I thought I'd share a human interest story in this technical discussion group.

I am new to the Leica format (being a Nikon F2AS & FE person) and luckily took advantage of the Leica Day Special (10% discount) and the $200 rebates to get a M6 0.72 TTL, 35mm Summicron-M f2.0 Asph, and a 50mm Summicron-M f2.0 Happy Holidays to myself! I had worked hard this year and decided to go for it.

Then came the delivery via UPS.

So far I'm batting 0.333 which is great in baseball but not for Leica's.

My M6TTL was the only thing that I would consider perfect. A true joy to use. So far I've managed to drain the battery once and shot a few frames with the lens hood on, but I enjoy the camera immensely.

The 35mm came with a crooked lens hood, so I eventually wrote to Leica via their website, and they offered to fix it in New Jersey if I sent it to them. After a lot of hemming and hawing I decided to live with it since it is only 1mm off and I didn't want anyone messing with it, and because it "won't affect the image quality" (with German accent). The gentleman was right, the images are so crisp and clear.

The 50mm had a 5mm white hair (looked like a carpet hair) one-third of the way to the center, right in the area where the light rays would hit the negative, an obvious flaw that a blind monkey like me could detect. The dealer spotted it in 0.08 seconds. They didn't have a replacement in stock and offered me a back order, or anything else with the Leica Day discount plus the $200 rebate. They did mention that Leica's quality had dropped a bit, but when ok, their stuff was still the best.

I thought the 50mm was too close to the 35mm and decided to buy a 90mm Summicron-M f2.0 APO Asph, but the wise dealer asked me to consider the 90mm Elmar-M f2.8 instead. And he was right. I had studied up the 2.8 on this website and thanks to all your astute comments decided it was the lens for me. I want to flatter women in their portraits and not reveal their every minute facial feature. And I'd have $1,000 in my pocket for the 50mm to be had later. Once again, I examined the lenses that they took out of the box and they both had minute scratches on the glass close to the outer perimeter of the lens. I know it won't be anywhere near the area of the image, but I wanted a perfect lens. I told them I didn't want anything and got my refund. At that point I was so frustrated that I was ready to return everything with the Leica name on it.

On Monday I called them and said I wanted the 2.8, so now I wait for a backordered 90mm f2.8 The dealer was so understanding, I guess he's used to dealing with yo-yo's. I'm happy I'm getting the Leica Day discount and the $200 rebate.

In spite of everything, I stand by the Leica products. I am willing to put up with all that I went through because in the end the quality of the images is astounding and worth the means to get it. The joys and frustrations of Leica ownership. Is it just me?

-- Sikaan (Sikaan4@aol.com), January 11, 2002

Answers

Welcome to the wacky world of Leicas. I wonder if some of the stuff you got were samples or returns, and if not, what the trouble is supplying clean lenses these days. Maybe they need to get rid of the white carpet in the assembly "clean room".

By the way, the 90 f2.8 Elmarit isn't going to be too flattering for portraits either--I tested mine out at over 80 lines per mm resolution at f2.8 aperture, even on color negative film. I use a Tiffen Soft EFX filter on mine for close up shots of anyone born before 1990.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), January 11, 2002.

Andrew,

Try Vaseline directly applied to your "hard coated" (Moh's #9) front element - or would it work better on the rear element - for soft focus. Or, maybe defocus a bit; would nose or ear turn out better?

;^/

-- Chris Chen (chrischen@msn.com), January 12, 2002.

BTW,

I saw a video of the Solms factory and EVERY one of the people assembling an M6 were middle aged women with facial hair 8^)

-- Chris Chen (chrischen@msn.com), January 12, 2002.

Sikaan, I started a huge thread on this a while back. It sounds that you, like me (in view of Leica'a past reputation for QC and pricing) expect (virtual) perfection from Leica. For many Leica defenders the line was "just get out and shoot and quit moaning...".

When even the most obvious fundamental flaws that you describe are getting through then Leica quality really has hit an all time low.

Ernst Leitz must be turning in his grave!

-- Giles Poilu (giles@monpoilu.icom43.net), January 12, 2002.

"the quality of the images is astounding and worth the means to get it"

Yes, Leica is still the best way to get perfect pictures of sheets of newspaper pinned to a wall or of the mother-in-law posed in front of the Trevi fountain.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), January 12, 2002.

Sikaan, I agree that it is very frustrating to spend a lot of money for a Leica product and then have it be less than perfect out of the box. In my experience, Leica will make good on their products, and the repair folks in New Jersey are very good. No other manufacturer gives a three year warranty as Leica does, and no other lenses do what Leica lenses do IMHO. Joy and frustration. I think you nailed it.

-- Bill Henick (dhen1922@aol.com), January 12, 2002.

I've only had one problem with a new Leica product. I bought the 24/2.8-ASPH lens and found a very small (tiny) white arc at the periphery of one of the internal elements (probably due to separation). Having seen this before, my experience is that this type of problem does not worse and has no effect at all on the image quality. However, it can affect the resale value.

Leica replaced the lens with a new one and gave me a full new passport. I think Leica USA is very reliable when it comes to the USA warranty, but you pay hundreds of dollars for the passport. It's your choice vs saving lot's of money buying a new in the box item without warranty. From my own experience, the odds actually favor saving the money, since most new Leica items I bought have been without the USA and I never had any problem with those.

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), January 12, 2002.

After the naysaying, here's my quality gripe, which really pisses me off. I bought a new 24/2.8 and the damn thing keeps locking up on me at the short focus end of the scale. I have to smack the camera against my palm to unlock it, which is hardly conducive to melting into the background in someone's kitchen while photographing them cooking. It's always been like that but I just can't seem to get round to getting it fixed. A real pain. Still takes excellent pictures though.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), January 12, 2002.

Sikaan and Rob,

Send it back and make them fix it. How else, short of not buying, can we give Leica a message that we expect perfection of them-- certainly at these prices.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), January 12, 2002.

"Send it back and make them fix it. How else, short of not buying, can we give Leica a message that we expect perfection of them-- certainly at these prices." -- Bob Fleischman

Bob,

I am definitely sending the lens back as soon as I get the 90mm in the mail (hopefully in mint condition, since it is "NEW"). :)

I think the dealers are sending Leica the message that its time they pulled their socks up. It must be frustrating for the dealers to have to keep shipping back lenses with cosmetic defects. Where do these refurbished items end up?

-- sikaan (sikaan4@aol.com), January 12, 2002.