So much for German quality control.
To quote the Queen: "We are not amused."
Thursday, July 2, 2009
50 summilux woes
Fuzzbucket and I both recently purchased Leica 50/1.4 Summilux-M ASPH lenses, new, from our local authorized dealer. But what a different experience. Whereas the black one is functioning perfectly, the silver one has developed an aperture hiccup: first the ring was too loose and refusing to lock at any position and now one of the aperture blades is sticky - it doesn't open smoothly to f1.4 without some effort and twisting the aperture ring just the right way. I'm told by the local agent - Schmidt - that it's a 2 month German holiday to fix. Excuse me? On a US$4,000 lens, which was bought just four days ago, and hasn't even been properly shot with yet? The least you could do would be swap it for a new one - oh wait, there aren't any in stock. Hmm.
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I was shocked when I heard the news this morning. We will be following developments closely. The least they could do would be to provide or arrange for a temporary replacement, say a Nokton 1.1.
ReplyDeleteNope. And remember Cosina-Voigtlander don't like each other, so no 50/1.1 loan. This just goes to show the perils of dealing with a small/ relatively unpopular camera company (at least locally; I'm told there are only around 50 M8s in the country - compare that with about a thousand D3s). If this were Nikon, it'd probably have been fixed in about half an hour, or if not, I'd get a loaner and an apology and been told to come back the next day. Hell, I remember sending my D2H in once for a shutter replacement and complaining about some aspect of the tonal behaviour - and it came back with a 'development' firmware that to this day *has never been released!* Now that's service.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the dealer could work something out was what I meant. I don't think the distributor would ever come to the party like that. They are too diversified and Leica is only one brand/product in their stable.
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