[LRflex] Re: DMR kaput
- From: "William B. Abbott III" <captbilly3@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2011 18:24:33 -0800
Ted,
Thanks for the thoughts, which I appreciate, and for which I thank you.
I take a little more relaxed attitude about this failure and I'd like to share
with you and our bunch a couple of experiences that shape that attitude.
I was once involved in moving some very complex electromechanical devices into
production at a Minneapolis-Honeywell plant and the manager said to me one day,
"I'll be happy when we get the (production) rate up so that we can get better
quality," meaning more units passing final inspection testing, i.e., increasing
the process yield. He went on to say that high production rates breed higher
quality because at higher production rates quality problems become so expensive
that adequate resources must be focused on finding the root causes of the
problem and fixing them, something that does not usually happen in low rate
production.
He offered as an example the simple, round, ubiquitous Honeywell home heating
thermostat which his company made by the thousands every day and which were
ultra reliable, albeit having a very few parts. He said it took many iterations
of the design of the thermostat, the machinery used to make it and the
materials that went into it to get the yield up to the very high level they
eventually achieved in production and high reliability in homes, where they
"never" failed or "ever" wore out.
I can believe that the low production rate of DMRs, and I am guessing it was
low because so few were made, may have had something to do my experience, since
mine is serial 137 of the maybe 2-3000 ever produced.
The other experience was with a similar device that suffered a failure in the
field out of the blue, a new failure mode that "should not" have happened.
Unbeknownst to the designers, quality assurance folks and the manufacturing
people, the magnetic property of a certain part decayed with time, which it
should not have done, and only after enough time had passed for this property
to decay to an unsatisfactory level did the failure occur, enabling us to find
the cause and fix it.
The cause was an improperly annealed batch of material used very early in the
production of that part. An assumption was made that there was no need to
verify the longevity of the property because similar materials had been used
many times in the past with no problems at all.
With that background, I am not particularly, surprised that some DMRs
experienced infant mortality failures when the whole population began to enter
the traditional, "normal" bathtub curve of failure rate, initially higher than
wanted, decreasing as the bugs are worked out, and finally rising to high
levels as the devices simply wear out. (The failure rate plotted against time
is the shape of a bathtub.)
Mother Nature has her ways and all camera manufacturers - C, F, L, H, K, N, O,
P, etc.- are subject to her whims and peculiarities. Leica has been very
successful at pushing that final inevitable rise in failure rate for their
mechanical products out to 30, 40, an even 50 years and that's quite an
achievement.
When I bought the DMR I was aware that it was a new, immature product, that it
would most likely have infant mortality failures, maybe higher than normal
(whatever that may be), and might have emerging reliability problems too. I
have 4882 dng pictures in my Lightroom catalog that were made with the R9 so I
am not too unhappy about it.
Lastly, being an engineer by education and training, it took me a long time to
realize that there are two things that every engineer must believe when he or
she pulls out a clean sheet of paper (even metaphorically) to begin to design
something new:
They have to believe that:
a) my design will work the first time it is tried, and
b) it will work forever.
Neither of these is true, and engineers know that too, but they have to believe
both or they'd never begin to design anything because no one would or could
design something to fail or to fall apart very soon.
So I think my DMR is just a little way past that first sheet of paper. And I
think the Leica engineers know that too.
All the best,
Bill
On Mar 2, 2011, at 2:55 PM, <tedgrant@xxxxxxx> <tedgrant@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> William B. Abbott III OFFERED:
> Subject: [LRflex] DMR kaput
>
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> My five-year old DMR, Serial Number 000137, purchased 24 January 2006,
>> began acting up a couple of days ago; none of the shutter release buttons
>> would release the shutter on my R9.
>>
>> The DMR display was alive and the settings wheel was functional but the
>> shutter would not functioned. The same situation occurred when the DMR was
>> mated to other R9s, so it is not clear what the problem may be.
>>
>> The DMR is on its way to New Jersey, it's third trip home.
>>
>> Wish me luck, what ever that turns out to be.
>
> Hi Bill,
> I don't care how wonderful the DMR is "WHEN WORKING?????" As soon as you get
> it back.... "FOR THE THIRD TIME!" Jeeeeeesh I can't believe that. 3 times?
> Given the cost in the first place? Give it a quick check that it actually
> is working and put it on E-bay and sell it! REAL QUICK! :-)
>
> Then with the money derived from that sale, buy yourself a "real digital
> camera" CANON, NIKON WHATEVER SUGGESTED! And adapters of a make that allow
> you to use your LEICA lenses. Then get out there and shoot yourself silly
> having fun instead of every-time you trip the shutter with a big question
> mark! "DID IT WORK?"
>
> I mean isn't there a "THREE TIMES AND YOU ARE OUT CLAUSE?" If not, there
> should be! No matter how good it maybe... the DMR? If I had bought one and
> gone through what seems many of you have? I'd have taken it back to Germany
> or Leica wherever? And shoved it into the CEO and every other person where
> the sun don't shine, but responsible for putting it on the market ! Then
> give it a very solid twist for maximum effect!
>
> And please guys and gals , please, please don't come back at me with
> sympathy and all the wimpy stories of why it ended up being a piece of crap!
> Rather than the beautiful LEICA products many of us have enjoyed for the
> past 60-80 years!
>
> And yes I did have one in hands and loved the feel without question! WHY?
> Because all my Leica SLR's during all the years were motor equipped. So the
> DMR fit in my hands like a well made custom pair of gloves! The only good
> thing I can say is......"I'm glad I didn't buy three (3) of them for my 3
> R8's!
>
> cheers,
> Dr. ted
>
>
>
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