aaron_johnston

Yes, Berg, he uses four photos in each auction and three of them are identical in both auctions -- the image showing the rear element, the side of the lens barrel and the lens capped with the accessories around it. As it turns out, mine had a dirty rear element. I never claimed he was trying to sell the same lens over again or that he recycled ALL of his photos. Thus your "findings" here are moot as they don't contradict any of the statements I made in my initial post.

I agree with Guy about the semantics of "like new" vs. "brand new" but this lens is not even "like new" and even when I privately encouraged the seller to use terms such as "mint condition" or "used but like new" he replied by further amplifying the "newness" of his product by editing his current ad and placing the word "new" in all-caps. Never mind the fact that he recycled the same photos to represent different lenses. While there is validity to semantics, there are far more obvious concerns associated with how this seller chooses to represent his products.

 

Considering the fact that he told me the lens would be arriving from his "secretary" in Los Angeles (also not in the state of Missouri), I worry that attempting to return the lens would result in it possibly going missing and then I'd be out the lens and my money. As Joseph said: caveat emptor. Consumers have more power in sharing their stories/experiences through 3rd party forums than they do trying to jump through hoops set up by the corporate middlemen whose profit motive make them poor "partners" to begin with.

I didn't bother. The lens works and the rear element turned out okay with a little cleaning. I'm mainly steamed about this guy's misleading sales appraoch. I doubt they would do much anyway but it was a bad enough experience that I figured it was worth sounding an alarm.

Just wanted to share a negative experience I just had.

 

A seller claiming to be based in St. Louis with the username 'jeleeteresa' sells "brand new condition" Konica

50mm f/1.2 m-mount Hexanon lenses on the site. After selling my M8, I had a little money to play with so I went

for it. Well, turns out the guy is based in Korea and sells used lenses marketed as new. Mine arrived today with

a dirty rear element, missing accessories and a a display case with stains on it.

 

He and I had been discussing the deal all week (I had been wondering why it was taking over a week to deliver a

$2000+ lens from St. Louis to New York without tracking and found out today when it arrived from Korea.) He

proved to be a pretty stubborn guy refusing to admit any wrongdoing whatsoever. After the lens arrived I decided

I would give him "neutral" feedback as a warning which he replied to with more indignation. He also claimed the

lens he was selling to me was his last copy and then posted another ad for another copy a few days later which

was also apparently his "last." This ad had an identical description and also featured 3 of the same pictures he

claimed were photos of the lens that he sold me!

 

In our final exchange, I suggested he stop describing used product as being in "brand new condition" and he

responded to this by editing the ad for his current 50 1.2 and putting the word "new" in all caps.

 

I'm not a very vindictive person but this was a truly shady deal and simply want to share my experience with

others. Make what you will of my side of the story.

I live in NYC and second Don Goldberg. Aside from Leica NJ, I don't think there any repair people in town anymore. Don just did a CLA on my M6 and fixed the RF on my Epson R-D1. Turn around was around four weeks. He takes paypal, too!

camerawest.com

It's probably worth around $2K (or at least that is what I have seen them go for recently from dealers.) These days, who knows. Prices seem to be dipping and rising with the tide depending on the level of M8 anxiety.

A guy who goes by the username "maulwurf44" sells it on Ebay in ten-roll bundles for $46.99. He is based in Germany but ships internationally. I bought ten rolls from him a few months ago and received it really, really quickly.

 

I just ordered twenty more rolls from him today. He seems to list around five bundles at a time, waits for those to sell one by one and then relists five more so if you look him up and he's not listing any, give it a few days and he'll probably have more up. I'm guessing he may be associated with Agfa in some way (or one of their creditors) because he never seems to run out of the stuff and it's all from the last batch made (07/08 exp.)

Bought one off Ebay w/ .85 finder and rewind crank for $2450 just last month.

A guy on Rangefinderforum.com bought an RD-1 from Matsuiyastore and the unit broke down right after he bought it. Matsuiyastore took full responsibility but the guy still had to send the camera back to Japan. I believe this seller is reliable but you need to think about how reliable the camera will be and whether or not you want to have to deal with having it fixed 6,000km away. The R-D1 is a good camera when it works, but it has a very poor reputation in terms of quality control.

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

Is that Sean Connery?

Why can't you return it to the seller?

The R-D1 (and R-D1s) are infamous for quality control problems. You will have to contact the dealer who sold you the camera and/or Epson Japan where I believe all R-D1 defects are eventually sent for repair regardless of where they were purchased.

 

Did you buy it on your last day in Japan and then not actually use it until you returned to Norway?

Well, poopydoo for you.

One shop in the UK, Classic Camera, is refusing to refund a deposit on the M8:

 

http://www.leica-camera-user.com/digital-forum/9527-dealers-response-order-cancel.html

 

It's unclear if the dealer is being the prude or if Solms may be trying to stem

a potential tidal wave. Nonetheless, for those of you who did place a cash

deposit and are getting cold feet, you may want to look over the fine print of

your agreement.

This looks like good competition for the Ricoh GR-D but I don't see how a Sigma p&s will compete with an interchangable lens digital rangefinder. Sorry.

This has been an ongoing problem for a while. I wish Ebay would install a less invasive flagging system for scam listings but instead they require potential tipsters to labor through a time consuming process just to help out. It makes no sense.

 

At any rate, if something looks too good to be true, it probably is. I'm never quite sure who to sympathize with regarding such obvious forms of fraud as this -- do I loathe the fraudster for deceiving people or the victim for letting their greed overcome their reason? I know, I know...

I guess it depends on your purpose but who the hell edits in JPEG anyway? This is a stupid selling point for what is ostensibly a pro/enthusiast Photokina crowd. Apple needs to balance their emphasis on volume and ease-of-use with the needs of photographers to work with reliable, non-destructive file formats such as RAW and TIF.

Isn't 700,000 yen roughly about $7,000 USD? I hope he got a special edition at that price.

I had two M7s (one was a gift from a family member) and the introduction of the M8 actually prompted me to sell one in favor of buying an MP as opposed to buying an M8 to achieve diversity. I think the MP will remain in production (however limited in comparison to the M7 and M8) but for some reason the idea of increased technology actually made me fear that my days of having access to a modern mechanical rangefinder were dwindling. This is irrational, but I thought it was an interesting reaction nonetheless. End of self-analysis.

I just can't rid myself of the notion that the cropped sensor sort of makes the M8 too prone to replacement in the coming years. I understand that a full frame RF sensor is still a ways away but I believe we'll see one eventually at which point the 1.33x M8 will seem fatally compromised to users such as myself.

 

If the M8 were full frame, I probably would buy one. The Canon 5D is now a year old and is probably looking at an upgrade come PMA in the spring but I could care less. It's full frame, it takes beautiful pictures, its 12.8 megapixels are MORE than enough for what I do, and it's built well enough for how I use it. If I could say the same about the M8 regarding the sensor size, I'd feel the same way about it as I do the 5D.

 

I hope Leica gets into bed with Canon for the M9. I see no reason why Canon would consider Leica to be competition if they limited their deal to the M-system and not the R-system.

M7 + 35 Summilux ASPH + Velvia 100

Three Catholic Irish ditch diggers are digging a ditch in front of a whore house one day when they look up and see a Jewish Rabbi look around suspiciously and then quickly duck inside.

 

"That's a damn shame," the three men say to each other.

 

"You know the world is going to hell when its religious leaders are frequenting brothels."

 

The next day, the three Catholic Irish ditch diggers are digging their ditch in front of the whore house when they look up and see a Protestant Minister look around suspiciously and then quickly duck inside.

 

"That's a damn shame," the three men say to each other.

 

"You know the world is going to hell when its religious leaders are frequenting brothels."

 

On the third day, the three Catholic Irish ditch diggers are digging their ditch in front of the whore house when they look up and see a Catholic Priest look around suspiciously and then quickly duck inside.

 

"That's a damn shame," the three men say to each other...

 

 

 

"One of the poor girls must be sick."

People who become offended this easily usually set out to be offended by something regardless of what is said. Ignore it and let's get back to talking about PHOTOGRAPHY.