Noctilux 0.95 - $10,000 paperweight

[dkCambridgeshire]

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You should be entitled to an explanation from Leica as to the cause of the problem - and if the lens is away for more than a week ask them for the loan of a "courtesy lens" until it comes back.

 

Cheers

 

dunk

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[sm23221]

You should be entitled to an explanation from Leica as to the cause of the problem - and if the lens is away for more than a week ask them for the loan of a "courtesy lens" until it comes back.

 

Cheers

 

dunk

 

Agree. I shipped it today UPS along with my registration card to Leica in NJ for repair. It cost me about $55.00 with insurance. I'll post the outcome.

[Marten]

We've had lots of problems with more recent leica kit. My 1971 M4 is still working like a clock even though it's all banged up But My M7's internal gears completely failed just after one year and my wife's MP's frame counter gave up after just a few months. My greatest disappointment was the hood on her 50 1.4 ASPH which is held in place by three little plastic nubs - it came off in the first week. The lens then spent three months in Germany being repaired and when it came back it was the same story - it fell apart again a few days later. The 60's - 70's kit was built to be used professionally but much of the current output seems to be made for display and careful handling only...

[marknorton]

No such problems with my lens. A call from my dealer mid-week and the lens is in my hands, one of only 3 delivered so far in the UK, apart from the early one delivered to Eric Clapton. It's a magnificent lens with all the improved build quality we see in the 21 and 24 Summiluxes. No chance to try it out yet - up to my ears in work - but I'm more than impressed. Surprisingly heavy, so in no way a general purpose M lens.

 

Only SNAFU is that the lens serial doesn't match the paperwork, dealer handling.

[sm23221]

Agree. I shipped it today UPS along with my registration card to Leica in NJ for repair. It cost me about $55.00 with insurance. I'll post the outcome.

 

Today I received my repaired Nocitlux from Leica NJ. I have no complaints, it took about 2 weeks and seems to work like new. I plan to return the repair survey card with good ratings.

[Daniel Leung]

Yes, I'm venting a bit but cooling down now. But I can't really understand how a handmade lens with supposedly high quality control could fail in this respect. I do understand better how mass-produced lenses could fail with better than average probabilities. The signed card that came with the lens states: "This Leica product was meticulously examined by experienced professionals at several stages of production."

 

Now, do I send it to Leica in NJ or Solms? Thanks.

 

mine has the exact same problem. I brought it back to my dealer in NJ, the dealer sent it bacK to LEICA NJ> they cfmd that they have to sent it back to Solms> Solms sent me a brand new one in 2 weeks

 

DL

[EJohnE]

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Leica lenses which have mechanical faults between leaving Solms, and at least the end of the warranty period are inexcusable. From my Leica R3's (Leitz, Wetzlar) brochure – page 20, (Leitz lens report) “Our lenses are designed and manufactured so as to sustain impact and shock of up to 100 G's. This also applies to impacts experienced during transport and handling”. “Many tests on our special testing machines show that even after 50,000 operations the diaphragm mechanisms exhibit no appreciable signs of wear”. Similar justifiably confident claims were made for the M lenses.

From “Leica Fotografie” issue 2 of 1982 – page 31 - “.......a finished Leica lens is checked on no fewer than 75 different counts”. How many checks these days?

Frankly (no, I'm not him!), Solms charges far too much for lower quality equipment. A girlfriend's M2 had a seized-up r/f which was repaired over two days by the nearest camera mechanic who gave it a general CLA and which kept it going for years more. No precious “only the agent/Solms can be trusted” nonsense.

To horrify the Leica Lovers' Taliban, I would suggest moving manufacture away from the bratwurst-fingered Solms employees to the more nimble ministrations of Oriental workers, with strict quality control by Leica.

I would scream blue murder if a new, $US10,000 lens was less than perfectly made. Tolerance and patience are misplaced. If the Lexus developed a fault, I would expect (and receive) immediate attention.

Go, get 'em.

John.

[Steve Ash]

John,

 

I do find your posting somehow offensive.

 

I agree that there are too many overweight people in Germany but please make it your own task to find the proper statistic showing the comparison between your own country and others.

 

BTW if the Lexus developed a fault you can blame Mercedes as it is to obvious that the designers at Toyota were screening the Mercedes brochures during their design process.

If you want to buy a Mercedes than just do it.

 

 

Michael,

 

I wish you a lot fun with the Noctilux and nice pictures to show in the forum.

 

Regards

Steve

[dkCambridgeshire]

The problem with Leica's alleged lack of quality control is that disgruntled users and others home in straight away on the 'shock - horror - cannot be serious' box-office horror stories and go straight for the jugular without maybe putting the shortcomings into proper perspective.

 

Maybe we should be aware that Leica is a relatively low production company with more hand assembled products as distinct from robot made and thus 'human error' could be to blame for any shortcomings. OK, so maybe there should not be that many human errors - but do we know in percentage terms just how many defective lenses are coming off the production line? I doubt if the defect rate is more than a fraction of one percent. Does anyone know exactly? And with a new lens, there is the inevitable "learning process" ie no matter what checks are implemented initially there are bound to be latent anomalies requiring attention

 

Even NASA makes mistakes ... but learns from them.

 

Maybe the S2 will go to the moon one day and then we will be able to praise Leica for their efforts.

 

Cheers

 

dunk

[EJohnE]

Apologies to Steve Ash. I had no thought of insulting the Solms workforce over any weight issue. No. My barb was aimed at the seeming lack of manual dexterity compared with the Japanese and Chinese. I have two Olympus 4/3rds cameras made in China, and one from Japan. All are very precise and reliable, as are the lenses. Of course, I would not like to drop any of the standard class or kit lenses, which while optically far better than one would expect, are not made to the same mechanical standards of Leica lenses.

 

Re Mercedes versus Lexus: yes, the Lexus largely emulated the Mercedes, but Toyota's quality control rose to meet very high standards, at the same time that the Mercedes accountants seemed to over-rule the engineers' desire to maintain or exceed their high reputation. It seems only over the last five or so years has Daimler Benz recovered its way.

 

Grovelling, John.

[JosefSchachner]

I would be pi**** too, statistics, perceived quality and anecdotical evidence be dammed, a handmade Lens for the price of a car should not fail on the first outing. But besides the inconvenience and damage to the perceived quality lens fixed under warranty. Maybe they could pack a little 50er sumarit in the box for backup.

 

To cut them some slack stuff that can go wrong will go wrong, and even bratwurst eating germans are not except ;-) altho washed down with enough beer you may feel invincible or close.