bobby_novatron
Photon Collector
I've used Sherry's services a couple of times. She definitely knows her stuff. The work was top-notch.
I found her turn-around to be slow, and communication was frustrating and difficult. Emails went unanswered, and as far as I knew my Leica camera was in limbo or lost in the mail -- I had no idea what was going on. I finally managed to reach her by phone, and she gruffly answered my questions between chewing mouthfuls of supper. She has a bizarre way of dealing with customers.
If you're OK with the weird social foibles and don't mind spotty communication, Sherry is fine. Frankly, I was a little put off by my dealings with her. I found a Leica tech here in Canada (kindermann in Toronto) that does excellent work -- the tech is always happy to chat during business hours, and he doesn't chew food into the phone.
P.S. Another +1 for Youxin Ye. He CLA'd my old M6. Excellent work, fast turn-around. Highly recommended.
I found her turn-around to be slow, and communication was frustrating and difficult. Emails went unanswered, and as far as I knew my Leica camera was in limbo or lost in the mail -- I had no idea what was going on. I finally managed to reach her by phone, and she gruffly answered my questions between chewing mouthfuls of supper. She has a bizarre way of dealing with customers.
If you're OK with the weird social foibles and don't mind spotty communication, Sherry is fine. Frankly, I was a little put off by my dealings with her. I found a Leica tech here in Canada (kindermann in Toronto) that does excellent work -- the tech is always happy to chat during business hours, and he doesn't chew food into the phone.
P.S. Another +1 for Youxin Ye. He CLA'd my old M6. Excellent work, fast turn-around. Highly recommended.
Thud
Established
I believe she suffers from "Legend in ones own Mind".
She did some work for me when I worked in New Jersey. What a nightmare to deal with.
Never Again
She did some work for me when I worked in New Jersey. What a nightmare to deal with.
Never Again
rolfe
Well-known
Sherry is an expert. She has been flown to Germany to evaluate cameras for auction at six figure prices to spot fakes (which she has). I started with an MDa and wanted an M4 with an M3 finder and she built it for me, using the MDa innards, an M4 shell and and transplanting an M3 finder. If it can be done, she will do it.
As others have mentioned, phone contact is the best...
I've also used DAG but, depending on what you want, wait times can be long. Converting my M3 to M4 style loading took months. I'm sure it depends on what their workloads are at any given moment, but these two Leica techs have seen it all and can do it all. I know Sherry works on screw mount cameras, but I'm not sure about DAG.
Rolfe
As others have mentioned, phone contact is the best...
I've also used DAG but, depending on what you want, wait times can be long. Converting my M3 to M4 style loading took months. I'm sure it depends on what their workloads are at any given moment, but these two Leica techs have seen it all and can do it all. I know Sherry works on screw mount cameras, but I'm not sure about DAG.
Rolfe
Rob-F
Likes Leicas
These comments reflect my own experiences with Sherry. She has worked on my M3 and an M5, and a couple of my lenses. It all comes back like new. She is, by the way, an absolute master of the M5 and the CL.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Rolfe,
That sounds like a very awesome camera. Kinda crazy, but with mucho style. It is kinda great to have a custom Leica.
Also know that Sherry is factory trained. Never any shortcuts. I don't object with her straight talk, even when she tells me stuff I don't want to hear: she is the expert.
I tried to have the film advance switch installed when I had my SL2-MOT rebuilt. She tried, but Sherry said there was physically not enough space and it couldn't be done. She did go through the exercise though.
I have a black Canadian MD2 that I currently use for ultrawide (21/3.4 Super Elmar). I was thinking of installing a VF'er like you did. I love that the MD2 is stripped down and does not have a frame line selector. Also my version has no red dot on the body. Hmmm. Perhaps a 0.58 VF'er for a dedicated 28 rig. (most used lens is a 28 Cron).
Cal
goamules
Well-known
I've had the same experiences with Sherry that the thread is posting, good technical ability, nice and interesting on the phone, but sometimes pretty opinionated. No problems with the work, it's quality, or it's timeliness. The price for an M-3 CLA was somewhat expensive, I can't recall the exact amount, but thought DAG would have been cheaper. But the camera was totally gone over, even a chipped piece of body covering was filled in.
alonbenav
Member
I purchased an M5 that it turns out has RF separation issues and talked to two people today, Don Goldberg and Sherry Krauter. Since mine is just an issue affecting the RF patch, Don said he could replace the part and it would be around $250 with labor. Sherry on the other hand told me she would have to get a whole new frame line set, that this set was sold by Leica 'empty' and that there would be another part needed to fit in for the whole thing to work. The total was going to be around $600 and like you say, I now have to have the 28, 35, 50, 75, 90, and 135 frame lines instead of the simpler 35 (135), 50, 90 set of the M5.
Does anyone know how Don can do this repair one way and Sherry want to do it a COMPLETELY different way?
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Availability of parts???
Also know that Sherry refused work because to her it was not cost feasible or seemed crazy to here. Similarly I wanted Sherry to install a MP finder in a camera with the 35/50/90 frames, but the cost of an MP finder from Leica was around $1K.
The cost of removing the 75mm frames was inexpensive I believe was due to her having used parts, but she said she could not remove the 135mm frames (perhaps due to a lack of parts).
Also know it is my understanding that some people fill in the mask, but this might be deemed OK by some repair people, but over the long-long term might not be permanent. I think Sherry refuses to fill in the frames on an existing mask. To her I think she considers this a "spackle" job where the patch leeds to a repair further down the road.
Know that both DAG and Sherry hoard mucho parts. Sherry most recently bought the whole lot of spares offered by Leica New Jersey for cameras that Leica will no longer service.
My experience is that Sherry does not price gouge because she refused work that I would of gladly paid for. An example of this was the 75 Lux I sent her for a CLA. It was a really clean lens, but I wanted to get the few peices of dust removed and was willing to pay for the service. She refused and told me to save my money.
Cal
bmattock
Veteran
The only thing worse than camera technicians are camera repair customers.
Technicians are crabby, slow, expensive, and don't respond instantly to constant email and phone pestering by insane camera repair customers. Camera repair customers are impossible to please, demand everything for nothing and demand it fast, and if anything ever goes wrong with a camera that was once touched by a repair person, it's clearly their fault and they are incompetent idiots.
In case no one noticed, the snark above was intentional. If that's not you, feel free to ignore. If the shoe fits, wear it.
Having spoken to a number of camera repair people who have horror stories about the nasty customers they have to deal with - people who come off on online forums as nice, decent, patient, and willing to pay for quality repairs - I am convinced that what you read on the forums is HALF the story. For every customer who feels they were ripped off by an incompetent tech, there is a story about a customer from hell who felt the need to email every two hours for two months while a repair was being completed, who threatened to sue or actual violence if a camera was returned with a stray mote of dust on a lens surface, who demanded that cameras returned be cleared of all errors, even issues they didn't specify or pay to have fixed, and so on.
The only non-snarky comment I have to make is that there are few competent repair people left. We should treasure them; when they are gone, that's it, folks. Learn to repair your own worthless crap or get used to huge collections of broken junk.
Technicians are crabby, slow, expensive, and don't respond instantly to constant email and phone pestering by insane camera repair customers. Camera repair customers are impossible to please, demand everything for nothing and demand it fast, and if anything ever goes wrong with a camera that was once touched by a repair person, it's clearly their fault and they are incompetent idiots.
In case no one noticed, the snark above was intentional. If that's not you, feel free to ignore. If the shoe fits, wear it.
Having spoken to a number of camera repair people who have horror stories about the nasty customers they have to deal with - people who come off on online forums as nice, decent, patient, and willing to pay for quality repairs - I am convinced that what you read on the forums is HALF the story. For every customer who feels they were ripped off by an incompetent tech, there is a story about a customer from hell who felt the need to email every two hours for two months while a repair was being completed, who threatened to sue or actual violence if a camera was returned with a stray mote of dust on a lens surface, who demanded that cameras returned be cleared of all errors, even issues they didn't specify or pay to have fixed, and so on.
The only non-snarky comment I have to make is that there are few competent repair people left. We should treasure them; when they are gone, that's it, folks. Learn to repair your own worthless crap or get used to huge collections of broken junk.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
B,
I agree, and I will fess up that I'm one of those crazies.
Funny thing is that somehow I consider my repair people my friends, and I trust them. I respect and welcome Sherry's opinion: she is the expert and I am not. Also consider that I feel I somehow manage to get custom cameras built by a factory trained person. Also know that when I send a camera to Sherry I know that it is not really a CLA, but an overhaul with new parts. The point I'm making here is that sometimes you pay more to get more.
Harry Fleenor has huge backlogs, but like clockwork if he says three months at precisely three months your camera is being shipped. Also no charge to install and calibrate a Maxwell screen if the camera transport is being overhauled (not CLA'ed).
Frank Marshman has become my friend, and he built me a custom lens by putting the EBC coated glass from a donor 100/3.5 AE into a chrome manual focus body because I found a reasonably priced 100/3.5 AE that had a faulty CdS cell. Basically Frank transplanted and replaced the single coated glass in the chrome lens with EBC multicoated glass that was only available on the 100/3.5 AE.
All these special favors I'm sure are not worth the hassle to busy people that have more work them they need.
Yes I'm one of those crazies. LOL.
Cal
bmattock
Veteran
I have had personal experiences with repair people who are, shall we say, somewhat eccentric. And their demand is such that people put up with it.
I once took a treasured camera to a noted repair expert in person. He looked at my camera, pronounced it 'trash' and actually threw it into the trash can in front of me. I had to threaten to come around his counter and take the camera back myself before he would return it. I got it repaired elsewhere, of course.
On the other hand, I have dealt with a few repair people via phone and email who are no longer in the repair business. Their age was a factor, they wanted to retire anyway, but the stories they told me would curl your hair (well not my hair, I haven't any anymore). People who call at any hour of the day and night, curse like sailors, make entirely unreasonable demands, and expect that once their camera is repaired, the last person to touch it owns it forever in terms of warranty.
I have had the latter experience myself, when I briefly advertised my services for computer repair. If I reformatted a hard drive or removed a virus and later on the floppy drive went kerflooey, it was somehow my fault and I was supposed to fix it for free, forever. I even had a gentleman whose son managed to get every virus under the sun from the porn sites he would visit, and he somehow thought I had put those viruses on his computer when I removed them for him. Do anyone a favor and you'll regret it. Give a free repair or even free advice and you'll get it rammed down your throat, complete with threats of legal repercussions. People really can be giant flaming a-holes, and I'm sorry, but that's my experience. I quit repairing computers, and I have a lot of sympathy for those who still do that kind of work.
None of us think of ourselves that way, but let's face it, these people not only exist, but they're relatively common in the specialized arenas of things like cameras, watches, ink pens, and other forms of relatively esoteric high-end items. I've seen a few threads like this on RFF, and yes, sooner or later someone chimes in that so-and-so is a dirtbag because he dared to return a camera to them that had a stray hair or a dust speck in the lens. They don't think of themselves as an utterly unreasonable, over-demanding berk, but yeah, they kind of are.
I guess it's the nature of things. All I would remind folks is that these people with highly specialized knowledge are a) getting older and b) not as willing as they once were to put up with jerks. So maybe not be a jerk if one finds oneself disappointed from time to time.
All present company excepted, of course. I point no fingers, I merely make observations based on my personal experiences.
Indeed, done there, been that, when it comes to computer support/repair. I no longer offer any support even for friends/family. It's just not worth the aggravation. 
With regards to Sherry, my experience is below, quotes from email that I still have (from 2008.) She had a CL for 4+ months; when it was finally done, she emailed stating it was finished, with the total amount, and she asked for payment by check. After receiving payment shipped it back with a note, typewritten; I didn't ask if it was a Selectric or another brand.
The note stated that the CdS cell was "3 stops off at the lowest light setting of 1/2 a second."
If she had communicated this to me, I would have had her replace the cell at the same time she was doing the rest of the service...
I wrote her back:
"I wish I had been informed of the photocell situation prior to it being sent back."
Her answer:
"The other gentleman sold it to you that way. Many photocells are dying. Most people do not shoot in low light."
She wanted another $150 for a photocell and $100 for labor...labor that would have otherwise not have been necessary.
Me:
"The other gentleman showed me a Golden Touch repair invoice (4 months
old at the time I received the camera) that showed that you had
adjusted everything within spec. The camera has not been used since I
received it from him. Based on that invoice, I assumed the electronics
were fine. Is there any chance of getting a new photocell in here for
less than your $250 quote, based on these facts?"
Her final answer: "How much do you think this camera is worth?"
Rather than pursue this further, I said:
"OK Sherry, thanks for your time on the CL."
I then asked her about servicing an M7, and she never bothered to reply.
With regards to Sherry, my experience is below, quotes from email that I still have (from 2008.) She had a CL for 4+ months; when it was finally done, she emailed stating it was finished, with the total amount, and she asked for payment by check. After receiving payment shipped it back with a note, typewritten; I didn't ask if it was a Selectric or another brand.
The note stated that the CdS cell was "3 stops off at the lowest light setting of 1/2 a second."
If she had communicated this to me, I would have had her replace the cell at the same time she was doing the rest of the service...
I wrote her back:
"I wish I had been informed of the photocell situation prior to it being sent back."
Her answer:
"The other gentleman sold it to you that way. Many photocells are dying. Most people do not shoot in low light."
She wanted another $150 for a photocell and $100 for labor...labor that would have otherwise not have been necessary.
Me:
"The other gentleman showed me a Golden Touch repair invoice (4 months
old at the time I received the camera) that showed that you had
adjusted everything within spec. The camera has not been used since I
received it from him. Based on that invoice, I assumed the electronics
were fine. Is there any chance of getting a new photocell in here for
less than your $250 quote, based on these facts?"
Her final answer: "How much do you think this camera is worth?"
Rather than pursue this further, I said:
"OK Sherry, thanks for your time on the CL."
I then asked her about servicing an M7, and she never bothered to reply.
Those of us that know you can attest to that. But I also know that you would laugh at her being gruff and that you would trust her opinion. You know how to deal with a lot of different personalities even if you wouldn't want to admit it.
It seems to me that it comes down to personality differences as to if someone likes one of these techs or not.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
John,
Yep, I'm kinda crazy. LOL.
Who else has cameras that are coined as "Monsters." LOL.
I actually appreciate people who are authentic. She pulls no punches, and I love her attitude. Don't forget that us New Yorkers are known by others as being rude and direct. I think that these are virtues because being both rude and direct has taken me far.
Also Sherry has never failed me, although she has rejected many of my ideas. Don't know if she would put a 0.58 MP finder in my Canadian MD-2. The concept is for a dedicated camera that is TA Rapidwinder ready to dedicate for use with my 28 Cron. I like that there is no frame selector, no red dot, no battery compartment for that minimalistic look. I saw that DAG has brass MD-2 top plates for no money, so I'm thinking of buying one to cut windows into. A 0.58 M7 or 0.58 MP probably makes more sense, but that is not the "Calzone" way. LOL.
Cal
m3diumformat
Newbie
So as the certified technicians disappear, then what do we do? Gerry Smith of Kindermann Canada is the only place to send a Leica in Canada and for the entire US there are only a few options (as mentioned in this thread). I expressed this to Leica's William Weier (Customer Care Manager) and he said that their NJ location is "the only authorized service centre in North America". I asked if they could release any technical information on the older cameras (exploded views, repair manuals) and his reply was "Any documents for our products would be illegal for us to sell or distribute. We still repair all the cameras you listed". I listed M2 to M5. I'm not talking modification work or extremely delicate, advanced repairs. I'm just talking some basic CLA maintenance that anyone with mechanical aptitude can accomplish. These cameras are not under warranty anymore.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
I have gotten all of my cameras serviced and use them enough to maintain them. I have one more camera (Fuji GL690) that will go to Frank Marshman soon. BTW Frank is kinda already retired. My advice is get all your cameras up to date and modded while you can. Also get the work performed while parts are still avilable. You snooze: you loose.
Also I likely have enough cameras to last me the rest of my life. I also kept the more durable cameras and sold the less durable cameras with thinking of the future decades to come.
Currently I'm in a good position for the long-long term as all my cameras and lenses regardless of age are kinda fresh.
Cal
Huss
Veteran
From my correspondence:
"Parts for the MP upgrade are $115.00, the frame $285.00, labour
$230.00, plus shipping. The total is $630.00. I need to order the frame. It will come from Germany. It is a somewhat costly venture, but will last our lifetime."
Robert Lai
Well-known
I have no experience with Sherry, so I have no comment on that issue.
However, what Cal just said struck a nerve with me. Get your cameras up to spec now, while you can!
When my Zeiss Super Ikontas finally made it to Henry Scherer, I had him change all the selenium cells in the meters, since he has the last stock of new selenium cells.
Similarly, I had Quality Light Metric put a new selenium cell in my Weston V meter. Now I hear they may have run out of replacements altogether.
I've had ALL of my cameras and lenses serviced and brought up to spec. Parts are disappearing, and often you have to cannibalize another donor body just to get the parts that you want. I'm thinking of my recent experiences with my Nikon F and F2 with Sover Wong.
However, what Cal just said struck a nerve with me. Get your cameras up to spec now, while you can!
When my Zeiss Super Ikontas finally made it to Henry Scherer, I had him change all the selenium cells in the meters, since he has the last stock of new selenium cells.
Similarly, I had Quality Light Metric put a new selenium cell in my Weston V meter. Now I hear they may have run out of replacements altogether.
I've had ALL of my cameras and lenses serviced and brought up to spec. Parts are disappearing, and often you have to cannibalize another donor body just to get the parts that you want. I'm thinking of my recent experiences with my Nikon F and F2 with Sover Wong.
Huss
Veteran
And that is the glory of Leica. Leica is still making replacement parts for the M3 etc.
That is freakin' awesome.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Huss,
Times are changing. Recently when I had Sherry build me a SL2-MOT from two donor cameras, Sherry informed me that she bought from Leica New Jersey the entire lot of spare parts of some cameras that Leica New Jersey recently decided they will no longer service. One of those cameras was the M5.
Also know that I had an amazing M3-DS that I bought from Adorama. My friend Angel told me I must buy this M3. When I dry fired it and advance the film advance I told Angel that it feels stiff and the shutter is rather loud. Angel said, "You don't understand. This camera was just factory serviced in Germany. I sent it in because the prism had issues, and they factory resilvered the prism." Angel also showed me the brand new "L" seal. Anyways I bought a factory refurbished and overhauled M3-DS.
Anyways I traded away this M3-DS in trade for some vintage Bruce Davidson prints from the Welsh Mining series (The two shots that have children as subjects), but I ended up getting the M3-DS back in some loan sharking deal from that art dealer, and now the M3-DS resides with a friend who I think is a great 50 shooter.
I would not wait...
Cal