Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/02/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I think we're being baited here. Only one new lens a month - poor poor pitiful me. Watch all the Leicaholics here jump up and down over such a nice "starter" kit. LOL Drool. Buy all the expensive ones first - quick before she puts her foot down. ROTHLMAO gold - -----Original Message----- From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of George Kenney Sent: Monday, February 19, 2001 3:41 PM To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Subject: [Leica] Two quick questions, please Hi, My name is George and I'm a new Leicaholic. Tho I don't take pictures much, recently I bought an M6 .85 after looking at it in a store. Another M6 (.58) and a few lenses later (50/2; 75/1.4; 35/1.4; and Voigtlander 15/2.8) I'm getting ready to take a photography class to learn how to use all this great stuff. I haven't, however, been able to get the acquisition bug to be still, so I'm wondering what other lenses might be good/useful. (After this wild spending spree my girlfriend has imposed a limit of one new lens per month, so a full set of further acquisitions will take a while.) Anyhow, here're two questions for those with patience enough to tolerate newbies: 1) Would the Noctilux; the 28/2 (when it comes out); and the 24/2.8 make sense? And tho I'm not much interested in longer lenses, would the 90/2 ASPH give much greater/different coverage than what I get with the 75/1.4 (which I love -- it takes better snapshots for me than I've ever taken in my life)? 2) In terms of finding dealers, I've appreciated the list at teach.net (http://teachnet.edb.utexas.edu/~leica/dealer.html) very much. I'm wondering, though, about ordering from a German dealer I found on the internet. He seems quite reputable, but all that kind of thing aside, just how exactly does one go about handling duty taxes when getting a shipment from Germany? I can't seem to get thru to ask any live person at US Customs. From the Customs web site it looks as though the duty on new lenses (I'm only talking lenses here, not other camera equipment, which is probably assessed differently) is either 2.3% or 2.35%. Does anybody know if this is correct? Or if not, what the duty actually is? If it's only about 2.3% it would make sense, economically, to give a German dealer a try. OTOH, if it's something like 30%, it wouldn't. And one other question (I know, this is way more than two now) -- the dealer says these are not grey market goods, that is, they come with a Leica international warranty; so is this correct, and would they therefore be eligible for service (if needed) by Leica repair in the US? Thanks much for any help. G.