.95 Noctilux = disappointment

[ivohula]

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I bought a SL2 and Leica M to L adapter from Adorama in December. The adapter fits as tightly as it could; no play what so ever. M lenses on my SL2 with adapter fit as tightly and behave as nicely as they do on my past three digital M bodies. No difference in use on M body or L body. No play, sloppiness or change in infinity focus what so ever. 

I too have switched to the SL to take advantage of the EVF and would buy a M body with a class leading EVF in a second. The hit rate for perfect focus with wide aperture lenses on a rangefinder and my eyesight is no longer acceptable. Come on Leica, get to it. With the new Sony a1 the bar keeps moving higher on mirrorless EVFs and the computing power needed to provide 9 million pixels at 240 hertz is a reality today, not in 5 years. 

I have been buying from B & H since the 1980s and have made over a 100 separate purchases from them, most via mail order. I have never received anything imperfect. I have purchased a few things that were not as I liked, but those were design failures or the wrong product choice on my part. My local Leica dealer will not let you open multiple boxes looking for the "Goldilocks" unit and I would hope that neither do the big stores like Adorama or B&H. Once a box is open, the item becomes "Open Box" and should be discounted. I have bought a few of those, usually with a !5 % to 20% discount. 

[Michael Patrick Ryan]

The disappointment continues. I contacted the store and was asked if I had registered the product with Leica. Yes I had. I was then told we cant take it back then for any reason so you have to take it up with Leica. Leica said to send it in (at my expense) and they would be happy to fix it, with up to a 10 week wait! Ouch. This didn't sit well so I called the store back and asked for a manager who said that is NOT true and the salesman was totally wrong. By this time I wanted to just return the lens for a full refund as there certainly seems to be some bad mojo surrounding it. I explained it didn't seem fair I had to return at my expense and insure a 12,500 dollar lens. I'm out allot of cash because I received a defective product. They finally said they'd pick up the shipping. Soooo, I will ship back tomorrow and hope I get the refund. This is worse than buying a used car so far. I think I'm just going to go to the Leica Store Miami to get a new one. Bummer is there is a little south of 900 bucks in tax. Hmmmmm

[RoySmith]

Thanks for the update.
Is there that much difference in state taxes? I presume Adorama will refund the taxes you paid with the purchase.

[Michael Patrick Ryan]

9 minutes ago, RoySmith said:

Thanks for the update.
Is there that much difference in state taxes? I presume Adorama will refund the taxes you paid with the purchase.

No taxes at Adorama. 

[Photoworks]

On 2/11/2021 at 2:19 PM, ivohula said:

I bought a SL2 and Leica M to L adapter from Adorama in December. The adapter fits as tightly as it could; no play what so ever. M lenses on my SL2 with adapter fit as tightly and behave as nicely as they do on my past three digital M bodies. No difference in use on M body or L body. No play, sloppiness or change in infinity focus what so ever. 

I too have switched to the SL to take advantage of the EVF and would buy a M body with a class leading EVF in a second. The hit rate for perfect focus with wide aperture lenses on a rangefinder and my eyesight is no longer acceptable. Come on Leica, get to it. With the new Sony a1 the bar keeps moving higher on mirrorless EVFs and the computing power needed to provide 9 million pixels at 240 hertz is a reality today, not in 5 years. 

I have been buying from B & H since the 1980s and have made over a 100 separate purchases from them, most via mail order. I have never received anything imperfect. I have purchased a few things that were not as I liked, but those were design failures or the wrong product choice on my part. My local Leica dealer will not let you open multiple boxes looking for the "Goldilocks" unit and I would hope that neither do the big stores like Adorama or B&H. Once a box is open, the item becomes "Open Box" and should be discounted. I have bought a few of those, usually with a !5 % to 20% discount. 

To me the adapter fits firm on the camera. but there is a little play from lens to adapter. feels like the pin has little play. I went to B&H to try 2 new adapters and with the Noctilux 0.95 and the 35FLE I experienced the same play 

[Photoworks]

25 minutes ago, Michael Patrick Ryan said:

No taxes at Adorama. 

I am in NY and find Adorama little difficult to return sometime. 

I prefer B&H, and with there card they refund the taxes.

They have many more Leica lenses in the store USED that appear on the website. I went to the counter to try the 50 APO M, there where none listed on the website, but they had 12 there to try. Probably from people that punched them and returned them.

 

B&H takes returns back without any problems. just some computer stuff and software that is is listed as non returnable they don't take it back for refund

Edited February 14, 2021 by Photoworks

[ivohula]

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On 2/14/2021 at 8:24 AM, Photoworks said:

No taxes at Adorama. 

Shopping for big budget Leica items should not be taken lightly. I recently read an article in Driving Magazine that said some research showed that 38% of new car purchasers put more thought into purchasing a toaster than into purchasing their car. I purchased my SL2 from Adorama in December when they were dealing on SL2 as the SL2-S had just come out and all the interest went the SL2-S way. I price compared their price and my local price and their price was $1680.00Canadian less, tax in. Then I got my serial number and called my contact at Leica in New Jersey to confirm this was a new body, not previously registered. New Jersey checked with Wetzlar and I got my new, non-registered confirmation within 36 hours. Then I pulled the trigger and bought. 

 In my case the price was a deciding factor. My local dealer can not match such discounts, even if I have known the owner personally for 34 years. This city is a small market and all his Leica sales are special order only. That means order the item, place a deposit, wait and pray that the Leica distribution system favours you; then as you salivate over that silver paper box, you must pay first in full before you open the box. Once that box is opened, the item can only be resold as an "open box" item at a discount or returned to the distributor as defective. Any unreasonable attempts at a return on the store's side quickly destroys any good will the store has with the distributor and you are not going to get your orders filled quickly. 

Would I rather buy locally? Of Course, I would. However, availability and price are factors I consider also.