[Leica] New M(240 firmware - 2/0.2.5)

[Dante Stella]

Lots of reasons.

1.	Shutter count is meaningless because shutters are rated in terms of *mean* time between failures. Shutters do not self-destruct at 150K frames, and some fail at 20K. Arithmetic means could be what they are simply because half fail at 10K and half fail at 290K. In addition, people tend to see it as a warranty claim when a camera rated at MTBF 150K frames does not make it to that number. In fact, Fuji, which was the first company to put shot counters on film cameras (or any camera), admitted through their U.S. operation that the counters on their film cameras didn't correspond to any mandatory maintenance.

2.	Leica is in the business of selling certified pre-owned equipment, and shot counts impact that business (as they would any private seller).The essence of CPO is that if it fails in its 2-year period, they fix it, and it doesn’t matter whether the camera had one exposure on it or one million. The encrypted number might inform decisions they make about what cameras they would CPO and when to replace a camera. Or serve as data points in computing warranty costs.

3.	Leica is not interested in gutting its own secondary market because retained value is a big part of brand perception in luxury goods. Contrast non-luxury brand Fuji, which now makes shot counts available at the top level of their menus (see: X100T), presumably so that when they slash prices on new goods, as seems to happen every 6 months, you’ll just go for new ones instead of used ones.

4.	In terms of buyers from private sellers, Leica probably doesn’t care about how secure such buyers feel about buying a used camera for professional (or mission-critical) use. If you’re worried about wear and tear, and CPO isn’t enough to assuage those fears, there is new equipment. I’m sure they perceive that if someone if going to use a camera like this professionally, they will buy it new and write off the depreciation.

Dante

> On Jul 8, 2015, at 5:50 PM, Frank Filippone <red735i at verizon.net> wrote:
> 
> To date, the shot counter in the M240 has been "encrypted" and no one has
> broken the algorithm yet.
> 
> I forgot when I first asked the question....
> 
> I wonder why Leica did that?
> 
> Frank Filippone
> Red735i at verizon.net
> 
> 
> 
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