Problem is that statistics are for liars and liars use statistics for their own purposes.
I am so disappointed with Leica over the shutter issue because I have never experienced nor ever heard serious complaints about such things from either Nikon or Canon. (and God knows they have their own issues on other concerns)
Shutters that simply self-destruct are a part of a failed design. These shutters, from my understanding, were the same as used in the R series of bodies so it isn't that Leica didn't know what they were dealing with. And consequently they have developed a shutter with less capability (i.e. 1/2000 second instead of 1/8000 of a second max speed!). That is fine with me, products need to evolve as issues are found and solved.
What rankles me is that Leica has not admitted to any problems whatsoever with the M8 shutters, in spite of the evidence. Stonewalling is not an exclusive sport for America.
So I will go with the strategy of having them replace the original shutter under the warranty. They should extend the warranty but apparently will not. So I will use it until it fails again (and if it doesn't God bless! LOL) and then I will pay the money and replace it with a shutter which apparently works. (and is quieter).
My faith in Leica is simply gone. I don't believe that they go about things any longer with the customers best interest in mind. Sad to say but true I believe.
I will continue to use my M8 until it or I expire!. I need the tool that it represents and will simply work around the many issues it creates. My investment in M lenses is such that I need a digital body to get back what I was inherently promised.
I may just buy Cindy's MP and go back to film but I doubt I can close on that as a single strategy. I may sell my M6 TTL's and buy her MP but I doubt I can go back to film only after being digital for over four years.
I love my Nikons (Both D300 and D3) and the wonderful Hasselblad H3DII-39 which is at the bleeding edge of the digital art.
The M8 occupies a very important niche in my photographic world. It is the ultimate travel companion as I can carry a small bag with two bodies and as many as five lenses and walk around Europe (fill in your own destination LOL) all day with little physical stress even at 71 years of age!
So please Leica, get your act together and produce a product which performs like a $5K body instead of a Point and Shoot from the Japanese.( Actually the P&S bodies are perhaps much more reliable than the $5K M8's! sorry to say). And when your products do fail, act accordingly; get these puppies turned around post haste and have your customers back in business and getting images which can be sold. Most of the folks here on GetDPI are not collectors whose cameras reside in bank vaults. We are shooters, whether professional or amateur, who have invested large sums of money in products that, at their price points, should perform admirably and reliably. Is this too much to ask.
Sorry guys and girls.........I am not a Leica apologist and will never become so. They run a business, not a boutique where all is forgiven in the name of Leica immortality.
This is the last I have to say about this and I wish I was not in a position whereby I feel I have to say it.
God bless great images........regardless of how captured and with what equipment. All I know is that I missed hundreds or thousands of shots because after one day my body was dead. I am confident that had I taken my D300 I would have captured all of those images and more. Next time that is exactly the kit I will carry.
Woody