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M8 announcements

Steen

Senior Subscriber Member
In all I think this is a great deal. If I understand it correctly, the camera will be continually upgraded as upgrades become available, not just the sapphire screen and the shutter. I would expect that if a new sensor becomes available we'll get that as well.
Without paying a new amount of money ?
In that case the offer sounds interesting.
 
S

Sean_Reid

Guest
Oops, "purchasing the upgrade certificate" sound like words chosen carefully, making it clear that you are purchasing something concrete, the "certificate," and not just signing up for a place in line. I guess they are factoring the 3+ month loan into their business case this time.

scott
That's right, one buys a certificate and yes, it is a nice way to bring in money in advance.

Cheers,

Sean
 
P

PaulMayeux

Guest
Without paying a new amount of money ?
In that case the offer sounds interesting.

That is the way I understand it. Starting in March, x amount of money buys a certificate for perpetual upgrades to the camera, the first of which is the new shutter, lcd screen and firmware etc. Perpetual, as I understand, means that as future improvements are made, one simple sends the camera in and it is taken care of under that certificate that was purchased.

Do others concur?
 

scott kirkpatrick

Well-known member
That is the way I understand it. Starting in March, x amount of money buys a certificate for perpetual upgrades to the camera, the first of which is the new shutter, lcd screen and firmware etc. Perpetual, as I understand, means that as future improvements are made, one simple sends the camera in and it is taken care of under that certificate that was purchased.

Do others concur?
That sounds too good to be true to me. I'm expecting that one "certificate" buys just one upgrade.

scott
 

jonoslack

Active member
That is the way I understand it. Starting in March, x amount of money buys a certificate for perpetual upgrades to the camera, the first of which is the new shutter, lcd screen and firmware etc. Perpetual, as I understand, means that as future improvements are made, one simple sends the camera in and it is taken care of under that certificate that was purchased.

Do others concur?
Not a chance
Nice idea, but why would they do that? especially when they talk of sensor and processor updates.
 

LJL

New member
Not a chance
Nice idea, but why would they do that? especially when they talk of sensor and processor updates.
I concur with Jono on this. This recent deal from Leica is essentially "Option 1" upgrade, and includes a specific set of things (shutter, LCD cover, CLA, warranty extension). That costs the price they are talking about (1200 euros). If/when there is an "Option 2" upgrade package, it will have whatever is going to be done for that package, and will have its own price. A sensor and electronics swap is going to cost something at whenever time that is offered.

The idea of "pay once for unlimited upgrades" is nice, but not a practical business idea, especially when you have no idea of what future updates and costs for those may be.

LJ
 

LJL

New member
Guy,
What would be an interesting question to ask is if Leica is also considering some sort of discounting on future option updates. By that I mean if you take Option 1 now, will you get some break on a later option over the then going price? Also, what about a "bundling" concept? Say you do not take this option right now, but there is an option a year from now that involves a sensor and electronics swap. At that time, since the camera would have to be disassembled/opened, would opting for old and new options at one time cost a bit less than doing one now and another one later? I realize they may not know what costs things will be yet, but this goes back to my "roadmap" concept.....if there is some sort of known set of things to update and a plan for rolling those out, it would really be helpful. One might wait for the second round, pay some bundled price and get everything done at once for less than doing two separate updates.

This sort of thing would sound very attractive, and it might insure a longevity that folks are looking for at something more affordable. This really would support any used camera market quite well.

LJ
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
That is the way i see it also but i will check to make sure. I want sensor and electronic frame lines and i would be happy. Actually very happy i won't have to sell one and buy another , that parts stinks
 

Terry

New member
I concur with Jono and LJ on this as well. The price of €1200 is for these items. Each time there is an upgrade, it has a price. The other makes no economic sense for the company. Essentially, they would be upgrading a camera forever at a fraction of the cost of a new body. One thing I've learned on my short Leica journey is nothing comes cheap and that would be a steal.
 

LJL

New member
I made some updates to my follow-on post question about "bundling" and the "roadmap". While Leica may not yet know future plans and costs, they could take some seriously big customer loyalty steps now to help folks think through some of this. They are essentially asking for our money in a month or two, then we wait for 4-6 months for the actual work. In the meantime, there may be several new developments that could be rolled out as new options, like the sensor and framelines stuff. If we have to pony up full-fare again, folks are going to start wondering about the true value over time, regardless if they introduce another model or not. Worth thinking about.

LJ
 

LJL

New member
it would also be nice if they reset the 2yr warranty each time they do an upgrade.
I am sort of naively thinking that this, CLA and firmware update will always be a part of any future option, but it is an excellent point to raise with them.

LJ
 

Maggie O

Active member
I'm guessing that if new hardware is installed, then it will require new firmware and as such, it'll have to be installed, otherwise, you've got a expensive brick.
 
S

Sean_Reid

Guest
it would also be nice if they reset the 2yr warranty each time they do an upgrade.
That might end up being the case.

1200 Euro is the price for that specific upgrade package only. I think the logic is that, over time, the cost of upgrading the camera is less than the usual costs we face when buying a whole new camera.

Cheers,

Sean
 

Jan Brittenson

Senior Subscriber Member
if I had to replace it myself, it would have been about $200-300, and that would include a complete CLA, firmware update if available and return shipping. That is a huge difference from $1,800 for nearly the same sort of thing, but admittedly on a very different camera.
I agree, it's purely value priced and has no correlation to cost. That makes it a good product in line with Leica's typical business. If the shutter is really as quiet as a cloth shutter then it's a significant improvement over the competition. As usual, you can get something very good by buying Canon (or any other mass market brand), but if you want something better you have to pony up for it. No different from Leica lenses.

I'm not sure I'll buy the upgrade. Perhaps what I'll do instead is eventually get a second body with this upgrade pre-installed. (Assuming that will be a possibility.)
 

Jan Brittenson

Senior Subscriber Member
Oops, "purchasing the upgrade certificate" sound like words chosen carefully, making it clear that you are purchasing something concrete, the "certificate," and not just signing up for a place in line. I guess they are factoring the 3+ month loan into their business case this time.
Yeah, they've learned a new trick! Instead of sending your camera in with payment and waiting 12 weeks to get it back, you buy a place in line and they'll tell you when to send it in as you approach the front of the queue. Like it should be done. If they actually do this right, the 4-week time estimate is probably a worst-case estimate with some safety margin built in for them to straighten out any kinks in the process. I'd suspect that the camera will turn around in a lot less than this, at least once they've been running the process a little bit.
 
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