Re: [Leica] Reliability?

["Wildmagic" <Wildmagic@compuserve.com>]

Ted:

Thank you for your informative reply.

I'm wondering if there is a general decline in reliability across the board,
or if people are demanding more from their equipment.  I've heard about some
people getting DOA Hasselblads out of the box, which was apparently unheard
of in the past.  Fortunately (knock on wood) this hasn't been my experience
with the 501c.


> neither you nor anyone else is going to die because of
> the rangefinder off the mark. A damn inconvenience, but not the end of the
> world. Though at times some folks do think it is. :)

Well, I'm trying to set up a vacation with my wife in Italy.  I have this
desire to take some early morning shots of the canals.  If the rangefinder
goes out of adjustment in the middle of the trip, it would be more than a
minor annoyance.  I find the concept of using the G as a backup a bit ironic
<g>.

> <<<When I talked to our local pro-shop here in Portland about how many
M6's
> they have had to send back for customers, they've mentioned that quite a
> few have come in needing repair, moreso than most other manufacturers
> bodies.>>>>
>
> Now lad I'd have a toughtime swallowing that one from the service shop and
> would want to see shipping numbers and account files before I believe it.
> Certainly many on the LUG would say the same thing from their private use
> of the M6.

Part of why I raised the question was that I seemed to be reading on LUG
about a number of failures that seemed to go against the traditional high
reliability reputation of the M6.  I've been taking pictures for about 38
years now.  Of the SLR's that I've owned, I've only had two failures. I had
a Minolta SRT-101 that had its light meter go out, and when I was doing
sports photojournalism, my Nikon F4 had its motor drive jam (that was after
about 800 rolls had gone through it).  The failures I read about on LUG,
coupled with the information from the shop in Portland, in addition the
experiences of my acquaintances on Compuserve, lead me to believe that QC
may have been slipping lately.

Thank you for your advice on the Noctilux and the 35 f1.4 aspheric.  I
believe that I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get back into the M
system.  Since it will only be for low light work, I'll have to agonize over
whether I want to buy the Noctilux or the 35mm first.

While I'm not in your league, if you would like to see one of my works, it
is at:
http://www.contaxcameras.com/photos/23.html
I had another photo that got an "honorable mention", but they haven't
published it yet.

Thank you again,
Michael