Joseph S
Member
Hey guys - haven't had much time lately to peruse the forums here, but wanted to share a bit on a G1 I had problems with recently.
A few months ago I picked up a mint G1 with 35mm lens for a great price on another forum as a backup B&W body for my G2 system. After shooting with it a while, I began to notice that the focus was frontfocusing a few inches. Initially I gave room for shooter error but finally there were too many to ignore.
In testing with several lenses, I realized the body was having "issues". Apparently the focus was failing quickly, as my last test roll missed focus on every frame - drastically! At 50', the lenses were focusing 20-30' forward! Bummer. The body was probably failing when it was sold to me but at any rate, I decided to get it repaired.
Multiple emails from the repair link on Contax's website as well as ToCad's website never were responded to, so I finally called ToCad directly and had to leave a voicemail which was responded to in a week or so. I was informed it would be $173 plus shipping for the repair/adjustment, which was probably more than the body was worth, but I went ahead and sent it in.
Shipped the body in early December and was notified by mail of the estimate and had to prepay. I received the body back in the second week of January, with notes that the focus had been recalibrated and the body cleaned. The body was mint when I sent it in and was glad to see no evidence of marks or other signs of being disassembled. I grabbed a 90mm, set it on 2.8 and ran a focus test roll through it immediately. Shot critical focus subjects from minimum distance to infinity at specific distances and am happy to say the focus is dead accurate!
Subsequently, I found out that ToCad had just moved offices at the time I contacted them, so that may explain the unanswered emails. Voicemails are answered in a day or two, which compared to Canon or even Rollei is slow.
At any rate, to ship the body, have it repaired and back in about a month, all over the Christmas holidays is pretty good IMO and the work was done very well. $173 is a chunk of change for the repair, but I absolutely love the G system and felt it was worth it.
Just wanted to give a head's up on a good experience with ToCad.
A few months ago I picked up a mint G1 with 35mm lens for a great price on another forum as a backup B&W body for my G2 system. After shooting with it a while, I began to notice that the focus was frontfocusing a few inches. Initially I gave room for shooter error but finally there were too many to ignore.
In testing with several lenses, I realized the body was having "issues". Apparently the focus was failing quickly, as my last test roll missed focus on every frame - drastically! At 50', the lenses were focusing 20-30' forward! Bummer. The body was probably failing when it was sold to me but at any rate, I decided to get it repaired.
Multiple emails from the repair link on Contax's website as well as ToCad's website never were responded to, so I finally called ToCad directly and had to leave a voicemail which was responded to in a week or so. I was informed it would be $173 plus shipping for the repair/adjustment, which was probably more than the body was worth, but I went ahead and sent it in.
Shipped the body in early December and was notified by mail of the estimate and had to prepay. I received the body back in the second week of January, with notes that the focus had been recalibrated and the body cleaned. The body was mint when I sent it in and was glad to see no evidence of marks or other signs of being disassembled. I grabbed a 90mm, set it on 2.8 and ran a focus test roll through it immediately. Shot critical focus subjects from minimum distance to infinity at specific distances and am happy to say the focus is dead accurate!
Subsequently, I found out that ToCad had just moved offices at the time I contacted them, so that may explain the unanswered emails. Voicemails are answered in a day or two, which compared to Canon or even Rollei is slow.
At any rate, to ship the body, have it repaired and back in about a month, all over the Christmas holidays is pretty good IMO and the work was done very well. $173 is a chunk of change for the repair, but I absolutely love the G system and felt it was worth it.
Just wanted to give a head's up on a good experience with ToCad.
eddie con
Established
thanks joseph. i am taking note. just in case.