Re: Don Chatterton

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

Various people sent in mail relating positive experiences with Don
Chatterton after I and someone else related our experiences receiving
broken cameras from him.  One person suggested that the M4-2 had been
damaged in shipping, which I doubt, although I can't be sure.
However, I can be quite sure that the damaged R6 I received from Don
Chatterton was not damaged in shipping.  The reason I can be sure of
that is that the problem with it was that the meter lights lit up
backwards (the overexposure arrow lit up when the aperture was
decreased, and the underexposure arrow when the aperture was
increased, and the center value was in any case wrong), and when I
sent it to DAG at Don's request, Don told me that DAG told him that it
was "wired up all backwards inside."

I can't think of any way that a Leica R6 can suffer damage in shipping
that causes it to become "wired up all backwards inside."  Before I
bought the camera, I asked Don very clearly whether he had tested the
camera and he said he had, and he had found it in perfect working
order.  Obviously he had not, unless somehow someone had gotten hold
of the camera and "wired it up all backwards inside" after he tested
it but before I received it.  This seems unlikely.

Now, I did not say that Don Chatterton is a bad man.  I very carefully
said that I did not think he was trying to steal from anyone.  But I
do think that he is at least careless.

I think it's useful to have everyone's data on dealers -- both good
experiences and bad -- so we can make our own decisions based on as
much data as possible.  The Photographic Mail Order Survery
unfortunately doesn't always have a lot of data on Leica-only dealers,
so our group can be a valuable resource in this regard, if we're
willing to listen to both positive and negative data about dealers.