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[scott kirkpatrick]

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Well, my Popflash CL body plus a spare M to L adapter and a spare battery are trundling across the Arizona and New Mexico wastes to Houston, TX, where they will be repacked in a smaller box with other stuff and sent on to me in Israel.  I'm hoping to have it all here next week.

[willeica]

Should have had my CL zoom kit today but apparently Parcelforce cannot find my address. Assume they have taken on extra staff over Christmas who don't know the local area. As it is a rural area, local knowledge is essential. GPS and post codes just are not accurate enough. Not happy   Finally got through to Parcelforce help desk, after being on hold for over 20 minutes, only to find it is a call centre in Mumbai, who have even less of a clue than their delivery driver did. 

 

Wilson

 

 Love the ending, Wilson. Very much 21st century woes. In the good old days Postman Pat would have been standing outside the door with your camera under his arm and a smile on his face by now. One step forward and two steps back is the order of the day, I'm afraid.

 

William

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[wlaidlaw]

William,

 

I am not quite sure why Ffordes have stopped using regular Royal Mail special delivery, which works properly 99.99% of the time and have changed to Parcelfarce who get it wrong about 50% of the time at this time of year. We have had the same three postmen for about the last 15 years and during the summer, the regular Parcelforce driver, a guy in his mid 50's, knows exactly where all the farm addresses in the area are to be found. Now why some manager at the parcel depot does not register, that if you put an agency Polish or Romanian driver on for a rural area, they will fail massively, I really cannot understand. Last Christmas, I had to go out in my car and find an Amazon delivery driver, who had my phone number but could not find the address. He did not speak enough English to understand directions and my Bulgarian is limited. Luckily he spoke just enough German for me to work out where he was and find out the colour and registration number of his van. He still would not hand over the parcel and had to follow me back to my home, before he would hand it over. 

 

I would far rather spend a bit extra to avoid having had to spend most of a very frustrating afternoon on the phone, trying and failing to track my CL down.  

 

Wilson

 

Home delivery sir? 

 

 

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Edited December 20, 2017 by wlaidlaw

[scott kirkpatrick]

Wilson, it's Christmas!  All the delivery services triple their staff, calling on people who just received their driver's licenses (because all the undocumented  immigrants are busy driving for Uber). It's a wonder there aren't more accidents, not just lost packages.

[willeica]

William,

 

I am not quite sure why Ffordes have stopped using regular Royal Mail special delivery, which works properly 99.99% of the time and have changed to Parcelfarce who get it wrong about 50% of the time at this time of year. We have had the same three postmen for about the last 15 years and during the summer, the regular Parcelforce driver, a guy in his mid 50's, knows exactly where all the farm addresses in the area are to be found. Now why some manager at the parcel depot does not register, that if you put an agency Polish or Romanian driver on for a rural area, they will fail massively, I really cannot understand. Last Christmas, I had to go out in my car and find an Amazon delivery driver, who had my phone number but could not find the address. He did not speak enough English to understand directions and my Bulgarian is limited. Luckily he spoke just enough German for me to work out where he was and find out the colour and registration number of his van. He still would not hand over the parcel and had to follow me back to my home, before he would hand it over. 

 

I would far rather spend a bit extra to avoid having had to spend most of a very frustrating afternoon on the phone, trying and failing to track my CL down.  

 

Wilson

 

Home delivery sir? 

 

Now that is what I call delivery with a vengeance. The real issue today is that with the cutting of costs in a competitive environment, out of standard deliveries will suffer, particularly in rural areas. We had a thing called eircode ,which is a location identifier, introduced a couple of years ago in Ireland. Very few people in urban areas, such as myself, need to use it as our normal postal address is enough. The eircode does work well in rural areas where all the van driver has to do is to put the eircode into their navigation system and they then receive guidance to the desired location. I thought that you had something similar in the UK.

 

William

[Tobers]

You could always use What Three Words which locates any 3m x 3m square in the world using three words. Quite cool:

 

https://map.what3words.com/daring.lion.race

[wlaidlaw]

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You could always use What Three Words which locates any 3m x 3m square in the world using three words. Quite cool:

 

https://map.what3words.com/daring.lion.race

 

UK couriers refuse to use that system and I am not wholly surprised. The proprietors of the system keep changing things and the parameters. I have set this up three times over the years and now their system cannot locate the last three word code I set up, which happened twice before. It's just not consistent enough to be really usable. 

 

Wilson

[microview]

 Love the ending, Wilson. Very much 21st century woes. In the good old days Postman Pat would have been standing outside the door with your camera under his arm and a smile on his face by now. One step forward and two steps back is the order of the day, I'm afraid.

 

William

 

Parelforce Pete left an ME on my outside doorstep a couple of years ago. Luckily no-one spotted it. Shame if Ffordes are switching – good company to buy from.

[wlaidlaw]

Just tried "What Three Words" again with the last lot I set up about two years ago and they still work, showing exactly the correct location. Hopefully therefore, they have put their past problems behind them and the system works properly now. How do the owners of the What Three Words system monetise it? Unless it is generating profits, it is unlikely be a long term player, no matter how good the idea is. 

 

The good news is that common sense has prevailed at Parcelforce and they have put a few of the older guys, who know all the rural addresses, doing all the missed deliveries for the next two days. My CL kit arrived just after 9AM this morning and is currently on charge. It was our regular Parcelforce driver from a couple of years ago and he said the current crop of temporary drivers "could not find their own backside using both hands." 

 

It was a pleasant surprise to find a leather strap with the CL, rather than the usual synthetic one with the sandpaper textured rubber neck pad. 

 

Wilson

[willeica]

Parelforce Pete left an ME on my outside doorstep a couple of years ago. Luckily no-one spotted it. Shame if Ffordes are switching – good company to buy from.

 

Would not happen here. If they cannot deliver the postal service here will leave the parcel with a neighbour or stick a note through your door and return it to the sorting office which is about 5 minutes drive from my house. Private courier companies have similar procedures. We also have a process called the Parcel Motel which is near to the sorting office. If you cannot get to the Parcel Motel you can call them and they will deliver to your house at a time that suits. Our location system is state funded and it works. The 'What Three Words' thing described above seems amateurish by comparison. I was on an OECD Working Party in the 1990s which discussed issues likely to arise from the then impending e-commerce. The UK was represented on that group. The biggest issues involved getting access for international courier companies to closed monopoly markets like Japan.

 

I am glad to hear that Wilson's camera has arrived.

 

William

[thighslapper]

Just tried "What Three Words" again with the last lot I set up about two years ago and they still work, showing exactly the correct location. Hopefully therefore, they have put their past problems behind them and the system works properly now. How do the owners of the What Three Words system monetise it? Unless it is generating profits, it is unlikely be a long term player, no matter how good the idea is. 

 

The good news is that common sense has prevailed at Parcelforce and they have put a few of the older guys, who know all the rural addresses, doing all the missed deliveries for the next two days. My CL kit arrived just after 9AM this morning and is currently on charge. It was our regular Parcelforce driver from a couple of years ago and he said the current crop of temporary drivers "could not find their own backside using both hands." 

 

It was a pleasant surprise to find a leather strap with the CL, rather than the usual synthetic one with the sandpaper textured rubber neck pad. 

 

Wilson

 

Glad to hear the errant parcel arrived before xmas. Good things always come to those that wait ......

 

Hope it comes up to expectations ..... 

[scott kirkpatrick]

....

The good news is that common sense has prevailed at Parcelforce and they have put a few of the older guys, who know all the rural addresses, doing all the missed deliveries for the next two days. My CL kit arrived just after 9AM this morning and is currently on charge. It was our regular Parcelforce driver from a couple of years ago and he said the current crop of temporary drivers "could not find their own backside using both hands." 

 

It was a pleasant surprise to find a leather strap with the CL, rather than the usual synthetic one with the sandpaper textured rubber neck pad. 

 

Wilson

Glad to hear.  Now have a great Christmas with it. 

 

BTW, is the leather strap the same as now comes with the M10?  It is not shown in any of the promotional CL literature, as Leica prefers to sell their extra cost elegant and colorful accessory straps.  But I like the M10 strap since it is stiff-ish leather, coils up nicely around my wrist, and eliminates the need for a wrist strap while also serving for over the shoulder use and providing a place to hang extra chips and battery.

[wlaidlaw]

Scott,

 

I don't have an M10, as I felt the M240 fulfilled my need for a 24MP rangefinder. It may well be the same strap as quite stiff leather. I will try softening it with some of my daughter's horse leather products. 

 

The CL has worked a treat this evening. The SF-24D flash is a bit harsh, even with some diffusor taped in front of it (I have mislaid my Leicagoodies SFILL) but I have an SF-40 on the way. 

 

Wilson

[eawholloway]

I collected my CL + 18-56 lens from LCE Derby yesterday, 20th December.

[jev]

Leica Store in New York has a bunch of CL and M10 bodies in stock

I just bought CL there yesterday

[dfdann]

Anyone get a CL lately on the East Coast?

Dan

[ropo54]

Anyone get a CL lately on the East Coast?

Dan

 

Yes, Leica Boston.  

Check the websites for the various Leica stores and put your name on the wait lists. They are becoming much more available.

Rob

[SiOnara]

CL and lens / grip available at Aperture Camera, London.

[jaapv]

Glad to hear.  Now have a great Christmas with it. 

 

BTW, is the leather strap the same as now comes with the M10?  It is not shown in any of the promotional CL literature, as Leica prefers to sell their extra cost elegant and colorful accessory straps.  But I like the M10 strap since it is stiff-ish leather, coils up nicely around my wrist, and eliminates the need for a wrist strap while also serving for over the shoulder use and providing a place to hang extra chips and battery.

Actually I replaced the rather cheap-looking leather strap by a standard Leica strap  -webbing and rubber shoulder pad with the D-lock rings.  It is in my experience the most practical one.

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[scott kirkpatrick]

Actually I replaced the rather cheap-looking leather strap by a standard Leica strap  -webbing and rubber shoulder pad with the D-lock rings.  It is in my experience the most practical one.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one.  The Leica rubber shoulder pad (a cheap version of the "up-strap's" longer fingered pad) slips off my shoulder when I wear a nylon rain or wind jacket.  The SL shoulder pad does better.  And the D-rings are always coming undone (the plastic retainer at the strap pops loose, but the connection to the camera is kept) for me.

Edited January 3, 2018 by scott kirkpatrick