adamdewilde Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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rscheffler wrote:
I have nothing to really add here, other than to say that the above is my biggest underlying fear shooting paid work with Leica. So far in the nearly 3 years working with my M9, I have never gone to a job with only the Leica. Always with a DSLR backup, which I use anyways for telephoto work to take advantage of AF...
I guess Leica is just not large enough to provide pro loaner service, but I sure would love it if they did. For $250/year here, Canon Canada will turn around repairs in a few days and in the meantime provide an identical loaner. The last time I sent my M9 to NJ (shortly after buying it used), it took about 1.5 months to get it back (granted, it was over the Xmas/New Year holiday when they were closed for a week). Yet, in the EU you can opt for two levels of expedited service, at a cost. Would be reassuring if they could do that for North America too.
It's one thing buying a second back up body if it's a $1000-2000-3000 camera, but at the M240's price point, it gets to be more prohibitive. And if one is an early adopter, good luck getting two cameras at the same time from Leica, unless you're on their super A-list.
I also would advise against sending the camera in with any kind of nebulous, difficult to reproduce problem. There is always something lost in the passing of information from you to the CSR to the technician... My prediction is they will say they need to see it in order to determine if there is a problem with it. ...Show more →
Leica keeps claiming it's a company that caters to working professionals, but I've had nothing but bad experience with Leica's after sales support. Not only slow, but rude, and really nobody seems to care that I've spent 10s of thousands of dollars on my M system. Really just a horrible attitude in general from anyone at Leica.
I've opted not to get a Leica S-system, because of this ongoing fight I've been having with Leica over my 50 APO.. I was promised a few day turn around, and now all they're doing is giving me the run around about not having the parts. And then about a factory machine breaking, and causing delays. And on and on. MEANWHILE, I've asked my dealer to let me know if he gets any new 50 APO lenses in, he's gotten one, very recently, and another dealer that I was on the waiting list with (forgot to take my name off) called me up to let me know he had one in stock!
So clearly they're getting new lenses, but can't seem to fix mine, refuse to give me a loaner, and have refused to commit to a time line. I even told them to send the lens back, unfixed, and then when they get the parts in and can promise a 3-4 day turn around (like I was originally promised), I'd send the lens back to them.. Nope, they're not going to do that either.
Anyway, you really just have to think of Leica as a buy at your own risk company. And before anyone chimes in that this is one off... I've had a M9 at Leica for 6 months, same parts bullshit, meanwhile there were tons of new leica M9 cameras being shipped in and sold on a weekly basis (thats when I bought an M9p, simply because I was waiting for an M9 to be returned). And this isn't an isolated incident. I've been talking with a few people locally that I know about Leica's lack of support for professionals (S-system users, one more reason why I've decided against it for my professional work).
Oh and a new thing is happening now that the firmware has been updated in the M240. When you zoom in on an image, it gets REALLY soft, and all the contrast is bleached out of the image.. So the image looks soft and weird, but it's fine when zoomed out and on the computer. But no magenta cast so that's a plus
Sorry if it sounds like a rant, but I'm pretty pissed off, as I have a few good trips coming up, and I'm totally bummed out about not having my 50APO. So again, I stress, don't send your camera in unless it's literally unusable!
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