In praise of DAG camera repair; a miracle has been worked on my Summarit-M 35mmf/2.5

[rpavich]

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Well, color me extremely satisfied and let me say that Don Goldberg over at DAG camera repair is a miracle worker.

 

I had dropped my M6 from a short distance (6 or 8") to my kitchen table but it landed on the moving part of the front of the lens and jammed it up so that the focus was very stiff. Usable, but very stiff.

I had sent it to someone else for repair and they said it was cost prohibitive even if the could fix it and so I should just use it as is.

I was prepared to do that but I started wondering "is that the last word on it?" Not sure...so I emailed Don and described what happened. He said to mail it to him and he could fix it.

Well..long story short, I now have it back in my hands and it's as smooth as buttah! He fixed the jammed up focus, CLA'd it, and adjusted the front focusing it was doing.

I'm a happy camper and Don deserves to be publicly praised.

[spydrxx]

Glad to hear it worked out for you. He did the same for me a few years ago and I couldn't have been happier with the results.

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[Jeff S]

Yep, similar experience with DAG on another issue I posted here. 

 

Sherry Krauter is similarly talented....hope she isn't the other person you dealt with.

 

Jeff

[rpavich]

Yep, similar experience with DAG on another issue I posted here. 

 

Sherry Krauter is similarly talented....hope she isn't the other person you dealt with.

 

Jeff

 

She wasn't. I used her to fix and upgrade my M6 once and was delightfully satisfied.

[yeeper]

Don was very slow on my 50mm Summilux CLA, but the results are fantastic.  Aperture and focus are butter.  Plus, the focus is now spot-on.  Great price too. 

[Joshua Lowe]

I dropped my 35 cron ASPH onto the concrete of the Streets of San Francisco (A Quinn Martin Production) because of my dumbness.  

 

Mistake #1 - the lens was in my bag with the hood facing upward.  So when I grasped the lens and lifted it out of the bag, I lifted it by the hood.  And my fingers happened to squeeze the clips to release the hood.   Stupid of me.

 

Mistake #2 - I should never have been changing lenses on the street in the first place. K.I.S.S.

 

The aperture ring took the brunt of the impact.  It got gouged, bent and is stuck at f11.  The filter mount got bent, too.  The good news is that the glass is OK and the lens still focuses smoothly and accurately.  

 

I took a couple of pics of the damage and sent them to DAG.  Don responded within a couple of hours and the estimated repair cost was better than I'd hoped.  It was a genuine relief because that cron is about 20 years old and has the smoothest focus action of any Leica lens I've used.  Writing it off would have been heartbreaking.

Edited February 22, 2016 by Joshua Lowe

[rpavich]

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UPDATE; I shot a roll today and developed the negs just now. I'm happy to say that the lens is smooth, and dead nuts right on for focus at all distances and apertures.

 

Way to go Don. I'm very happy.

[Marwin3000]

Don fixed a focusing problem on my Summicron 50mm a little while back! Great service, over all great guy!

Edited February 23, 2016 by Marwin3000

[MarkP]

He did a remarkable job restoring a 2.0/50 Summitar for me.

[tobey bilek]

I fell to the ground with D800 nikon and 100 2.8 APO macro lens.  My other hand equally valuable gear so no way to break the fall.   The 100 broke in half .   4 of the 10 screws in the mount are extra long and hold the lens together.  I sheared them off, all 4.

 

DAG repaired for around $150.   Disassembly to get the stubs out was more than I was Willing to try.  

 

Works as well as when I got in decades ago.

[dot-me-not]

I need to find a new technician :/  Need to give this gentleman a try.

[Raid Amin]

DAG has been for me the best lens repair person. He is always polite to me and very responsive when I ask about my lenses. The last job was converting a Zeiss Hologon 16/8 from G to M mount.

[dave massolo]

Have used Don's services for many years. Always has been a great experience with top notch repairs.

[tobey bilek]

I don`t know what we are going to do when he retires.

[Exodies]

Surely he has an apprentice?

[johnbuckley]

Wish I’d known he existed. My 50 APO was sent to Leica NJ in early December for an extremely stiff focusing ring. When I inquired in February as to it’s status I was told that lenses can take 20 weeks to return. 20 weeks!

[LeicaPassion]

I have 2 lenses at Leica NJ. They said it will take 5 months!

[adan]

BTW - for the younger set, DAG comes by his genius honestly. He is the son of Norman Goldberg, who was Pop Photo's Technical Director in the 1970s-80s.

 

Trapped for 7 weeks (and counting - don't ask!) in a location where the sole intellectual resource (beyond this forum ) is a college library that still has BOUND VOLUMES of almost every issue of every magazine ever published in the 20th century, I've wandered through numerous Norm Goldberg columns just recently, among other things.

[Jeff S]

Not just that, Norm Goldberg was also a camera repair person, an author and an inventor, including Leica related gear..,

 

https://www.shutterbug.com/content/norman-goldberg’s-camcraft-motor-leica-photo-columnist’s-invention

 

Jeff

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[B-A-C]

Don Goldberg is a treasure - honest, high-quality work and fair pricing.  I only hope he doesn't get too busy and works another 20 years.  Props to Don.

Edited March 13, 2018 by B-A-C