Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/06/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Seth Rosner writes: > I don't mean to quibble but <twice as much play > as average> doesn't sound like <very slight play>. In absolute terms, it is about 1/26 of a stop, so it's not very much, but still more than many other lenses. Obviously it has no effect on the photographs taken with the lens. One of these days, I may sell it and buy a replacement with a tighter aperture ring (thus paying only the difference between the two lenses). At this point, I don't think I'll send it in to get it adjusted, because of the risk of it coming back broken in some other way. I've made a note of John Van Stelten's number and e-mail, just in case (although I'm in Europe, so the lens would probably be sent back to Germany). > His guesstimate, barring some serious defect > in component or assembly, would be a cost of > a $90. - $100. But the lens still has to be disassembled, doesn't it? It's like an acoustic piano: Whenever you tune it, the tuning pins loosen a little bit. No matter how careful you are, no matter how good you are, you can't avoid damaging (wearing) the pins and their block down a bit with every tuning. And with a lens, every time you undo a screw or force a ring off a pressure mount or whatever, something wears down a bit, and it will never be quite the same again. I just think it's unfortunate that the lens has this play to begin with. Obviously some aspects of the lens are never even checked in quality control. I don't believe in sending products back for free service when they have manufacturing defects; I believe in having them manufactured without defects in the first place. But I guess nobody is conscientious enough to do that anymore, not even Leica.