[Leica] R8 and 180 weirdness update

["Harrison McClary" <hmcclary@earthlink.net>]

Just wanted to update you all on what I have learned on my R8 and 180.

The R8 was going crazy while in use.  Sometimes half way through a roll of film 
it would freeze up and all LED displays would start flashing.  This morning it 
happened as I had 20 people running toward me while I was doing a shoot for a 
magazine on runners.  I got it working and the rest of the shoot went well thank 
goodness, but it did cause some problems with the runners and made me look 
like a rank amateur as I had set this thing up then said go and as they came 
by I was obviously playing with my camera trying to get it to work. :(     (BTW, 
Dick, your flash performed flawlessly)

Needless to say I was rather pissed.

When I got back into the office I called Leica NJ and got voice mail-left a 
message, then I sent an e-mail to Germany. With in 10 minutes Neils Thorsen 
had called me back and told me to fed-ex him the camera and he would have it 
fixed and it should be back into my hands Friday. He was very courteous, 
friendly and said this is a familiar problem to him and he would be sure my 
camera is back up to speed quickly.  Completely restored my faith in why I 
bought Leica.

Who said Leica has bad customer service?  I have dealt with both Nikon and 
Canon and neither was as nice as Neils was this morning.  Canon comes 
close, but Nikon...HA theres a joke, they could care less IMHO & IME.

My advice to all with R8's who have experienced this problem is call Leica they 
know about it and will fix it.

Now the 180. The front of the lens had come unscrewed.  I called DAG about 
this and he said that all I needed to do was screw it back together and it should 
be fine. I told him it is rather stiff to focus and he said this is probably what 
caused it unscrew so it is off to him for adjustment and a good tightening of the 
front barrel. 

While I had him on the phone I asked about my R6 shutter that had gotten 
partly stuck on 3 frames and he said it must have had something stuck in there 
to hinder the easy opening of the shutter and it had worked itself out. I have 
shot 400 or more frames since this problem and it has not recurred so it must 
have been a fluke.

My faith in Leica has been restored and I must say that Neils Thorsen is a true 
gentleman on the phone.  You could tell he is committed to the quality of the 
product they are putting out and will do his level best to be sure it lives up to 
expectations.


Harrison McClary
http://people.delphi.com/hmphoto