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Filter Frustration: mixed messages from Solms


grober

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you are missing the point or you are on the paylist at Solms as PR...

Some filters are here in the stores (like 39mm) and not in our hands (as a free offer). What is your answer on that?

 

May be the stores have ordered the filters, before you bought your M8 ?

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Perhaps the dealers are receiving their filters direct from the same source as Leica?

Leica may not have any control over who the manufacturer supplies first..!

 

It is easy to make assumptions and draw the wrong conclusions as to Leica's priorities.

How often do 'strangers' to your field of expertise ( whatever it may be) make wrong assumptions. Logically it does not suit Leica to alienate customers so there may be factors out of their control.

 

perhaps..

 

regards

Jim

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I too haven't received my filters and yet they are available for sale in selected camera stores in Hong Kong. Since I will need more than two filters I have just gone out and bought a couple of extra ones. About the coding of the 135f2.8 please see:

 

http://www.leica-camera.us/news/news/1/801.html

 

If you down load the pdf the 135f2.8 is listed on page two as one of the discontinued lenses that can be coded. Perhaps somebody should send this along to the UK Leica distributor.

Cheers

Howard

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I got my M8 in February but have not seen any Leica-branded filter yet. The delivery situation is strained, not only in Solms but overall. I ordered 39, 43 and 46 mm B+W filters through my dealer here in Stockholm, received the 39 and 43 promptly but the 46 is on back order. On Wednesday last I net-ordered one 39 and one 46 from Foto Huppert in Wuppertal, got the 39 on Monday (!) but not the 46 – they did only deduct the 39 from my card however.

 

It is indeed possible that Germany is at the top of the Leica delivery totem pole, but I do not think you Yanks are at the bottom. We are contending that place with (as I presume) Outer Mongolia. The only thing we can do is to make do with what we have. Grousing won't produce more filters. Without B+W there's also B & W ...

 

The old man from the Age of the Yellow Filter

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Well I am in the same boat here so yes i do understand the frustration BUT look at this from a different prospective. Example i walk into my favorite camera store and I want to buy a M8 and i already know that this needs filters to work properly. If the store owner does not have at least one or two filters do I walk out or make a purchase. Face it folks the leica dealers deserve a bone too and need to put food on there table also. Besides all that you can buy a couple too. I bought 4 of them so am i wrong even though I am entitled to 4 for free. So i don't look at this as getting screwed over , but i do look at this as the demand is much higher than there vendors can produce a tough filter to make and it is not entirely leica's fault. This happens everyday in the manufacturing world of being promised a deadline to deliver and it keeps slipping the deadline. leica does NOT make this filter but vendors do to Leica specs.

 

Sorry not a popular comment or reply but reality

 

Sorry Guy but that is!!!!!!

I bought the M8 knowing I would need filters and that Leica was going to supply me with 2 of them as a incentive to buy the M8 and that the filters would start to be delivered sometime in Febuary. I now have to wait and send off nasty emails to get only 1 of the 2 free filters I was promised. But dealers have that same filtrer in-stock before I got mine.

I don't care how anyone spins this, it is NOT right to treat current customers like that.

That make them NON-returning customers. If Leica feels it is more important to make the dealers happy and screw the existing customer base then they need a swift kick in the ASS.

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first of all i love my M8 and i am happy.

but from a customer point of view i really can't understand a leica dealer in the US offers leica IR filter on his homepage!!!!!!!

all the people who already bought an M8 got not the product they exspected. as leica officially stated we all need the filters otherwise the M8 is not 100% usable.

imagine people going to court.

especially in the US where the customer rights are very special. it could ruin leica. so i really think leica should rethink their policy.

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Guest guy_mancuso

Ed I do understand what you are saying and agree overall it's a mess on the filter issue. Everything else we have come a long way but this one is frustrating.

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Leica filters are showing up in the States, but here in Germany I have not seen my 46mm nor my 60mm yet. It would cost just a few Euro to send me one...

 

I suddenly got a 46 in the mail but not the 39 that was supposed to come with it.....

Nor the 55 and the other 46....:mad::confused:

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Leica Germany continues either to not understand or simply avoid this yet-to-be answered question: whenever the filters become available in Germany, will they ship according to the precedence of registration?

 

Seems "reasonable" that someone registering on the official Leica website in December should expect to receive the filter(s) before someone who registered in March, yes?

 

Can anyone frame that question in German for me? Thanks.

 

-g

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They understand English perfectly. I am probably the most loyal and tolerant M8 user on the forum, but this takes it one too far for me as well.

I sent them the following mail:

 

 

 

 

Dear Madam, Sir

 

I have ordered for my M8 camera's

1. a 46 and 39

2. a 46 and 55

 

I was told on the phone that the 46 and 39 would ship, and that the 46 and 55 would ship in week 22, as the 55 was not yet available. It was not possible to ship the second 46 seperately. I can accept that.

 

However when your package appeared there was only one 46 filter in it. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So no 39 and it is clearly possible after all to ship the filters separately.!!!!!!

 

Can you please explain how this is possible?

 

I would like to receive the filters as they become available in order to use my cameras properly!

 

Regards

 

 

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I received my free Leica filters WEEEEEEKS ago ... but it did not change my photography at all ..... i managed as well without them in B&W or with Jamies profiles!

So i really do not understand this continoues whining about the free filters ... start using that camera, or keep using it the way you did before or buy some filters and sell the free ones when they arive .......... lots of ways to actual USE the camera NOW!

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I think the one thing that makes this hard to swallow for many is the retailers recieving filters while users are still waiting. I have no idea why the retailers recieved filters. I know stores like B+H have tremendous clout with manufacturers because they move so much product but I can't see how having the filters will make a big difference for B+H since even if you buy the camera from them you still have to wait for Leica to send the free filters.

 

I am not worrying about it as it's been so long that the filters I now need are different from the ones I ordered. I have Heliopan or B+W filters for all my lenses now anyway. We will need a filter swap list once everyone finally has their filters (I have a 60 coming for a 21 I just sold, now I need another 46).

 

To try and make up for the less then smooth camera introduction Leica has now got it self into another less the smooth product introduction (Leica filters). For Leica this seems to be a case of no good deed going unpunished:) Hopefully this along like the initial 'hiccups' will all be history in a month or two.

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I received my free Leica filters WEEEEEEKS ago ... but it did not change my photography at all ..... i managed as well without them in B&W or with Jamies profiles!

So i really do not understand this continoues whining about the free filters ... start using that camera, or keep using it the way you did before or buy some filters and sell the free ones when they arive .......... lots of ways to actual USE the camera NOW!

 

Come on, Han, you are a black and white photographer.... I'll offer you for your filters ;)

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Like some here, I have been waiting for my free filters to no avail and I received the exact same email about the delay from Ms. Ursula recently after inquiring about them. I didn't want to experiment with any filters before because I felt there were too many unknown factors, not only about the filter issue but about the M8 itself. Now, I got the hardware fix done by Solms, I had my lenses 6-bit coded and we have the new firmware, I will buy one or two filters and simply wait for the free filters, until they become available, I guess. I didn't stop taking pictures with the camera but it did put a significant dent in the enjoyment of the camera though.

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Come on, Han, you are a black and white photographer.... I'll offer you for your filters ;)

Color too lately Jaap ... because the M8 colors are so beautiful ... even without the filters.

It would be very unpolite to give a way these 2 Leica presents .. and even immorral to sell them and make a profit ..... so i'll stick with them ;)

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Color too lately Jaap ... because the M8 colors are so beautiful ... even without the filters.

It would be very unpolite to give a way these 2 Leica presents .. and even immorral to sell them and make a profit ..... so i'll stick with them ;)

 

 

It is not that I need the filters, Han. I have enough to switch around, and I can manage OK without them as well. It is just that I object strongly to being jerked about.

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Like some here, I have been waiting for my free filters to no avail and I received the exact same email about the delay from Ms. Ursula recently after inquiring about them. I didn't want to experiment with any filters before because I felt there were too many unknown factors, not only about the filter issue but about the M8 itself. Now, I got the hardware fix done by Solms, I had my lenses 6-bit coded and we have the new firmware, I will buy one or two filters and simply wait for the free filters, until they become available, I guess. I didn't stop taking pictures with the camera but it did put a significant dent in the enjoyment of the camera though.

 

The best comment on this string, hands down. Right On! Damn Straight!

 

We have done all we can to comply with the appropriate "best practices" and optimize the performance of our individual "M8 Science Experiment." All the same while, Leica continues its "psychological field study" to probe and find the very outermost limits to their customer's patience.

 

Being a recitivist user for over forty years continues to count for naught.

 

-g

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I purchased two BW filters and am patiently waiting on a 43 and 60 for two lenses from Leica ...goodness knows when they will be delivered

the results for color photography with the filters make such a difference that I have hand held the filters I have on lenses which is a less than satisfying solution ...I am also playing the step down ring game so I can use the filters I have, though I have been reluctant to use a step up filter to get me to 60 mm

I can understand why folks get infuriated when they see Leica branded filters available at dealers ...this is simply dreadful public relations

I also find it hard to understand why production of the filters has taken so long to meet demand

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