[Leica] M8 Shutter Fault, Help!

[hoppyman at bigpond.net.au (G Hopkinson)]

Tina, maybe you have already decided. I can imagine your frustration at the 
fault developing.
I am apparently a lone voice here, but...
As it is under warranty I would NOT attempt to fix it myself. Yes you might 
get lucky, but I ask you to consider the situation where
the Leica technician looks at your faulty shutter and can see that there has 
been mechanical contact. However unfair people may
consider that, they could refuse a warranty claim in this case. 
For example LFI reports M8's arriving for repair where the shutter closed 
during sensor cleaning. This is attributed to people using
'B' instead of the menu 'sensor clean' selection. Yes I understand that 
there is already mechanical damage to your shutter and you
may not make it worse..
Best of luck getting it resolved. I would be shooting with whatever else you 
packed until you get home.
Cheers
Geoff

-----Original Message-----
Subject: Re: [Leica] M8 Shutter Fault, Help!

Tina writes from India:

> My intrepid M8 locked up this morning while I was shooting photos 
> from a boat in southern India. No, I didn't drop it in the water!  I 
> was using the 75/1.4 lens and when I pressed the shutter button, 
> instead of going snkclk, the M8 just went snk and "Shutter Fault" 
> showed up on the screen.  When I removed the lens, I could see that 
> the bottom edge of the top blade of the shutter is stuck slightly 
> behind the top edge of the second blade.  It looks like I could just 
> flip the edge up and over and everything would be fine, but my 
> business manager insists that I write to the LUG for advice before I 
> touch anything inside the M8.  I'm used to making repairs on my film 
> M's but haven't attempted much inside the digital ones.  We have four 
> more days in India and I'd hate not to have my M8 for Mumbai.
> 
> Has anybody seen this fault and fixed it?  TIA for any advice.

Unfortunately: yes I have seen it, and no I did not fix it.

If memory serves (a sometime thing) that sounds *exactly* like what 
happened to my first M8 last May after around 30 days of ownership.  I 
remember discussing it with SonC and some others via email at the time 
(it of course happened on a weekend, but I was at a dog show in Shawnee 
Oklahoma, not half a world away) and I thought I had a photo of the hung 
up shutter but I can't now find it.  What happened, after some phone 
calls that Monday, I wound up shipping it to Leica NJ and they replaced it.

Now this is the hazy part:  I vaguely remember a later phone 
conversation with Robert Fisk (who was then in the service department, I 
understand he has since departed Leica) about whether I could have fixed 
it myself and he said 'no'.

Having said that, if I were in your situation I would give it a try 
anyway, as has previously been discussed.

Good luck!

--Bob


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