the sad story of my R6: business with Don Chatterton

[pgs@thillana.lcs.mit.edu (Patrick Sobalvarro)]

So I recently bought an R6 from Don Chatterton as a second body for
use with my R6.2 (I really like those mechanical bodies).  I was
pleased when it arrived because it appeared to be in good shape
despite damage to the paint.

Unfortunately, when I tried to use it over the weekend, I found that
the meter not only gave incorrect values, but the LED + and - arrows
lit up backwards!  That is, the + arrow, which normally indicates
overexposure, lit up at small apertures, and the - arrow lit up at
large apertures.  I called Don Chatterton, who had me FedEx the camera
to DAG at his expense, promising to send me a loaner R5 in the
meantime.

Unfortunately, the loaner R5 he was going to send me had been sold
when he went to send it to me yesterday afternoon, and fixing the R6
is going to take longer than had originally been anticipated.  There
was a complicated story about the camera being wired all backwards
internally, and something about how it was a Passport program
replacement directly from Leica in Germany, and it's going back to
Leica for repair now, which will take at least a month.

So Don Chatterton refunded my money.

It was all rather a disappointment, although I'm not out anything but
time and effort.  I'd probably do business with Don again, although I
wouldn't go to him as a first choice.  He was very nice, but I
wouldn't believe him when he says (as he did to me) that they check
out their used cameras individually for proper operation.

-Patrick Sobalvarro

P.S. Anybody got an R6 for sale?