Dan Lazin
Member
I just got my R-D1 back from warranty service in Hong Kong. (I'm in Canada, but my camera is covered by the Hong Kong warranty.) I had sent it in for rangefinder adjustment; the vertical alignment was off a bit, but more troublingly, the image in the RF patch was tilted with respect to the viewfinder. (I'll explain in a minute.)
The repair sheet indicates that they fixed the RF adjustment and also replaced the (lightly scratched) LCD screen and most of the rubber parts. Those cosmetic repairs were nice, and they did a good job of fixing the vertical alignment, but the tilted RF patch is just as bad, and focusing accuracy is much worse.
Attached is a photo of my keyboard, taken with a Voigtlander 40/1.4 at f/1.4. I'm focusing on the H, which is the blurred smear next to the G; actual focus is several keys away.
When I focus, the H itself appears to be in focus in the viewfinder (which is an improvement; previously, the two Hs wouldn't quite superimpose). However -- this is the twisted-RF-patch part -- the edges of the key itself (as seen in the RF patch) are at a decidedly different angle than the edges of the key in the rest of the viewfinder. I'll borrow an SLR later to try to take a photo of the inside of the viewfinder when this is happening.
So: what should I do? Before I sent it to Hong Kong, I checked with DAG, and he doesn't know what the problem might be. I don't think Epson Hong Kong knows how to fix this. I could send it to Hong Kong again in hopes of a replacement, but the kicker is that Canada Customs just told me I was lucky the camera came back with the same serial number; if Epson replaces it, even under warranty, I have to pay taxes again on the full declared value of the camera, and Epson says (again, bizarre) that the camera is worth $3800 US.
Anyone have any luck with a far-flung Epson arm agreeing to transfer their warranty to their home country's Epson arm? If I could send it to Epson Canada, I wouldn't have to worry about tax on $3800 US (plus another round of shipping).
The repair sheet indicates that they fixed the RF adjustment and also replaced the (lightly scratched) LCD screen and most of the rubber parts. Those cosmetic repairs were nice, and they did a good job of fixing the vertical alignment, but the tilted RF patch is just as bad, and focusing accuracy is much worse.
Attached is a photo of my keyboard, taken with a Voigtlander 40/1.4 at f/1.4. I'm focusing on the H, which is the blurred smear next to the G; actual focus is several keys away.
When I focus, the H itself appears to be in focus in the viewfinder (which is an improvement; previously, the two Hs wouldn't quite superimpose). However -- this is the twisted-RF-patch part -- the edges of the key itself (as seen in the RF patch) are at a decidedly different angle than the edges of the key in the rest of the viewfinder. I'll borrow an SLR later to try to take a photo of the inside of the viewfinder when this is happening.
So: what should I do? Before I sent it to Hong Kong, I checked with DAG, and he doesn't know what the problem might be. I don't think Epson Hong Kong knows how to fix this. I could send it to Hong Kong again in hopes of a replacement, but the kicker is that Canada Customs just told me I was lucky the camera came back with the same serial number; if Epson replaces it, even under warranty, I have to pay taxes again on the full declared value of the camera, and Epson says (again, bizarre) that the camera is worth $3800 US.
Anyone have any luck with a far-flung Epson arm agreeing to transfer their warranty to their home country's Epson arm? If I could send it to Epson Canada, I wouldn't have to worry about tax on $3800 US (plus another round of shipping).
