Amazingly, the people on the LUG who had faulty M8 bodies made excuses for the camera (as in "I have no problem as long as I remove and replace the battery before every shot", or "Mine sometimes requires turning off and on a dozen times before the shutter will work."). The pro photographers on the LUG got great service. The amateur photographers are treated as nobodies. I had no difficulty finding others with bad M8 samples. I googled the words "M8 shutter fault" when my first body crapped out, and got numerous hits. When the second one had memory card problems, I had no trouble finding the "fix", i.e., remove and replace the battery before every shot.
Some of those who claim to never have had a problem are the same ones to say that when their M8/M9 died, the customer service was wonderful. How would they know that unless they had to return it. I have never had a Pentax that died on me, and I have had five Pentax film cameras and now five Pentax digital cameras. And if a Pentax had died, it would not be something that kept me awake at night for weeks at a time. There is no worse feeling than paying off a $4,000 debt on a Visa for a non-functioning camera that is sitting in a drawer. Jeffery On May 18, 2010, at 9:31 AM, Tom C wrote: > Makes Pentax sound wonderful by comparison. But surely the problem > was not limited to Jeffrey's camera, so there's somewhat of a > disconnect for me. Wouldn't just about every (or certainly many) Leica > owner(s) that paid $6K for their tool be up in arms? > > On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 10:17 AM, Bob Sullivan <rf.sulli...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Jeffery, >> Well thats a word or two to the wise... >> Saves me a lot of money. >> Regards, Bob S. >> >> On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 9:09 AM, Jeffery Smith <jsmith...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> I got flamed on the Leica Users Group forum for mentioning this, but my >>> M8's were anything but reliable. My first one died after about a week, and >>> Leica ignored all of my phone calls and emails until I finally contacted >>> the president of the company personally. If you aren't a professional >>> photographer, you can forget about customer service from Leica. You don't >>> exist. The second M8 body would not recognize any of the memory cards I >>> used. Leica blamed the memory cards and refused to repair or replace the >>> camera. I bought every different brand of memory card listed as compatible >>> on Leica's site, and all gave me a "no memory card" error until I removed >>> the battery, waited a few minutes, and then reinserted the battery (which >>> apparently rebooted the camera). I had to repeat this every time I wanted >>> to shoot a frame. Once the camera was turned off or turned itself off, the >>> no memory card error reappeared. Until a new firmware upgrade appeared >>> last year, the M8 just sat in a drawer. The firmware upgrade seems to have >>> fixed the memory card problem. >>> >>> Pro photographers and photographers wealthy enough to afford an attorney >>> get good service from Leica USA. Grunts like myself (a teacher) aren't >>> given the time of day. I have refrained from mentioning my problems on the >>> LUG except when a pro photographer posts a message saying that Leica >>> customer service is absolutely the best. I then mention the problems I had >>> and get my ass flamed as a heretic. I finally unsubscribed from the LUG as >>> it became less and less a forum about photography. The die hard >>> photojournalist types on the LUG now post incessant photos of their dog, >>> their flowers, or buildings. >>> >>> Leica film rangefinders are great, and reliable. Leica doesn't seem to know >>> anything whatsoever about digital cameras. If you want a digital camera >>> with a Leica lens, buy a Panasonic! They are great! If you can live with >>> only wide angle to normal lenses, the GF1 is a wonderful little camera. >>> >>> Jeffery >>> >>> >>> >>> On May 18, 2010, at 8:22 AM, Godfrey DiGiorgi wrote: >>> >>>> I worked with Leica RF cameras on and off from 1969 to 2002. I'd enjoy >>>> an M4-P again, but I know I'd never work with film enough again to >>>> warrant the expense. I'd enjoy an M8 or M9 now. >>>> >>>> Have fun with it. Although it's expensive, it's just a camera ... a >>>> darn good one with a great lens. >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Godfrey >>>> godfreydigiorgi.posterous.com >>>> >>>> -- >>>> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >>>> PDML@pdml.net >>>> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >>>> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >>>> follow the directions. >>> >>> >>> -- >>> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >>> PDML@pdml.net >>> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >>> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >>> follow the directions. >>> >> >> -- >> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >> PDML@pdml.net >> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >> follow the directions. >> > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
