Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/11/01

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Subject: [Leica] M8 bought with 1,2,3
From: drodgers at casefarms.com (David Rodgers)
Date: Wed Nov 1 06:33:07 2006

Don,

It might make sense to buy a couple of M8s just to part out in a year or 
two. :-)

daveR

-----Original Message-----
From: Don Dory [mailto:don.dory@gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 10:40 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] M8 bought with 1,2,3

Marc,
The camera manufacturers are doing the price escalation thing right now as
we type to each other.  Call up Nikon and price a compact flash receptor
block and you will be amazed at the many hundreds of dollars one of those
will cost you.  One of the Luggers was talking about how much a shutter cost
him on his Nikon DSLR.  Especially as the cost/performance of digi's
continues to improve it just does not make sense to pay more than $100 to
fix a 3 MP P&S when a 5MP will set you back about the same amount.

I am trying not to be an alarmist, but I see these repair prices regularly
and they are ugly.

Now, I am not too worried about the M8 as the shutter is essentially an off
the shelf model with some engineering plastic in critical places to cut the
sound.  I am pretty sure that Leica will have enough flex boards available
to do the reasonable expectations of repairs over time.  If I can still get
a rubber eyecup for a thirty year old pair of binoculars I would be fairly
certain that the company would do what was right by the customer base.  The
IIIG was last built in what 1960 and the company will still repair it if you
send it off to Germany.

Don
don.dory@gmail.com


On 10/31/06, Marc James Small <marcsmall@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> At 08:12 AM 10/31/2006, Don Dory wrote:
> >The manufacturers have figured out a way to dodge the ten year rule by
> using
> >price.  Yes Mr./Ms Valued Customer, we can repair the CF block on your
> >DSLR.  The parts cost is $650 and labor will bring it to $725.  LCD
> >replacements on compact digicams are over $150.  You all get the drift,
> >there will be one part in the warehouse but it will be more expensive
> than a
> >D white flawless 4 carat diamond.  :)
>
> Don
>
> The US automakers tried that trick in the 1950's
> and were slammed hard by Congress.  The FTC takes
> a VERY dim view if the costs of repairs or parts
> escalates unreasonably during this ten-year
> period.  (By way of example, I drive a 1984 Audi
> 4000S, and only in the past year have I started
> to have problems in getting parts from VW/Audi,
> and these are on minor parts such as locks -- I
> got the last driver-door lock in the US in 2004,
> and they could not mate this with a
> passenger-door, trunk, or ignition lock, as the
> last full kit had been sold three weeks before.)
>
> Zeiss Ikon Voigtlander went out of business in
> 1973 but they were gently reminded by the Federal
> government of this requirement, so ZIV hired an
> outside contractor, Wolfram Umbach, to provide
> these services until 1983, when he moved to North
> Carolina, though he continues to service ZIV
> cameras as he ended up with all of the US supply of parts.
>
> Marc
>
>
>
> msmall@aya.yale.edu
> Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!
>
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