Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/04/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Dominique PELLISSIER jotted down the following: > Our fellow Tom bought 2 lenses which are very expensive. The retail price is essentially irrelevant to this. If he had got the exact same lenses for half the price, would the errors present in the lenses be acceptible? Understandable? Where is the break-even point? A quarter of the price? A tenth? For free? The Mars Climate Orbiter and Polar Lander were expensive too, but guess what: It didn't make them immune to faults either. Shit happens. It's a fact of life. The real issues are: * Did Leica acknowledge the faults? * Did Leica take care of the faults? * Did Leica learn from the incident? I believe the first two can be answered in the affirmative, which is what manufacturers' warranties are for. Only Leica can answer the third. > Moreover Leica Camera builds only 10,000 lenses each year. And they say that > each lens is "individually checked". We don't know the complete history of the two lenses he bought. It is possible (although unlikely in the case of the first one if it was a faulty coating) that the faults were acquired after they left the Leica quality control. Any number of things could have happened to them. Again, I can give you examples of things which are manufactured in much lower quantities than 10,000 per annum, and which undergo much more rigorous quality control than do Leica lenses. Shit happens. Throwing money at something is no guarantee that shit doesn't happen. Parting with a painful amount of your income does not innoculate you against faults. The reality is that shit happens. The answer is to deal with it, not to pretend that you can reach a state of nirvana where shit doesn't happen. Dealing with it either means (a) catching it while it is still small shit, (b) before it becomes consequential shit (in the larger sense), or (c) taking care of the consequences, limiting their impact, and learning how to change (c) shit into (a) or (b) shit in the future. As long as manufacturers honour their warranties, I see no reason for shouting bloody murder. Yes, I agree, that for Tom it was probably very annoying to have not only one, but two, lenses show faults shortly after purchase. But we don't need this dead horse beaten any more on the LUG (so why am I even bothering to write this rubbish?? Please all, stop reading immediately!) > "Check, then check one more time".(Ariane-5) I fail to see what the Ariane-5 software failure has to do with new Leica lenses reaching the customers with faults, unless you're implying that there are systemic errors present, which only strengthens the points above. M. - -- Martin Howard | Armored with good intentions and Visiting Scholar, CSEL, OSU | ignorance, one is impregnable to email: howard.390@osu.edu | learning. www: http://mvhoward.i.am/ +---------------------------------------