Beware of fake Leica UV II filters

[jakontil]

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I encountered some counterfeit s couple of years back, from aliexpress… they were significantly cheaper than leica original

i chat the seller, he admittedly it was not original but high quality filter 

i think it is the same filters sold in ebay as fakes

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[69xchange]

3 hours ago, jakontil said:

I encountered some counterfeit s couple of years back, from aliexpress… they were significantly cheaper than leica original

i chat the seller, he admittedly it was not original but high quality filter 

i think it is the same filters sold in ebay as fakes

At least your seller admitted that they were fakes. My seller said they were genuine..

[hdmesa]

Yup, got a counterfeit Q2 thumb grip off eBay once. Fonts on the box were not exactly right, shape of the grip had some giveaways that didn’t match the photos of the genuine ones, etc. eBay seller immediately accepted the return. Must be much, much easier and cheaper to counterfeit these things than we would think. 

Stay away from eBay and Amazon if you want genuine photographic accessories from any manufacturer. Nearly all filters on Amazon are fakes or have been swapped by a buyer who returned it, then it gets sent to you.

[69xchange]

2 hours ago, hdmesa said:

Yup, got a counterfeit Q2 thumb grip off eBay once. Fonts on the box were not exactly right, shape of the grip had some giveaways that didn’t match the photos of the genuine ones, etc. eBay seller immediately accepted the return. Must be much, much easier and cheaper to counterfeit these things than we would think. 

Stay away from eBay and Amazon if you want genuine photographic accessories from any manufacturer. Nearly all filters on Amazon are fakes or have been swapped by a buyer who returned it, then it gets sent to you.

Yup, but from my experience, Amazon is mostly good when buying brand new; shipped and sold by Amazon (not third party sellers). Usually the third party sellers or even “warehouse deal” items are the ones to watch out for. I once ordered a b+w uv filter from Amazon warehouse deals and it arrived with a Tiffen filter inside. Some people are scums..

[hdmesa]

31 minutes ago, 69xchange said:

Yup, but from my experience, Amazon is mostly good when buying brand new; shipped and sold by Amazon (not third party sellers). Usually the third party sellers or even “warehouse deal” items are the ones to watch out for. I once ordered a b+w uv filter from Amazon warehouse deals and it arrived with a Tiffen filter inside. Some people are scums..

I've gotten the swapped generic filter inside when ordering a new Breakthrough Photography filter from their "store" on Amazon. Unfortunately, the swapped products are not limited to the warehouse deals.

[M9reno]

On 7/20/2024 at 8:11 PM, 69xchange said:

I’ll update this thread with an email to Leica. I’ll also do some testing between the filters to see if there are any noticeable differences in glare, ghosting and etc. 

With that being said, I understand that there maybe batch/production variation, but the French word “noir” and German word “schwarz” means black in the packaging while English states “silver” is very odd to me. 
 

From the eBay seller, here is the exact  product that also shows the translation error. 

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Then from his other product (“Q2” thumb grip in silver??) there appears to be an English and another translation error.. did Leica ever make Q2 (not Q3) thumb grips in silver?

“Schwarz / silvery / noir”  Aka..
Black / Silvery / black….

“Silvery”…

Lastly, from a different seller (but this time in Japan).. from my understanding, Leica never made silver UV ii filters in e43. The product number of the filter doesn’t even match the packaging and presents with the same translation error in German and French. In addition, upon googling the product number, both product number shows a different Leica product.

-Product # 13047 = Leica e55 circular polarization filter

-product # 13044 = Leica series Vii (black) 

 

I reported the ebay listing picture above to ebay.  Here is the result:

 

"Thanks again for reporting the listing(s) you found. 

What happened:
We looked into your report and didn’t find the listing to be in violation of our policy.  This determination was made by a customer service agent. 

If you reported content that isn’t listed below, we’ll send a separate email once we’ve made a decision. 

Your reference ID:
2-187392469311 

Here are the listings you reported that are included in this decision:
Item: 146103623464 Leica E39 /43/46/49 55/60/62/67/72/82mm Black/Silver UVa Filter II UV filter"
 

[hdmesa]

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9 hours ago, M9reno said:

I reported the ebay listing picture above to ebay.  Here is the result:

 

"Thanks again for reporting the listing(s) you found. 

What happened:
We looked into your report and didn’t find the listing to be in violation of our policy.  This determination was made by a customer service agent. 

If you reported content that isn’t listed below, we’ll send a separate email once we’ve made a decision. 

Your reference ID:
2-187392469311 

Here are the listings you reported that are included in this decision:
Item: 146103623464 Leica E39 /43/46/49 55/60/62/67/72/82mm Black/Silver UVa Filter II UV filter"
 

That's like reporting a cartel to the local police. 

[M9reno]

17 hours ago, hdmesa said:

That's like reporting a cartel to the local police. 

As with a cartel, should I worry I'm now a "marked man"? lol.

[hdmesa]

1 hour ago, M9reno said:

As with a cartel, should I worry I'm now a "marked man"? lol.

Hah.

Almost every large company is using an ineffective form of AI now to review and resolve complaints/reports. This AI review is useless for anything requiring even the slightest bit of critical thinking. I had found a listing on eBay that was clearly a fake listing for a camera lens – they even stole the photos directly from a Map Camera listing. I reported it, with the same useless result.

The sad truth is there is no longer any oversight of eBay listings.

[lifeandmylens]

Bought a silver e39 from Ebay from big seller "concourse".  Filter arrived and is clearly fake.  On the box, they've fixed the "noir" on the box.  But the edges are white on the fake box just like OP's.  Edges on the real box (bought from Leica Miami) filter is silver.  Biggest giveaway is how sloppy the font is on the filter itself and also the color it reflects green vs blue.

46mm real

39mm fake

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[hdmesa]

17 hours ago, lifeandmylens said:

Bought a silver e39 from Ebay from big seller "concourse".  Filter arrived and is clearly fake.  On the box, they've fixed the "noir" on the box.  But the edges are white on the fake box just like OP's.  Edges on the real box (bought from Leica Miami) filter is silver.  Biggest giveaway is how sloppy the font is on the filter itself and also the color it reflects green vs blue.

46mm real

39mm fake

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Wow, that is one of the sloppiest Leica fakes I've ever seen. Usually they're pretty hard to tell apart.