Leica R lens upgrade to 3 cam

Has anyone (preferably recently) upgraded their Leica R lenses from 2 to 3 cams? Service in Europe.

I have just received a reply from Paepke Fototechnik and they are apparently still doing it, but have had no deals with them and at this point they seem to think that a 45 EUR "inspection" is needed before they can quote me the 3-cam modification. As lenses are practically near new I can hardly see/justify, what it appears to be, a 200 EUR or more per lens to be worth it.

Any experiences with particular German service and 3 cam work done there?

I have a mint SL2 these lenses came with, but also have R5 and looking for R6 to add. While I can use 2 cam lens on any R body, 3rd cam would be nice to have.

sir,

Paepke is well regarded, but I have not dealt with them. I presume their call for total inspection and adjustment is in order to avoid later problems.

This reminds me of when I once had a Leica type III in at the factory in Wetzlar to have a selftimer installed and they insisted on replacing all screws they had had to loosen by new screws in order to guarantee the same firmness and longevity of the fastening. Quality control and guarantees come with a substantial pricetag.

ph said:

sir,

Paepke is well regarded, but I have not dealt with them. I presume their call for total inspection and adjustment is in order to avoid later problems.

This reminds me of when I once had a Leica type III in at the factory in Wetzlar to have a selftimer installed and they insisted on replacing all screws they had had to loosen by new screws in order to guarantee the same firmness and longevity of the fastening. Quality control and guarantees come with a substantial pricetag.

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As much as I appreciate it, I have not heard back again from Paepke on my follow up question. Bottom line to me ... there is no quality I want to test given utter lack of response. And no, I do not believe that stating "give us 45 EUR and we'll tell you whether we can do an unrelated service" is anything but bait and switch. Upgrading to 3-cam was a standard service back in the day and from my reading Leica never charged anything but the upgrade cost unless there was agreement to do any other service on the lens. Yes, this is not Leica and these are not the times, but if you want to charge extras you better tell customer why or what for this is "required".

Witold said:

As much as I appreciate it, I have not heard back again from Paepke on my follow up question. Bottom line to me ... there is no quality I want to test given utter lack of response. And no, I do not believe that stating "give us 45 EUR and we'll tell you whether we can do an unrelated service" is anything but bait and switch. Upgrading to 3-cam was a standard service back in the day and from my reading Leica never charged anything but the upgrade cost unless there was agreement to do any other service on the lens. Yes, this is not Leica and these are not the times, but if you want to charge extras you better tell customer why or what for this is "required".

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Common procedure to make sure you dont waste your time in case there is an issue. And not just for Camera shops.
Not doing so Is a good way to end up loosing money, so having the occasional potential customer leave because of it is worth it.

You can simply choose not to do business with them, and everything is fine for both parties.

Auer said:

Common procedure to make sure you dont waste your time in case there is an issue. And not just for Camera shops.
Not doing so Is a good way to end up loosing money, so having the occasional potential customer leave because of it is worth it.

You can simply choose not to do business with them, and everything is fine for both parties.

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How can I do business with them if they do not reply to a business message,, especially one in response to what they send me? Can't ask for clarification of what they meant? Ridiculous.

Auer said:

Common procedure to make sure you dont waste your time in case there is an issue. And not just for Camera shops.

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This is about a common modification. Thus a repair shop should be in state to give a fixed prize for a common lens to be modified. As the OP hinted at, that was the case in the past with Leitz/Leica themselves.
In case the lens in question shows issues, one still can inform the customer and ask whether he wanted that to be solved too. In case the customer in such case cancells the whole thing one still may claim the expenses, as by sending in for a fixed price modification the customer has made a contract.

If one has made bad experience with customers in such cases, one may ask in advance for such expenses billing. BUT should explain the reason behind that in a sentence or two. More so as in this case the OP has explicetely inquired on Paepke's expense billing policy, and got no reply that made sense, resp. none at all.

Also one may offer that such expense-billing is cancelled in case modification was without further issues or deduced from a bill on repairs (as the inspection efforts then are part of the repair anyway).

I took all my Leicaflex lenses and adapters to Leica USA for 3rd cam. As I remember, not very expensive and no fuss about inspection of lenses first. Could have saved money. Leica R cameras die off, while Leicaflexes just keep going on and on.

AgX said:

This is about a common modification. Thus a repair shop should be in state to give a fixed prize for a common lens to be modified. As the OP hinted at, that was the case with Leitz/Leica themselves.
In case the lens in question shows issues, one still can inform the customer and ask whether he wanted that to be solved too. In case the customer in such case cancells the whole thing one still may claim the expenses, as by sending in for a fixed price modification the customer has made a contract.

If one has made bad experience with customers in such cases, one may ask for such expenses billing. BUT should explain the reason behind that in a sentence or two. More so as in this case the OP has explicetely inquired on Paepke's expense billing policy, and got no reply that made sense, resp. none at all.

Also one may offer that such expense-billing is cancelled in case modification was without further issues or deduced from a bill on repairs (as the inspection efforts then are part of the repair anyway).

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Youre making something out of nothing, They want a fee for spending time making sure a lens is in suitable condition for the work to be done.
They don't need to explain that really, and the easy solution is to simply not send them anything if one does not approve on the fee.

Thats all.

Edit: Here are the terms, at the bottom in a downloadable document
http://www.paepke-fototechnik.de/eng/downloads.html

Auer said:

Youre making something out of nothing, They want a fee for spending time making sure a lens is in suitable condition for the work to be done.
They don't need to explain that really, and the easy solution is to simply not send them anything if one does not approve on the fee.

Thats all.

Edit: Here are the terms, at the bottom in a downloadable document
http://www.paepke-fototechnik.de/eng/downloads.html

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I'm not sure what's in it for you, the most basic standard of dealing with a customer is to ... communicate. If you fail that most basic test, you're not a serious business to me, period.

I don't need you to lecture me on Paepke's terms. I posted a question, basically got something of a "they have good reputation" which I now must assume it has only to do with quality of service. I service wants to do charge extra that's fine, but you better explain what that is for. As Agx pointed out and so did I. this is a standard job on the lens, not a lens that is broken and needs to be fixed. You don't seem to get this part at all.

In case if anyone is interested, Paepke has responded today arguing about "fixing" the lens hence inspection needed (in spite of me specifically saying nothing is broken). But further, they claim to charge 250-300 EUR for upgrade to 3 cam (per lens), which I find almost offensive. Also they do not have kits for ALL the lenses. Bottom line is, it appears pre-work inspection is a given add on, so including postage both ways, getting 3rd cam through them is around some 400 EUR per lens. Most mainstream Leica R lenses sell within this range, so I won't bother even considering. However, given the time they took to address my original question, and even more so, the way they addressed it, I don't see them as a service I would entrust any of my gear.