build quality X1

[jorismichielsen]

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I am not that guy that is careless with his gear, especially not if it costs 1600 Euro, but still for some reason my flash did not popped up anymore. So today I went to my local dealer and he said that the flash was stuck because the top panel of the camera was seemingly crushed. He started saying that the camera had fallen or made a big smack on the ground.

 

So of course those guys get stories everyday that of gear that suddenly broke, but on my front panel there is even no scratch. And since the X1 has been with me every single moment since I bought it I am sure it did not fall or bumped into something. Moreover I always wear it in a protective bag.

 

The dealer fixed the flash, but assured me that this cold not be replaced under the guaranty, so it was useless to send the camera back to Leica. Apart from the fact that this it would not fall be under the guaranty, or that the dealer was to lazy to give some costumer service and inform Leica on this problem, I am really surprised that the X1 is so extremely fragile.

 

IQ is amazing, as well as the weight, and I enjoyed the camera during my hiking in Denmark, but IMO the camera is not suited to be the best travel camera as because of this low built quality! For everything else my X1 is doing well and I am glad that the flash is kind of fixed.

[phancj]

Hey Joris, I think your dealer sucks. For one, if there isnt a single scratch, how can he profess that you damaged it? I think Leica will HAVE TO repair it under warranty under these circumstances.

 

Do yourself a big favor, boycott your dealer, and enjoy your camera!

:)CJ

[earleygallery]

Strange, surely you can see for yourself if the top is damaged?

 

How did he fix the flash?

[jorismichielsen]

The top was squeezed, so that hampered the flash unit to pop up. The dealer pressed and pushed the top (metal color plastic) till the flash had some more space.

 

Surely you could see that the top circle base for the flash is not a perfect circle anymore, but question remains how this happened:

1) since there is no other damage that demonstrates that the camera has hit the ground or any other heavy substance that could cause such damage (other crashes on the side of the camera or on the top panel; only this circle is squeezed; such damage could only take place if you hammer the camera when it is protected by a pillow ore something, but I am not practicing for a illusionist or magician and if so I would use something else less valuable), and

2) since I have the camera always with me I am sure it did not fall or bumped into something (or maybe it should have been my bony chest :-).

 

So the dealer had no reason to accuse me of something like that. You do not do such a thing to costumers (especially not if you are one of the authorized Leica dealers in the region Antwerp and you are a small independent shop pretending that you are giving good customer service). Maybe they themselves sold it like this to me and it is my own fault that I did not noticed when they handed over the camera.

The same happened when I informed if I could wait till light room 3 was released before I would use my registration code to download the program. He assured me that the registration code sold with my X1 in beginning of July would only offered the old light room version. Happy I am that I took the risk and waited till August to download light room and got the new version 3.

 

Anyway, the camera is doing its excellent job as always! And more lessons learned: I have to look for another dealer, and I have to check out some full or half case to protect the camera even more.

[phancj]

Yup, dump the dealer, and let their names be known so all can avoid. Antwerp being the place for diamonds and all you will expect high standards of service for customers.

[bernie.lcf]

Anyway, the camera is doing its excellent job as always! And more lessons learned: I have to look for another dealer, and I have to check out some full or half case to protect the camera even more.

 

I think, in the end everything goes to Leica Germany for repair. As a consequence, I would probably just pack it up next time and ship it off to Germany. I have only heard good things from them so far.