Summarit-S 70mm - Autofocus suddenly dysfunctional

[Entrope]

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Hi all!

Have been using the S system for about half a year now and rarely touched the 70mm of the lenses which I have.

 

Decided to walk around the country yesterday and went with the 70mm just to find that autofocus doesn't quite work any more... and I'm quite sure it did work the last time I used it.

 

What happens is when I half depress the shutter release I can hear the motor attempting to focus (the "bzzt" sound) very briefly and it does actually focus a tiny bit, but after that it's all silence... and after a second or two of silence a small "tick" sound before the camera simply gives up trying to focus.

 

This is the only lens which is experiencing this problem.

 

Manual focus works fine.

 

Firmware all latest.

 

All I can say at this point is "wow" because it seems that S2 lenses have quite a high return rate based from other posts I've been able to find in this forum?

 

Also because I purchased some of my S2 lenses while travelling overseas, should I expect problems with my local dealer? Additionally, will this likely be a case of the lens going back to Germany?

 

This frightens me right now because I once had an R lens go to Germany, also due to focusing problems incidentally, and when the lens came back two months later it was in even worse shape and it had to go back to Germany for a second trip. I was without said lens for a good third of the year.

 

Thank you in advance to everyone who is able to provide me any feedback!

[Petster]

Hi Entrope,

 

Sorry to hear that your 70 is not working properly. You should go with the lens to your local Leica dealer and he should take care off this. Even if you bought the lens somewhere else. Where are you based?

 

Luckily I did not face any problems with my S-lenses so far. So not all users do have the problems and mainly the ones who have problems posting to ask for help. So guessing on posts in a forum does not really tell something about real numbers.

 

In general the Leica support is very good and people are very helpful.

 

Good luck with the lens. Hopefully it is a minor issue.

 

Pete

[mwilliamsphotography]

Carefully clean the contacts on the back of the lens.

 

You have not used the lens for sometime, and could have some grit got on it, or you may have accidentally touched the gold contact points and left an oily residue that hardened on the surface.

 

It's a long shot, but worth a try before sending it off for repair.

 

Good luck.

 

-Marc

[Entrope]

Carefully clean the contacts on the back of the lens.

 

You have not used the lens for sometime, and could have some grit got on it, or you may have accidentally touched the gold contact points and left an oily residue that hardened on the surface.

 

It's a long shot, but worth a try before sending it off for repair.

 

Good luck.

 

-Marc

 

Thanks for the suggestions! Had tried that originally but it didn't get me anywhere. I believe the focusing motor/barrel itself may have an issue because even with manual focusing it doesn't feel as smooth as it should, and more importantly, the feel is quite inconsistent with a very slight roughness evident when focusing backwards and forwards.