In 2026, the Leica M8 turns 20 years old. Then if we go beyond that, there’s the Leica R8 — which is now 30 years old. Being a Leica customer for a while now, I was curious to know about how the brand still services these cameras. For what it’s worth, our Leica reps told me that the M8 can be serviced, but the screen and bottom plates cannot be replaced. At first, you’d probably scoff at that idea. But then you realize that M8 is a 20 year old camera and that no other camera manufacturer is doing this.
The camera industry, for years, has scoffed at Leica’s prices for delivering a bit low on the technology but charging a luxury price tag. But more recently, Sony and Canon’s prices have nearly edged on Leica’s. While Sony packs in features like 120 frames a second and global shutter, they’re surely offering photographers a lot of features that many don’t even use. Within a few years, the brand will stop servicing the camera and tell photographers that they need to upgrade or get support instead.
But not Leica.
20 years ago, photographers didn’t even have the Sony a900, Nikon D700, or the Canon 5D Mk II. Those would come just a bit later. Today, those brands won’t service those devices at all.
In a recent conversation with the Phoblographer’s Nikon rep, I was told that the older film cameras can’t be maintained because they can’t make the parts anymore. But after searching about on Nikon’s website, I saw that they’re still very capable of making them. It ultimately led me to believe that these answers are just deflections to tell people to surrender their money to capitalism instead of the right to repair.
Today, Leica can still fully repair a 1985 Leica M6. But it gets even crazier than that. “Leica can repair cameras as far back as 1954 (Leica M3), as well as Leica cameras from before the M mount days (screw mount systems),” states our Leica rep in an email. “Similar to what I shared previously regarding the Leica M8, not every part of these cameras can be completely rebuilt from scratch, which is why we always recommend having the camera checked before we provide a quote to the customer. Depending on the exact challenge of the cameras, service may be limited.” Obviously, Leica doesn’t have the 3D printing capabilities that Canon, Nikon, or Sony do — or at least I can’t find any reference to them.
Here’s where I’m going with this: none of the actual camera tech to make photographs has really improved or changed all that much in the past 10 years. We’re still using 24MP and 45MP full-frame sensors. The screens haven’t changed. And all this AI and scene detection stuff is all processor based. Why can’t we just repair the good cameras that have served us so well?
More directly to the point, why can’t the brands assist with it?
With Leica, I’m buying the closest thing to a buy-it-for-life product that I can get my hands on in the digital world. In 2026, iPods still work. My Game Boy Color still works. We used to build devices that last instead of being disposable. A Leica is so expensive because you’re paying for that right to keep using the same camera that you’ve been using for years to only pay a relatively small fee to make it work again if something happens.
This, to me, isn’t akin to being a Luddite. It’s akin to fighting the enshitification of cameras. Canon took multiple exposure RAW out of their recent cameras. Sony took away their app store that super-powered the cameras they made and added some really innovative things. Nikon’s flash system is a joke compared to what it used to be. The products keep getting worse while we’re all just blinded by all these new features because they’re convincing influencers to influence you.