[Leica] Leica USA and Service

["Otto J. Anshus" <otto@CS.Princeton.EDU>]

LUG,

I just wanted to report my recent experience with Leica Northvale. In one
word: perfect.

My 1994 M6 developed a problem some years ago, but I have never had the
heart to part with it (yes, it is an "it") until I moved to NJ. The problem
was a shutter dial which did not "click" into the speed settings in a firm
way. It may very well have been loose always as I can not remember it ever
being any firmer. Perhaps some of you remember an email from me to the LUG
some years ago (?) where I said something like "the shutter dial is to
vague, and Leica should make the shutter dial bigger"? :-) So I thought a
somewhat loose shutter dial was normal until I tried a new M6 at a shop and
I had to use force to move the shutter dial :-) Of course, I am not too
happy by the fact that something inside the M6 broke after a few years of
amateur use, although I have used the M6 at pretty cold places (down to
minus 27F for up to a couple of weeks) without any problems at all.

Anyway, I dropped by Leica in Northvale, and described my problem to Brenda
Olsen. She took the camera to Hartman, and he repaired it while I was having
lunch! One hour later I had my M6 back in perfect shape. Hartman had also
tuned the rangefinder to a better accuracy than it had when it was _new_. It
is difficult to describe the significance of the rangefinder being _almost_
perfect vs. perfect, but now it _really_ snaps into focus with great
authority.

To top it off I had a long talk with Niels Thorsen and he gave me a wealth
of tips and information about all things Leica (by the way, Niels speaks a
perfect Norwegian, and he has a dialect that would have earned him a place
on any radio show in Norway. So all Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish speaking
LUG'ers have somebody inside Leica Northvale they can easily communicate
with!).

By the way, Leica Northvale has some very interesting displays showing all
the bits and pieces of M and R cameras. One can easily spend a few hours
just looking.

All in all I really had a great half day at Leica Northvale!

But of course, every medal has a flip side :-): It would be interesting to
see how Nikon would handle me if I turned up at their door one morning with
pleading dog eyes and a broken, but working camera? I strongly suspect that
it will be difficult to top the treatment I got from Leica USA.
Unfortunately, my Nikon bodies (1972, 1976, 1999) and lenses has never
broken (ever!), and the oldest body has been subjected to environments I
hope my M6 will never have to experience. I wish Leica Germany would
announce the M6 Field Model.


Otto