Solms Noctiulx Service cost?

[Guest Ansel_Adams]

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Anyone have a rough idea what Solms would charge to CLA a Noctilux 50/f1.2?

 

Seems they wont give a price unless you send it off to them (and pay 50 € return shipping if you don't like their quote).

 

Anyone have a ballpark figure to see if its going to be within budget? The lens is 40 odd years old, has never been serviced but otherwise OK, just a bit stiff on the focussing.

[marknorton]

Mechanically, the lens is quite simple, only a single focussing helicoid. If the focussing is stiff, I think it would be worth sending in given how critical the focussing is. I applied the same logic to a Noct Nikkor 58mm f1.2 and it came back transformed.

 

My guess is around the €400 mark.

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[alandash]

That sounds like Nancy Pelosi's remark on Obamacare: "Pass the bill, then you can read it!"

[joeswe]

Anyone have a rough idea what Solms would charge to CLA a Noctilux 50/f1.2?

 

Seems they wont give a price unless you send it off to them (and pay 50 € return shipping if you don't like their quote).

 

Anyone have a ballpark figure to see if its going to be within budget? The lens is 40 odd years old, has never been serviced but otherwise OK, just a bit stiff on the focussing.

 

If you can afford (or afford to keep) a Noctilux 1.2 at the current prices, then you can definitely afford the service at Solms.

Ehem ... My experience is limited, I was once quoted around 400 EUR for cleaning and adjusting a older lens (1960s) in Solms. If the lens is mechanically as simple as Mark suggests and you really only need the helical re-lubed it might even be a bit "cheaper". Obviously Solms cannot give you an estimate via Email as they have to inspect the lens physically first. They might find problems you have not been aware of.

[farnz]

I suspect that the cost of servicing is likely to pale into insignificance compared to the premium for the sum you should be insuring the 50/1.2 Noctilux for while it's travelling.

 

Pete.

[IWC Doppel]

I'm not sure where you are located but specialists like Malcolm Taylor in the UK can be very good, they are very familiar with older lenses and if you intend to keep the advantage of Leica service receipt is less

 

He has done some great work on some of my lenses for smaller sums and seems to be a mine of knowledge regarding certain issues with lenses.

 

I recently sent two lenses to Malcolm for 6 bit coding and a CLA both needed a mild adjustment both now back silky smooth and coded under £300 for both including postage

[sydkugelmass]

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I sent to Solms a Summilux 35 typ 11874 having some play in its only focus helicoid, due to a presumable fall. I obtained a perfect repair/CLA at a price of 352 €. I had to send the Lux in and then accept the cost estimate for the repair. No problem. Lens returned as new.

[farnz]

I'm not sure where you are located but specialists like Malcolm Taylor in the UK can be very good, ...

I agree with IWC Doppel. Before I bought it, Malcolm Taylor renovated the focussing mechanism on my 50/1 Noctilux and it's spot on and silky smooth.

 

Pete.

[Guest Ansel_Adams]

Looks like Mike Taylor will be getting a call soon. Thanks for all your help

[M9reno]

I fully agree with the Malcolm Taylor option.

 

I posted the following some time ago: "Not strictly relevant, since a IIIg is not an M, but when I sent it in to Leica last year for CLA, not having heard that someone like Malcolm Taylor existed, Solms would not even carry out an interior cleaning of the viewfinder/rangefinder system because, should any component break in the process, they would not be able to replace it. So the CLA that I agreed to was partial, although they charged this world (and part of the next) for it (please, no one ask me: I am embarrassed to say how much). The camera was accordingly returned to me with a dirty vf/rf system, but, taking Leica CS at its word, I was blissful in my ignorance: the dirt was inevitable for a camera made in 1957, so sayeth the Maker, and I lived in the best of all possible worlds.

 

Slightly more than a year later, the camera had to be sent to Malcolm Taylor (who, thanks to this forum, had since entered my radar) for completely different reasons: I put on a Leicavit, and it would not come off! Having the camera in his hands, Malcolm's verdict on Solms' CLA job a year earlier was not slow in coming, and decidedly damning. From a man of Malcolm's professionalism, I doubt there could be any exaggeration. Solms had done a shockingly poor job, installing the winding spindle wrongly, leaving the shutter over-tensioned and clunky, and missing (or leaving) oil on the blades of my lens. Also, despite Leica's assurance to the contrary, the vf/rf system had fungus, as well as being dirty. (To think I had been so impressed when Solms had told me that, had my camera any trace of fungus, they would not have allowed it past the door in the first place!) So again, I paid to have work done on the IIIg, and this time it returned as it should have initially: deadly silent, clean as a whistle, and ready for another half century of service.

 

What about the irreplaceable parts, the risk of damaging which had been Solms' reason to return my camera dirty? There was, in the end, no need for these parts, but the need to replace them does not deter a true craftsman like Malcolm. Unfortunately, this kind of people (or, rather, this kind of philosophy) no longer works at Solms.

 

Incidentally, an email message to my earlier contact in Leica CS about this matter about a month ago has gone unanswered. I phrased it very nicely, and (knowing my year's guarantee on service had unfortunately expired) was not asking for my money back, just reporting my experience politely and constructively.

 

Sorry folks, long story. First moral: my IIIg is indeed a companion for a lifetime. Somewhat depressingly, the "lifetime" in question is probably Malcolm Taylor's, not mine. I don't know what happens once people like him and DAG and Sherry Krauter stop working. Despite their hefty charges, Leica certainly are not providing the full service that any camera will inevitably need to live up to a "lifetime" ideal. This applies not only to Barnacks, but also (as we now know) the M8, and probably also to any other M.

 

Second moral: this experience was part of my own perceptional wake-up call, to which I referred some posts back. It has been an education, even if not a totally uplifting one. The Panglossian version of Leica/Leitz in many of our minds is no more, or never existed in the first place. From the point of view of money, but also of performance, I'll think hard before I send anything to them again, especially now that I know they won't have the parts for a camera less than a decade old."

 

Now I will not send anything back to Leica that is not electronic - and thus not within Malcolm's expertise.