RE: [Leica] Leica initial quality story

["Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com>]

At 3:17 PM -0400 7/7/00, B. D. Colen wrote:
>> It's equally likely that the 15-hour massage by a 747 on the run to Sydney
>> loosened something up.
>>
>> Cameras are just mechanical contrivances, and can be expected to go off
>> song. In the words of Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley), "It's all fixable."
>
>Okay, we like Lykas, or we wouldn't be on this list....but do we have to
>sound like a bunch of freaking company boosters all the time. A camera that
>can't take one 747 flight without developing shutter bounce is, pardon my
>whatever, a piece of crap. Period. I can just hear Nachtwey calling Time in
>New York and telling the picture desk -
>
>"About those Kosovo combat photos you were expecting...I'm afraid you won't
>get them - seems my wonderful Lyka developed shutter bounce on the way over
>here. But it's not important. The shutter can be fixed."
>
>Come on guys. It's a terrific camera, but it's produced by a company that
>really want to produce a boutique product with a boutique image, without
>providing the quality control and support that goes with it. If I buy a
>Parker Duofold fountain pen it is guaranteed FOR LIFE. Can't Lyka even get a
>"perfect" product off the shelf of the dealer and into the buyer's hands?
>
>
>>

I've flown twice to Europe and arrived to find that a Nikon product had
shed screws. Once, there were just screws in the bottom of the bag, and I
could replace them into the Camera body easily. Once, a lens helicoid
refused to budge due to a screw coming loose inside. In both cases the
equipment was in regular camera bags as carry-on, and probably sat on the
floor in front of me most of the time.

I've had QC problems out of the box with Nikon equipment many times. With
Canon, just a couple of times, but then I've only had Canon SLR's for a few
years and only have a few lenses. Some Sinar stuff has had QC problems,
some Mamiya stuff, some Gitzo etc.

So far (40 years worth) Leica stuff has been free of initial QC problems
except for one time, an M4-2, where one of the strap eyelets let go in a
disastrous fashion, but various stuff has had to go in for servicing. Leica
replaced that body, and the lens on it as well as soon as I brought it in.

For 10 years I used Konica SLR stuff. It had neither QC problems nor was
any of it ever in for repair. It just _sounded_ like it should go in for
repari! :-)

Over the years I've owned and used about 15 to 20 Leica bodies, and about
60 lenses. No QC issues except that once. I've had about a dozen Nikon
bodies, and about 50 lenses. About 10 or 15 QC problems, including a series
of 5 lenses of the same type before I found one that worked. This was the
first compact 35-105 zoom.

I'm sure that one of these times I'll get another item from Leica that has
a defect, but that's the way of all wordly things, whether from automated
assembly lines or handmade.

Leica is not the be-all end-all camera brand. The cameras and lenses allow
me to do certain things in a way that I like, and I'm willing to shell out
for this. If I feel I can't trust a camera, I leave it at home. If I
realize after a while that I've left it at home quite often due to this
distrust, I get rid of it.

Leicas, Nikons and Canons all come with me as the situations arise. They
all have their purpose, and the ones I have now all work fine.

   *            Henning J. Wulff
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