Re: [Leica] Leica Service and my new 0.85TTL

["James R. Nelon" <JNelon@netvigator.com>]

Congratulations on your 56th! And may you be graced with many more with your
brood of M's. It's great to hear about the personal service here in Hong Kong.
Mr. Tam is indeed the best. He's a one-on-one guy who really cares about you
and your problem.

Yet, all-in-all, it might be about time for you to move up to the R line where
you can experience a whole new set of "experiences":-). Here in the "R" world
we can experience things like medical problems of the thumb from repetitive
manual winding for lack of the availability of a drive. And static electric
problems affecting the rear LCD panel. And an few more. But at least you can
move up and away from that old "M" non technology.:-)  :-)

When is someone from the LUG coming through HK so we can have an excuse for
another get-together? It's been toooo long.

Jim Nelon

Cummer Family wrote:

> Hello Luggers,
> A couple of weeks ago, for my 56th birthday, I took the Star Ferry over to
> Kowloon to Cameron Photo and bought a new M6HM TTL from Mr. Chin. I have
> now purchased three new M6's - the first one in 1989 - from Mr. Chin's
> brother Tommie, and the second, an M6HM, from Cameron Photo last year. In
> the case of the first M6 the screw on the underside of the winding lever
> had to be tightened and the plastic ring around the flash socket was
> cracked when I bought the camera. Tommie took the plastic ring off another
> M6 and replaced the cracked ring before I left his shop so I had no cause
> for complaint. I have had that first M6 CLA'd once in ten years and the
> camera continues to perform flawlessly. It is a sentimental favourite of
> mine - I bought it with money left to me by my Dad.  My M6HM that I bought
> last year arrived in perfect condition and continues to work fine. However,
> the rangefinder of my new TTL began to bother me after I used it a few
> times. The rangefinder patch would move past infinity. From where I live I
> can see the lights of Ocean Park about a mile away. When I turned a lens to
> infinity on a light at the top of the chairlift it would go into focus and
> then form a double image again beyond infinity, as well as having a halo
> below the light. I didn't get a single pin point of light as I expected. I
> focussed on this distant light with my HM and with my old M6 - and achieved
> a single point of light.  I decided I would have to take the new TTL in for
> service. The point of this story is the wonderful service experience I had.
> I called Peter Kwok of Schmidt Scientific and explained my problem and the
> fact that I am leaving Hong Kong next week. He said, "No problem - what you
> need is an emergency service." He called the service department and made an
> appointment for me to see Mr. Tam, the service manager. When I got to the
> service department, Tam came out to see me, I explained the rangefinder
> problem, he said he could fix it in about ten minutes and he did! He came
> back with a focussing target which he taped up on the wall about 10 meters
> down the office hall and we focussed the TTL and focus was spot on. I told
> Tam about running through a set of batteries already and he took the camera
> back to check the battery circuit (it was pronounced okay) - Tam said don't
> forget to turn off the camera when putting it in a camera bag - slight
> pressure on the shutter release may keep the diodes lit and exhaust the
> battery which is what I think I did - I'm not used to having to turn off a
> Leica M! So, I am now ready for my summer vacation and delighted with the
> service I have received and looking forward to taking many *good* pictures
> during my travels to the UK, the US and Canada. I thought some might enjoy
> hearing about this positive experience given how many unfortunate
> adventures have reported recently by Luggers with regard to Leica quality
> control and service.
> Cheers,
> Howard Cummer.

- --
James R. Nelon
Hong Kong, China
http://home.netvigator.com/~jnelon