Is the honeymoon over?

[JohnnyRangefinder]

Hi all --

A glorious week into ownership and I've had analog gauge failure. I searched the archives and found some tips for hard-core re-calibrating, but not total failure.

It happened overnight, mind you -- I turned the unit on in the morning and there was no info. the needles were pegged at 'off'. I was able to change WB and quality settings blindly, so it is not the camera itself, rather it seems the gauges are not powering up.

I called R-D1 support and was advised to call the Epson store and exchange it as it is not a month old, yet.

Epson store says there are no replacement units... Do I want a refund...

I said I'd have to think about it and that I might just get it serviced, which she said was an option.

Any insight into the severity or reversability of the gauge loss?

Do I send it in -- get the backfocus adjusted, hopefully -- and chalk it up to bad luck? I think I just got my first tinge of 'Future Fear'...

I have really enjoyed a taste of shooting with a rangefinder. Though it is costly, the M8 -- and it's presumed craftsmanship, minus the known flaws -- is appealing.

But then I wonder if I should just use the Epson until the warranty runs out and it has it's last catastrophic failure and must be relegated to the shelf.

Advice?

Sasha

 

[sevres_babylone]

I would take the refund and wait for another. There have been many reports of problems with the battery gauge. (I have that myself, and have not been successful with the recommended fixes; but it's more a problem of not showing full, then being misleading about empty.) This sounds much more serious.
Was this with the Epson battery?

 

[rvaubel]

Hi all --

A glorious week into ownership and I've had analog gauge failure. I searched the archives and found some tips for hard-core re-calibrating, but not total failure.

Epson store says there are no replacement units... Do I want a refund...

I said I'd have to think about it and that I might just get it serviced, which she said was an option.

Sasha

Your were offered servicing as an option? You mean that Epson has run out of replacement cameras and they are offering to FIX it !! I didn't even know they knew how !! Believe me it would be a big relief if I thought that Epson was actually making a commitment to FIX the darn thing. I personally doubt that Epson has actually repaired any of the 60 billion printers they have sold. I didn't think the concept of "repair" was part of their corporate culture.

Rex

 

[Edward Felcher]

Send it in for service. When you make the call for an RMA, make sure they allow you to send it directly to Plainfield, Indiana via FedEx. DON'T let them direct you to send it to any "independent" service center to be "evaluated". If the phone person tries to tell you that, they don't know what they're talking about and are giving you wrong informaiton. Insist or hang up and call back and get someone else until you are given the correct option to send it directly to Indiana.

They are very good at fixing them now and service takes about a week.

They will replace the gauge (they call it the " replace clock unit" on the service invoice), and they have someone very good at calibrating the rangefinder there now.

Mine had all kinds of problems and it came back perfect. Make sure you write a detailed letter explaining your problem clearly and wrap it around the camera with a rubber band. Don't rely on the service tech to figure it out from your phone call for an RMA.

Trust me, I have been through this three times on two different refurbs. They WILL fix it but you play Russian Roulette when you call for service. Make sure you don't get some uninformed runaround.

 

[Didier]

I can't repeat enough that I believe the few refurbished R-D1 samples sold in the past months are returned samples. After all my experiences with Epson I know that many, many cameras went back. They have refurbished them and are now giving them away cheaply.

When already the normal, not refurbished R-D1 has a big quality control problem, how can one believe it's better with refurbished samples? I believe it is even tendencially worse.

I don't want to be cynic, but you get what you pay for. If they can repair it - OK - be prepared for a long waiting time - if not, give it back, and take the refund - or ask if you can have a R-D1s for a small surcharge. Because the price you paid, plus the repair costs at DAG or somewhere else, will make your refurb R-D1 as expensive as new R-D1s.

Didier

 

[rxmd]

When already the normal, not refurbished R-D1 has a big quality control problem, how can one believe it's better with refurbished samples? I believe it is even tendencially worse.

I believe it would be tendentially better. After all, they've got all these bodies that are known to have a problem. If you want to sell these with any sort of warranty and without a PR desaster, you have to have someone look at them and fix it.

Philipp

 

[LeicaM3]

I believe it would be tendentially better. After all, they've got all these bodies that are known to have a problem. If you want to sell these with any sort of warranty and without a PR desaster, you have to have someone look at them and fix it.

Philipp

Phillip is right.

Don't know how Epson's QC/QA works. But normall they will grab every Xth camera and run it through the mill.
All refurbished ones have been checked.

When I buy computers for myself or servers for work I exclusively buy refurbished Apple products because they are all checked, whereas only every 10th server from Apple is pulled and validated.
If they would be the same price I would get the refurbished ones...
Getting it 50% off makes it a no brainer.

 

[Didier]

I believe it would be tendentially better. After all, they've got all these bodies that are known to have a problem. If you want to sell these with any sort of warranty and without a PR desaster, you have to have someone look at them and fix it. Philipp

The PR disaster? This happened* already a long time before they began to sell the refurbs. I have a hard time to believe they raised their QC efforts since. There's almost no QC at all. I once sent my first R-D1 to Epson for alignment - it came back even much more disaligned. So much about their special care for known problems.

*I talked with a Epson Switzerland printer dept. marketing director (which owns a R-D1 privately, too) who told me they were massively bashed by swiss camera retailers because of that "unmatured prestige product". An unspecified, but "significant" amount of delivered cameras came back and he was everything else than happy about this.

Didier

 

[Edward Felcher]

Despite any previous problems, I can tell you for a fact that the R-D1 servicing at the Indiana facility is now top-rate.

Not so even 4 or 5 months ago, but NOW they really know what they're doing. I don't know who they hired or what was changed, but I speak from experience.

 

[JBFreeheel]

This is great news. Not only is there good support, it sounds, it's "close by" in the US for those of use in North America. Now, I'm not as nervous about owning two R-D1's. I hope that this singular techician doesn't climb the corporate latter and leave us (again) in a lurch.

 

[Didier]

Hey Didier. How is the new Rd-1s you got? Is it working properly? No problems yet?

The close up accuracy is at the limit of the tolerance (2-4cm back with all lenses including Voigtländers). Otherwise fine so far, 1000 exp. approx.

Didier

 

[JohnnyRangefinder]

Thanks all for the varied responses -- dare I say optimistic and pessimistic 🙂

After trying to auger my way into an 'upgrade' with Epson America and deciding that the cost of the refurb was one of it's strongest attributes, I have sent it off to Indiana with a list of 'concerns' -- Backfocus, finicky shutter, 20-25 dead/hot pixels and obviously the inoperative analog cluster.

My hope is that I can get a good year of use, save up for an M8 mk. 2 in the mean time and hope my unit's teething problems disappear... I can dream can't I?

Thanks again, and I'll get around to posting some of my week's worth of photos.

Sasha

 

[Edward Felcher]

Make sure you post when you get it back. I'm very interested in the results.

My only concern is that you might have rambled on too much with your "concerns". Did you attach a list to the camera?

You have to be very clear and to the point with them. I would have just said:

1) Fix analog gauge

2) Realign focus

3) Check dead pixels

4) Check shutter

TOO much verbiage confuses them. I think they won't do anything about the dead pixels, which does not sound too bad. Software Version 2 lets you map them out.