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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jwillson" data-source="post: 3580450" data-attributes="member: 27449">If I base my judgment on what I see on this forum and a Leica camera forum I frequent, I would have to say that Leica service is highly variable.  I read about excellent service after the sale, and very poor service indeed.  I assume the poor service events are more likely to make it onto a forum since good service is most people's assumption when they buy a luxury product like a pair of Leica bins, so good service would generally seem unremarkable.My own experience with Leica service is that it can be slow, but it has always been competent, polite, and reasonably priced (at least considering the original purchase price).  My one surprising experience was when I sent in a set of 8x32 HD's for a bad scratch on the objective lens.  The bins were about five years old at the time, and there was no question in my mind about whether this would be warranty work.  It wasn't.  I had thrown the bins in a bag without a cover of any kind and also put some keys in the same bag.  You can guess the result.  I sent the bins to Leica New Jersey myself.  Don't know whether they went on to Europe or not, but the repair was made at no charge to me.  I was very pleased.As far as the focuser play in the Ultravids... I have owned perhaps five pairs of Ultravids and Ultravid HD's over the years.  One of the Ultravids had serious backlash as well as being quite notchy.  It was bad enough that I eventually sold them (with full disclosure).  Leica had indicated that they were within specification.  I suspect that was true--it was a truly bad focuser design.  There were some improvements made with the HD's, and while they are still greaseless and so quite poorly damped, all my HD's were smooth.  They also all had a bit of backlash, but never enough to hamper me in achieving accurate focus.  My Noctivids, so far, are perfect.  Very smooth, well damped, reasonably light focusing and zero backlash.  Best focuser I have ever had on a pair of Leica bins, and that's really nice to be able to say as their focusers have been comparatively poor, in my judgment, for many years.  I never really liked the greaseless design in the Ultravids.  I'm sure it kept the focus weight consistent across a wide temperature range--the supposed benefit--but I don't use them in really cold weather, so I never noticed.</blockquote>

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