Leica quality

[Jim Brick <jim@brick.org>]

At 12:00 AM 7/30/97 +0930, you wrote:
>
>The M4-P turned out to have an inaccurately set rangefinder adjustment 
>(ie. the camera's rangefinder was incorrectly set). This was promptly 
>fixed by the Leica service centre in Sydney. There were no problems with 
>the lens.
>
>The 1987 M6 also would not focus accurately at full aperture. The problem 
>in this case was the rangefinder cam on the lens being incorrectly set 
>up. The lens had to go back to Wetzlar. It took 6 months for the lens to 
>come back to Australia but they loaned me a Summilux in the meantime. The 
>problem was fixed.
>
>In 1995, I thought it would be "third time lucky". Not! The lens, the 
>current chrome version of the Summicron, also turned out to have an 
>inaccurate cam. Back to Solms. Three month wait. It then focussed 
>correctly but I did notice that they had slightly marred the chrome 
>finish just forward of the focussing ring. Groan! I didn't pursue the 
>matter any further.
>
>Obsessively-compulsively,
>
>John Gilbert

Sad story. I've had Leica R cameras since 1976 and haven't experienced any
of these problems... (Joke...) But, as a matter of fact (no joke), with
tens of thousands of rolls of film through 1 SL, 2 R3's, 2 R4sp's, 1 R6,
and 2 R7's, and two of us (my son and I) using them, I have never had any
of my Leicas worked on by anyone. From my point of view, they are all
really robust and very accurate in what they do. Interesting note, one of
my R4sp's tested absolutely dead-on (0% error) at ALL shutter speeds (Ernst
Hartmann came by K&S Photo a couple of years ago with his test equipment.)
They ran through it several times because they couldn't believe it.

Jim