Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/04/24

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica quality issues
From: Martin Howard <howard.390@osu.edu>
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 05:48:34 -0400

Dominique PELLISSIER jotted down the following:

> Our fellow Tom bought 2 lenses which are very expensive.

The retail price is essentially irrelevant to this.  If he had got the exact
same lenses for half the price, would the errors present in the lenses be
acceptible?  Understandable?  Where is the break-even point?  A quarter of
the price?  A tenth?  For free?  The Mars Climate Orbiter and Polar Lander
were expensive too, but guess what:  It didn't make them immune to faults
either.

Shit happens.  It's a fact of life.  The real issues are:

  * Did Leica acknowledge the faults?
  * Did Leica take care of the faults?
  * Did Leica learn from the incident?

I believe the first two can be answered in the affirmative, which is what
manufacturers' warranties are for.  Only Leica can answer the third.

> Moreover Leica Camera builds only 10,000 lenses each year. And they say that
> each lens is "individually checked".

We don't know the complete history of the two lenses he bought.  It is
possible (although unlikely in the case of the first one if it was a faulty
coating) that the faults were acquired after they left the Leica quality
control.  Any number of things could have happened to them.

Again, I can give you examples of things which are manufactured in much
lower quantities than 10,000 per annum, and which undergo much more rigorous
quality control than do Leica lenses.  Shit happens.  Throwing money at
something is no guarantee that shit doesn't happen.  Parting with a painful
amount of your income does not innoculate you against faults.

The reality is that shit happens.  The answer is to deal with it, not to
pretend that you can reach a state of nirvana where shit doesn't happen.
Dealing with it either means (a) catching it while it is still small shit,
(b) before it becomes consequential shit (in the larger sense), or (c)
taking care of the consequences, limiting their impact, and learning how to
change (c) shit into (a) or (b) shit in the future.

As long as manufacturers honour their warranties, I see no reason for
shouting bloody murder.  Yes, I agree, that for Tom it was probably very
annoying to have not only one, but two, lenses show faults shortly after
purchase.  But we don't need this dead horse beaten any more on the LUG (so
why am I even bothering to write this rubbish??  Please all, stop reading
immediately!)

> "Check, then check one more time".(Ariane-5)

I fail to see what the Ariane-5 software failure has to do with new Leica
lenses reaching the customers with faults, unless you're implying that there
are systemic errors present, which only strengthens the points above.

M.

- -- 
Martin Howard                     | Armored with good intentions and
Visiting Scholar, CSEL, OSU       | ignorance, one is impregnable to
email: howard.390@osu.edu         | learning.
www: http://mvhoward.i.am/        +---------------------------------------