I'd Leica Refund: A Week Long Tale of my Leica MP

Roger Hicks said:
Stick around. There are one or two. There are also those who scream 'Fanboy!' and kindred insults at anyone who points out that actually, despite their not being perfect, Leicas are pretty good cameras.

My favourite ZI review was in the British Journal of Photography, where they pointed out that if Voigländers, ZIs and Leicas were all made in the same factory, their finish, feel and features would mean that they would still occupy roughly the same price points.

If you're interested in this late date at a review of the ZI shortly after it came out, you might care to look at http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/zeiss.html

Cheers,

R.
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I think the problem with Leica's and having to repair them is a matter of having too high an expectation of them. They may be a victim of their own cult status/reputation. At what price point when new do you accept "Leicas are pretty good cameras" as good enough?

Bob
 
Nikon Bob said:
Nothing like comparing a sniping rifle that has been tuned/blue printed with a telescopic sight to a bog standard open sighted issue infantry rifle. That is to say nothing of the intense training a sniper receives compared to the average grunt/pongo. Each has reliability and quality enough for it's intended end usage.
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I thought this discussion was started by a Leica owner not a Holga user. I know that you could buy a pallet of AK's for the cost of a M40A5, but how many cheap and reliable P&S's can you buy for the price of a Leica MP?

Leica MP and M40A5 can be judged by the same quality/reliability quotient as the M40A5 and Leica MP are both highly specialised tools currently in production that require precision manufacturing and hand-assembly. And according to the pundits, it can take years of training and practice to become proficient at using either of these tools.

I made my observation with this statement in mind...

johnnygulliver said:
...Is quality and reliability the same thing? It should be, ideally, but rarely attained...
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I agree with the sentiments of others here and do not want this thread to become a discussion of that compares the lethality of firearms.
 
leicashot said:
The recent issues you've been having have probably been due to all the user error by new RF users since digital trying to go old school, not knowing what they're doing, screwing up the cameras then on selling to people like yourself....or maybe it's just my wild imagination.
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I think your imagination is getting the best of you. Other than outright abuse (sticking fingers through shutters, banging the hell out of the camera, poking around in the camera, etc) I don't see what an inexperienced RF user would do when using the camera to cause them to be more prone to breaking it when compared to a more experienced rangefinder user (the exception being maybe burning the shutter by leaving an attached lens uncapped pointed toward the sun - might not occur to a SLR user). I certainly don't see what a brand new RF user would do to break the film counter.
 
P. Lynn Miller

Yea, the OP is a Leica user not a Holga user. I think the trouble is that with any supposed premium product for which you pay a heavy surcharge to purchase, new or used, the expectation is very high as to it's reliability due to it's precision manufacture and hand assembly. This is especially bothersome if you have owned similar tools of supposed lesser rank that cost less to purchase and have not given the user anywhere near the reliability problems their Leicas have.

Bob
 
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how could this 'not' turn into a Leica bashing thread? either way it's disappointing when such a product of such precision doesn't perform, on several occasions, especially when it's mechanical. I expect to have such issues with my electronic camera, ands rarely do.
 
Fujitsu said:
Maybe you´re right. Used Leicas gave me some trouble too. Here´s a list of my Leica Ms (bought everything used) in chronological order:

M6 - Rangefinder out of alignment

M6 TTL - base door bent

M7 - worked fine, except for the DX reader issue (tough to get the roll of film out the camera)

M6 "Wetzlar" - meter failure (needed two rides to Solms to get it fixed), infamous "zinc corrosion"

MP - perfect!

M8 - strange blackouts, weird self-burst shootings, failure to read / write certain SD cards

M6 "Wetzlar" - meter failure

Im Leica-less currently. Would I get an M again? Sure, why not. Finding one thats working perfectly is sort of a hobby too...
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quite expensive hobby......;)
 
To be honest, I am not surprised. The older M bodies have never failed me. The newer m6, m7, mp have all had problems. The MP is not as smooth as the good M2, M3 I have used, certainly not nearly as smooth or solid as a New In Box M2 I have seen.
 
I'll jump in one more time here. I guess it's like this: Purchasing a Leica is like (ahem) purchasing a Rolls Royce, with all its history, cachet, and costly, hand-crafted construction.

So I suppose for the original poster, to have the MP go out on him as it did, is like purchasing a brand-new Rolls-Royce and having it break down five miles from the dealership.
 
Paul Luscher said:
I'll jump in one more time here. I guess it's like this: Purchasing a Leica is like (ahem) purchasing a Rolls Royce, with all its history, cachet, and costly, hand-crafted construction.

So I suppose for the original poster, to have the MP go out on him as it did, is like purchasing a brand-new Rolls-Royce and having it break down five miles from the dealership.
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Pretty much.
 
I've had a dozen Leicas and what problems I had were mostly user error. On two occasions it was the camera:
1) M6TTL - flare, reset counter jacked up.
2) MP - battery drainage. Warranty repaired.

BTW, not fair comparing AK with Leicas since the AK is machine stamped and the Leica machined like a Walther PPK ;-)
 
35mmdelux said:
I've had a dozen Leicas and what problems I had were mostly user error. On two occasions it was the camera:
1) M6TTL - flare, reset counter jacked up.
2) MP - battery drainage. Warranty repaired.

BTW, not fair comparing AK with Leicas since the AK is machine stamped and the Leica machined like a Walther PPK ;-)
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You clearly don't know your firearms.
 
MikeL said:
..... My ideal body would be a Nikon S3-SP body with a Leica rangefinder on top for focusing in low light....... My Nikon rangefinders never needed adjustments or went down on me, even after getting dropped from 6 feet high....
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Yea MIkeL, I am with you on this...with one addition: that the "like-leica-VF" in the SP body affords parallax corrected 35 mm framelines, too. It would be ideal.



Sorry your MP has let you down, Nate. I don't know whether you bought it from a seller like Tony Rose, but if you didn't and you don't know about him, you might consider him for any future "big" MP-like purchases. I would guarantee that if you had bought this MP from him, you would not have been left like this in the cold. A seller who believes in service makes a sale "great" in my view.

I hope this problem gets resolved for you soon. Though my favourite Leica has been the M2, I have had no problems with my MP that weren't of my own making. I wish you the same with yours after it is fixed!

Best,

Thomas
 
SP...had one of those once. While they are beautiful cameras, and well made, for me it was one of the "bad" cameras. I shoot a lot of low light, and the dim and diffuse rangefinder patch on the SP led to a lot more "soft focus" shots than I wanted.

Also, I could never deal with the fiddly lens change on the camera. After being used to simply slapping a lens on the front of a Leica, the "lens mount must be set to infinity" thing threw me, and I found myself way too many times about to inflict serious potential damage on the camera.


So we soon parted ways. While Leicas ain't perfect, that experience did reawaken an appreciation of Leica's sharp and bright rangefinder and no-brainer lens change...
 
I already have an FM3A and I won't be getting into another system unless it's dirt cheap. I missed out on a Contax G1 w/ 35/2 for less than $200 a few weeks ago, but anything more than that and I'm going to pass on it.

I got my refund today for the MP and I'll just be putting it in my bank account.
 
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