Leica HALTS sales of the new TL2..Here is their statement as to why
I have TWO Leica TL2 cameras here. A black and silver. One of them has an EVF issue, one does not. It appears there are widespread issues with the EVF/Visoflex where it is rendered useless. Will not activate. So here is what Leica says they are doing about it.
“We have identified the cause of the failure when using the TL2 in combination with the electronic viewfinder (Visoflex). It is very likely that this can be resolved with a firmware update. In order to avoid any and all risks, the new firmware will be tested intensively. As soon as the tests have been completed successfully, we will inform you accordingly.”
I have been using the TL2 and am taking it to the Grand Canyon for the weekend and my review will be up soon. I also have the entire range of TL lenses here, and have been testing them a bit on the TL2 and SL. ; ) Leica says if you bought a TL2 to contact your dealer for an exchange. All sales of the TL2 have been stopped/halted until Leica fixes this issue.
This reminds me of the experience I had several years ago when I purchased my first Leica camera, a digital M8. Of course, I was seduced by all the hype about legacy, quality and overall Leica reputation. At $6500 then, the purchase was not cheap and I couldn’t afford another $3000 for a good Leica lens. So I purchased a 50mm M mount Voightlander lens to go with it. I enjoyed about two months of photographing, always feeling a bit embarrassed that a ‘real’ Leica owner would see me and offer a tsk, tsk, that I was profaning my camera with an inferior lens. Then, one morning, the whole camera stopped working. It would not turn on. It was a sudden total crash, which almost gave me a heart attack. I called the Leica dealer in New York, who rather than exchange it, told me to send in to Leica for repair. This, I did. Leica took almost 6 months to repair the camera, having to send it back to Germany. When I got it back, I was so afraid that the same thing would happen again, that I sold it and bought a Nikon.
I relate this incident because I believe that Leica has had problems with both design flaw and quality control that should not exist in a manufacturer with such a highly professed reputation. I have used Japanese cameras from Pentax, to Canon and Nikon during a photographing career of over 50 years and have never had a failure to perform from any of them. The older film Leica M’s were things of beauty and quality. I wonder if Leica may not have lost a bit of its old way in the transformation to digital imaging.
Had the same problem with the original Leica T. EVF black out. Traded it in, and bought a Pen F.
Look at the bright side- Maybe this will prompt Leica to start using built-in EVF’s on more cameras 😉
Mine works great with visoflex… glad there is no issue with this one… Everything else about the camera is very user-friendly.. I feel this is a perfect ‘little brother’ to the SL which I adopted as my go-to camera for professional assignments after the very first use. Both cameras are easily adapted to my way of photographic thinking and make me very comfortable when using in current photographic sessions….
aside from the great images, everyone marvels at the good looks of both cameras.
Stuart
Funny as I was just using both the TL2 and SL and found them to be a nice team.