Rolland Elliott

Over the course of the past 4-5 years I have sent Rolland 3 Nikon lenses for

modification all with good result. Most recently I sent Rolland a Nikon 50-

135mm f/3.5 AIS on July 6. The lens was delivered yesterday; this turnaround

time was quite acceptable and the job quality appears very good. I'm now using

this lens with both my digital and film bodies-exposures are spot on and

aperture changes are made through the command wheel.

Another good experience.

Dave Becker

That's different from my experience -- it took over three MONTHS to get my 28mm 2.8

AIS back and there was only very rare repsonses to my inquiries about status of my lens.

At one poing, I had given up on ever getting it back.

 

Now that it's back, the lens meters well and functions fine, but there is a bit of resistance

at the close focus range as the internal tube has to clear some piece Mr. Elliott installed.

 

In the future, I plan to buy a D200 body which should eliminate the need for any further

chipping projects.

It makes the process of making photographs a bit simpler by having the chip installed when using a D-200, D2-H, D-2X. Each of the 3 lenses I have sent Rolland, a 50-300mm, 400 f/3.5 and 50-135f/3,5 have come back in 2-3 weeks. Like I said, my experience with Mr. Elliott has been positve. We all tend to complain about the negative and neglect positve praise when it's due. I consider this an excellent investment in quality glass.

"We all tend to complain about the negative and neglect positve praise when it's due."

 

I've never dealt with Mr. Elliot, but if I had to wait 5 months to get a lens back (particularly one that I had to invest a lot of money in) and got no or curt reponses when inquiring about the status, I'd be a little irate as well. At one point I was interested in sending him a lens, but it really does seem to be a mixed bag:

 

http://www.photo.net/neighbor/view-one?neighbor_to_neighbor_id=181705

 

http://www.photo.net/neighbor/view-one?neighbor_to_neighbor_id=181706

I'm sorry, those two threads are identical - this is the second thread in question:

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00AVTD

Dave good for you. My personal experience is different. I had a number of telephone talks (Germany-USA) with this person and he always was very friendly and very apologetic for not keeping his last promises. He just NEVER kept his promises. I personally do not want to deal with people who do not stick to what they tell me over the phone over and over again. Even if SOME people get their lenses done promptly. BTW: I am still waiting (not really I gave up on him a long time ago) for the lens mount with chip for my 300mm F2.8 AIS (was it 2 or 3 years ago he kept telling me he would ship it in 2-3 weeks?).

The thing is, gentlemen, that Mr. Elliott has a de facto galactic monopoly on commercial performance of this service, so if you want a CPU in your Nikkor and you do not want to do the work yourself, you don't really have any choice but to send the lens to him and wait however long it takes to get the lens back.

 

Be well,

There's a reason why Rolland is the only guy doing this -- because it's a jerryrigged

solution at best. My chip is epoxied * EPOXIED * on the body. When I focus my lens, I can

feel the metal hump the barrell has to overcome because of Rolland's modification.

 

Dave, please don't dismiss my criticism of Rolland by saying "we only complain about the

negative..."

 

It was really abysmal service and customer relations. I'm happy you had a better

experience. I for one wouldn't do it again.

 

I also see no need to do it with the D200 because you can get matrix metering with AI

lenses easily enough.

 

Hey, if anyone wants to buy the 28mm AIS 2.8 Rolland modified for me, I'm willing to sell

it. I got a minty nonchipped one that I will put on my D200 when I get it.

Eric,

If you don't have first hand experience in dealing with Mr. Elliott, than you're hardly qualified to post a comment. Best to stick to a topic you know from experience.

 

I would like to think that based upon Paul's negative experience that perhaps Rolland has corrected some of the issues since that time.

Anyway the reason for my posting was to provide an update on service received today which as I stated was good.

Best regards,

Dave