, of course, try reloading the firmware, but I suspect, as most do, that it is a hardware fault.)
Most report returning the camera and receiving an new one, in exchange... although one does report reeving it back, repaired and in fine shape.
The pattern of failures in the M8 is quite different from other Leica's. Mechanical devices, such as all earlier Leica's, generally work fine, if they pass QC; although the eventually fail with use, shocks, etc.
Electronic devices (Blackberry's, stereo gear, M8's and, I presume, the coming R10, as well as other digital cameras) follow a different pattern. If there is a flaw in one of the chips or other electronic bits, it may well work perfectly, when it goes through Quality Control. However, that part is still defective, and will usually fail after only a small amount of use. 

With electronics, the rule of thumb is:

1 - if it makes it through QC, it will most likely last a week.
2 - if it lasts a week, it will most likely last a month.
3 - if it lasts a month, it will most likely last a year.
4 - if it lasts a year, it will most likely last 20+ years.
So, as you can see, most failures will occur within the first year, and most likely even earlier.
My customers would invariably bring back their equipment within the first 90 days, telling me "I could understand it, if it were a year or two old." But, with electronics, that's not how it works.
Proof of this is that, for the last 25 years of my 30 year run in that business, I offered a 7 year guarantee on the equipment I sold, without charge. That meant that at any given time, I had about 10 to 12 million dollars worth of gear under warranty. Of course most failures occurred within the first year, and were covered by the makers warranty. In any given year, it cost me, on average, less than $300 to fix the gear that failed under my warranty, but after the makers warranties had expired! (This is also why Consumer Reports does not recommend buying extended warranties on electronics!) 

Sadly, it seems your M8 made the month, but not the year.  :-(
However, as for Alex's suggestion of dunking the camera overboard ... well, my understanding is that the M8's are guaranteed for 1 year, and do not carry "Passport" protection. Thus, I would only consider this route if you have very good, all risk insurance! 

Please keep us informed as to how this plays out.

Good luck!

Cheers!
---

David Young,
Logan Lake, CANADA

Wildlife Photographs: http://www.telyt.com/
Personal Web-pages: http://www3.telus.net/~telyt
Stock Photography at: http://tinyurl.com/2amll4

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