Weight be damned, when a 280mm f/4 APO-Telyt-R turned up at a reasonable price at a UK vendor with which I’ve had good experiences, I jumped on it. I guess the call of the sirens was just too irresistible. The way my twisted mind worked was to remind myself there’s a TL2 in the arsenal that can help to keep the setup’s weight down to not much worse than the current 180 APO/2X/SL2 setup. Good excuse thinking, right?
On a totally unrelated matter, the first time I went in the LCAP offices here many years ago, the experienced, highly-respected technician (no longer with Leica) with whom I was talking noticed that the R lens mounted on my camera didn’t have a red dot. He took it to his work table for a few minutes and brought it back with a nice, new red dot on it.
Having been referred to the LCAP office recently regarding the well-documented issue of the plastic part of an SL/TL lens hood separating from the metal part, I also inquired about the possibility of having a new red dot put on my 180 APO.
After a long delay, a response came that contained an outright denial of ever having heard of the hood issue. Bear in mind the response came from the same individual who, many years ago, told me an item I’d sent to Solms for repair had been repaired and was “undergoing testing.” When I contacted Solms, they told me the repair had not yet commmenced!
A new red dot? $38.00! At that rate my 180 can afford to stay anonymous. Good to know where things stand, though, after so many years of abysmal “service” from the “subsidiary partner.”
