[Leica] Re: LUG Digest, Vol 35, Issue 375

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

On Aug 30, 2007, at 11:51 AM, George wrote:

> Your second career "travel writer/photographer" would certainly allow
> you to "depreciate" your equipment; including a complete write off in
> the year that you purchase it; assuming that you file a schedule C as
> a self employed "writer/photographer."
>
> Also, I'm very curious as to how many of the off list nay sayers have
> owned and used the M8.

I try to deduct all my expenses but the IRS says that I have to make  
money three years out of every five - otherwise photography is a  
hobby. Springing for an M8 would kill my profits for this year. And,  
of course I would need a better computer, Photoshop CS3 or Lightroom,  
a much better ink jet printer, etc., etc. Since Moore's Law predicts  
that the price of digital electronic declines by half every 18  
months, maybe I'll wait until next year. Or perhaps I'll buy a used  
M8 exchanged for an M8.1 or M9. At a price of $2000 or less I could  
learn to live with the camera's peculiarities.

Most of my photography is done on or near salt water. One of the  
reasons for my reluctance to take Leicas aboard a boat is the high  
probability of damage from salt spray. I have done enough actual  
Leica repair (mostly on LTMs) to know that, whatever their other  
sterling qualities, Leicas are not internally corrosion resistant.  
Solms is not a coastal city and Oskar Barnack was a mountain hiker,  
not a sailor, so water sealing seems to be one of the things Leica  
left out. The Olympus camera line has good water sealing, and for  
really bad conditions I use an old Nikonos II. Even if I fall  
overboard, the camera will survive.

But your second point is most interesting. I havn't seen any hard  
statistics about the failure rate of M8s, or for that matter, the  
percentage of Leica owners that have purchased them. Until we get a  
handle on the actual failure rate, any comments pro or con are mere  
speculation. Combing through back postings of the LUG gives the  
impression that half of all references to the M8 are praises, the  
other half are complaints. Or maybe it is the just the same three or  
four users lauding the camera and another three or four bitching  
about it. Does anyone have any definitive information from Leica  
about the number of cameras that had to be returned, replaced, or  
repaired as a percentage of total sales? Any breakdown of failure  
modes? Bad shutters, logic board glitches, sensor problems, broken  
cases, etc?. A couple of the nay sayers were very specific aboout  
problems with their M8s - as for some of the others, I can't say.

Peace,

Larry Z