Re: [Leica] Re: Re: millions of faulty R8's

[Jeff S <4season@boulder.net>]

Miro Jurcevic wrote:
> 
> I have personally handled no less than 6 used R8 bodies in Sydney and
> Melbourne in the past month, mostly making an effort to shop for a body once
> a week. Most of the R8's were in the danger zone of serial numbers (batch
> one) and some were far too expensive (more than 1,800 USD) and only one was
> OK on both, so now I am waiting for the guy to find the box and manuals
> ....... it has a blue viewfinder (batch 2) and it is USD $980. That was in
> Sydney.

Miro, that's a terrific price for an R8, manual or no! I trust you
didn't leave the store empty-handed.

Some electronics do benefit from being periodically energized lest the
tantalum and aluminum electrolytic capacitors deform, and the circuit
may perform erratically for awhile but generally the condition will
right itself if the caps kept charged up for awhile (hmm-how to do that
with meters which power themselves down after a few seconds...I have
visions of Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions involving <a
href="http://www.edmundscientific.com/Products/DisplayProduct.cfm?productid=953">novelty
drinking birds</a> which keep tapping on the shutter release). Now I'm
not saying this is the problem with those Leica Rs, but something of the
sort might be worth a try if you're otherwise facing a $300 repair and
in any event, NOS replacement electronics are likely to have the same
problems due to disuse. I used to also have some problems with the
pressure-fit contact strips for LCD displays (Fluke multimeters, Gossen
light meters) but not so much these days.

On the R8 sans motor, I'd be inclined to apply black tape, but not to
the logo, but rather, to protect the drive contacts underneath from
static discharge and contamination. Overkill? Probably, but I've been
known to get the cameras wet and the static electricity can be fairly
spectacular in these parts.

Jeff Segawa
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