Build quality of New M-A

[iPacific]

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little update

I used for almost 3 months.

The build quality is fine.

It made in Jan/2022 with a good S/N

 

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[ianman]

What is a good serial number? Or more to the point perhaps, which should be avoided?

Edited July 13, 2022 by ianman

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[a.noctilux]

Nice !

ian quicker than me 😉

so

What is good S/N ?

[wizard]

vor 9 Minuten schrieb ianman:

What is a good serial number?

Depends on the country you are from. In Asia, a good serial number should have lots of '8' or '9'. Don't know about other areas of the world, but people there may have other preferences.

[iPacific]

the last 3 number is the same 🤪

[ktmrider2]

And nowhere in the serial number is "666"!

[poli]

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Little update, I own two M-A's. (silver and black). Both built in 2021. They are both fine, although the silver one (after three months of use) gathered heaps of dust in the viewfinder. Don't know how that is possible and a bit of a bummer in my book. The local Leicastore will fix it for me though

[ianman]

21 minutes ago, poli said:

Don't know how that is possible

It must have a dusty serial number 😛

[kivis]

Whatever serial number I have on my M-A, it is serving me very well.

[Al Brown]

Maybe one should check the month of manufacture via the serial number and see what zodiac sign the camera is, for compatibility with own sign and stuff... I mean, these things are as important as "good" serial numbers.

[Vlad Soare]

The best serial number must be 000001. Imagine how much money it could fetch twenty years from now. The downside is, you won't dare take it out of its box at all, let alone use it, for fear of diminishing its future value. 

Does this serial number actually exist, I wonder?

Edited July 14, 2022 by Vlad Soare

[a.noctilux]

2 hours ago, Vlad Soare said:

The best serial number must be 000001. Imagine how much money it could fetch twenty years from now. The downside is, you won't dare take it out of its box at all, let alone use it, for fear of diminishing its future value. 

Does this serial number actually exist, I wonder?

In Leica, no.

The first Leica number was 100 attributed in 1923.

we can see in which Leica, here

[iPacific]

20 hours ago, Al Brown said:

Maybe one should check the month of manufacture via the serial number and see what zodiac sign the camera is, for compatibility with own sign and stuff... I mean, these things are as important as "good" serial numbers.

the month of manufacture was printed on the box 

mine is 07 Jan 2022😉

[a.noctilux]

1 hour ago, iPacific said:

the month of manufacture was printed on the box 

mine is 07 Jan 2022😉

This was not the case, untill about 2010 🤒, maybe later?

My M9 didn't have the date on sticker of it's box, just verified.

Application possible only  ...with youngest of us.

Edited July 14, 2022 by a.noctilux

[Reactivestills]

I bought 2 x M-A’s brand new and they both arrived with large amounts of dust in the viewfinders. Sent them back for a swap and waited 2 months and finally I get sent a replacement that was just as bad. 

I asked for expedited delivery and they said they can’t offer express shipping. I was told they recalled many of the bodies on account of my issue to make sure they could rectify the issue. I was promised the replacement would be personally checked by the technicians before being shipped and it wasn’t. 

I contacted Leica Berlin and they were very helpful as they were only sales and one of the team said “Oh we are having a lot of trouble with the analogue bodies lately” so that basically tells me the technicians aren’t suitable for the job.

Refunded €16k worth of an order and they didn’t even respond to my 4-5 emails that I sent to head office complaining of the issue when I asked for someone to reach out me.

Leica easily has the worst service and qc on the whole spectrum of camera manufacturers that I’ve dealt with in 20yrs. I read horror stories and still wanted to have part of the legacy as I have used friends M’s and they are built before Kaufman. Took over and are pristine with no issues. 
The Japanese manufacturers wouldn’t have let that happen. I had devices back in my hands in 2 weeks or less when using Nikon, Canon, Fujifilm professionally and their services.Sometimes even with apology letters. 

I heard the horror stories of the service times and the brutal customer service and still after 15yrs of waiting finally was going to buy 2 analogue bodies to keep and service over time for the long term. And they couldn’t even get them into my hands new without flaws from the get go. Absolutely ridiculous at the prices and their double sign offs in the box... And people spending 8.5k on digital M’s and having issues and having to wait for months to have it rectified - Completely unacceptable.

I commented on another post on Discuss. A guy sent his 11k noctilux that was 3 months old due to sticking aperture blades… it came back with oil all over the blades and ruined… Leica denied it. 

[Huss]

4 hours ago, Reactivestills said:

I bought 2 x M-A’s brand new and they both arrived with large amounts of dust in the viewfinders. Sent them back for a swap and waited 2 months and finally I get sent a replacement that was just as bad. 

I asked for expedited delivery and they said they can’t offer express shipping. I was told they recalled many of the bodies on account of my issue to make sure they could rectify the issue. I was promised the replacement would be personally checked by the technicians before being shipped and it wasn’t. 

I contacted Leica Berlin and they were very helpful as they were only sales and one of the team said “Oh we are having a lot of trouble with the analogue bodies lately” so that basically tells me the technicians aren’t suitable for the job.

Refunded €16k worth of an order and they didn’t even respond to my 4-5 emails that I sent to head office complaining of the issue when I asked for someone to reach out me.

Leica easily has the worst service and qc on the whole spectrum of camera manufacturers that I’ve dealt with in 20yrs. I read horror stories and still wanted to have part of the legacy as I have used friends M’s and they are built before Kaufman. Took over and are pristine with no issues. 
The Japanese manufacturers wouldn’t have let that happen. I had devices back in my hands in 2 weeks or less when using Nikon, Canon, Fujifilm professionally and their services.Sometimes even with apology letters. 

I heard the horror stories of the service times and the brutal customer service and still after 15yrs of waiting finally was going to buy 2 analogue bodies to keep and service over time for the long term. And they couldn’t even get them into my hands new without flaws from the get go. Absolutely ridiculous at the prices and their double sign offs in the box... And people spending 8.5k on digital M’s and having issues and having to wait for months to have it rectified - Completely unacceptable.

I commented on another post on Discuss. A guy sent his 11k noctilux that was 3 months old due to sticking aperture blades… it came back with oil all over the blades and ruined… Leica denied it. 

But Leica does QC those little QA cards with each item - the ones that say the name of the technician that checked your product.

I have never had a defective QA card, so whoever is QC-ing the QA cards is doing a slap up job.

[jakontil]

1 minute ago, Huss said:

But Leica does QC those little QA cards with each item - the ones that say the name of the technician that checked your product.

I have never had a defective QA card, so whoever is QC-ing the QA cards is doing a slap up job.

I have a couple of times right out the box, MP whose meter was lost and a Summicron safari which was way out of alignment 

sometimes i wonder if they meant it when they signed it 😂

[shirubadanieru]

The reason I sold my MA is that I could always feel the area where the MP ‘meter hole’ was, since that’s where my finger tends to rest…and it just didn’t feel as premium / solid when you can fell a bump due to the fact that the MA uses the MP body and then Leica simply covers the whole with another piece of brass. Other than that, lovely camera but the M3 / M2 / M4 still feel better built 

Edited October 30, 2022 by shirubadanieru

[Huss]

1 hour ago, jakontil said:

I have a couple of times right out the box, MP whose meter was lost and a Summicron safari which was way out of alignment 

sometimes i wonder if they meant it when they signed it 😂

Yes, but was the QC card ok?  Or did the tech sign it upside down?

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[jakontil]

1 hour ago, Huss said:

Yes, but was the QC card ok?  Or did the tech sign it upside down?

i could smell alcohol was dripping and stained it