Leica MP - sticky shutter problem?

[jykchu]

Hi All,

I am planning to buy a MP w/ 35 lux in the comming April. After searching the comment elsewhere, I found the following link which report the protential defects of the so call Mechanical Perfection of MP:

Take a look on the following link, it seems that there is plenty of instance
reported !!! Quite serious!?

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=006sta&unified_p=1

anyone have Mp experienced such problem !!???

This would make me change the mind, maybe ~~

 

[back alley]

welcome to the forum jason!
i have no personal experience with the mp but someone should be along soon with some info.

joe

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Leica whiners!

Be advised, jykchu, that when you buy a brand new Leica, it comes with the Passport warranty for free (you pay $125 to extend it for three years more). Should your MP develop ANY kind of problem during your initial 5 years of ownership, all you need to do is contact Leica in NJ and send them the camera. They'll replace it by a new one, no questions asked. Stories about this Passport abound, and, in fact, it's known that a guy who dropped his M7 in the waters of Mexico got a new camera back from Leica when he invoked his Passport warranty.

So, go ahead and get your MP, sticky shutters or not.

No Leica product is free from human error. Apparently, the "redesigned" viewfinder in the M6s and M7 leads to flare too, and lots of people complain about it. But then, we're dealing with people who also complain about AF systems not focusing fast enough. Sheesh... 😡 These people think gear should work for them and not that they should work with their equipment...

Sorry for the rant, but just wanted to inform you about your choices. Besides, the MP is worth it.

 

[jykchu]

Thanks all of your replies. Actually, I don't expect a so called mechanical perfection machine would be like this, but SolaresLarrave's point is also correct! ..... I think it would be quite trouble to claim the Passport Warranty as I have to deal with the Leica in Germany directly ..... (as I plan to buy it in Japan, and I am living in Hong Kong)

 

[taffer]

Stories about this Passport abound, and, in fact, it's known that a guy who dropped his M7 in the waters of Mexico got a new camera back from Leica when he invoked his Passport warranty.

So Leica offered the 'Complete Care' service prior to Dell 😛

btw Francisco, your PM box is full and PM's directed to you are being rejected, just now I can't think on a better way of letting you know that 😀

Oscar

 

[SolaresLarrave]

One bit of a detail, Jason: the Passport warranty is offered exclusively to the US buyers. You're right, should you have a problem with the camera you'll have to deal with the Solns people... But, to be quite honest, I doubt you'll have any.

Oscar, thanks for the note! I'll see to "clean" some stuff there!

 

[Oldprof]

My 1955 FED 1g (a Leica II copy) worked fine straight out of the yak hair bound box. 🙂

 

[Doug]

It might be worth pointing out that we will always hear of more defects and problems no matter what product it is. It's just human nature to complain more than compliment. 🙂

The problems will always seem more widespread than is truly the case. Still, of couse it's useful to hear what sort of problems have occurred, to be aware also of solutions.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Check out either the photo.net Leica forum, or the "official" Leica forum and you'll hear tons of complaints about these products... including some of mine!

Sure, when they work, they're wonderful, and when they fail, they really disappoint you because of their price: you can expect good quality considering what you pay... 🙂

But then, lots of these problems can be false alarms. What I thought it was a light leak in one of my Leicas turned out to be lousy film handling due to machine problems in the lab where they developed my slides.

They fixed the machines, and my camera woes are over. 😀

So, Jason, take these complaints with a big grain of salt! 😱

 

[dll927]

The MP is a recently-new product, so maybe it has some "teething" problems. But why should it when they have been putting essentially the same shutter in previous models?

BTW, why an MP instead of the M-7?? The MP is pretty much a reincarnation of a previous limited production model and has the old knob rewind system of M-3 days.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Supposedly, dl927, the only things different between the M3 and the MP are the meter (similar to the one in the M6TTL) and the fact that the film rewind knob doesn't return on you while you're rewinding film, as it has a nice system that holds it in its place to avoid the same sudden return twists all other Leicas give their owners so generously.

But you're right, why not the M7? The MP is simply a rebadged M6; the M7 is a dream...