Godfrey likes Leica. Hooray! :clap: Godfrey wants the company to succeed and be profitable. WaHoo! :salute:
So do I :thumbs:
To succeed as an admittedly high-end, ultra-premium priced imaging company in the digital age, they have to employ "high touch" customer relations to foster loyalty and long term health. From the reaction to this announcement (following a similar one regarding the S-lens AF issue), Leica seems to at best be partially absolving themselves of responsibility for known engineering and/or R&D testing faults ... and it seems this is NOT going over well with the faithful.
If, as Godfrey speculates, a majority of M9/ME/M9-MM sensors have been fixed (which I do not believe for a minute), then what actuarial exposure would the company really have to absorb?
No sir, I believe they are doing this because there ARE many cameras that have not been fixed since the permanent sensor was developed. I bought my MM in late 2012 and it showed signs of corrosion early 2017. I other words it took well over 4 years to manifest itself. I have inside info that it is NOT a matter of when a M9/MM sensor fails, it is when.
Similarly, the limits to fixing the S AF issue was announced shortly after the permanent replacement was announced. Virtually every S and CS lens made since the S system shipped is vulnerable to AF failure sooner or later ... not IF, but WHEN.
We can look at these facts from different perspectives:
1) We want Leica to do well, and find it reasonable that they are limiting their financial exposure.
2) We do not find it reasonable that a MM originally costing $8,000, and S/CS lenses that cost upwards of $7,500+, have built-in limits to their life and usefulness. Like it or not, when people buy Leica, there are certain expectations built from previous experience, plus their elitist brand positioning and marketing of the brand.
Like Godfrey, I find the value of any gear purchase (be it camera, lens, strobe, etc.) to be in its usage, not as an investment in anything other than my own making photographs professionally or privately.
My selection of the M Monochrome and Leica S System was based on those ideals. With-in reason, I don't care if the stuff depreciates ... as long as, with proper use and maintenance, it works.
Unfortunately, Leica will skate on this because they can't make M10s fast enough, and apparently the SL and lens set seems to be doing well. IMO, their financial heath is not threatened by the promised good-faith coverage that they should be offering on their previous products given the egregious failures associated with them. Most take such promises on their face value, and do not run to a lawyer to interpret the "weasel wording".
I'm okay since my MM has the new sensor ... and I'll deal with the S AF issues as they manifest themselves. The MM results are unique to my eye, ditto my S(006) and S lenses. I was considering a M10 but need to reserve the gear budget to fix Leica's mistakes.
My sympathy is with the owners not the company because to let this go means it is acceptable in future ... hope the M10 doesn't have some latent issue, or that some lens issue doesn't crop up on the SL three or four years into its life.
- Marc