Hi everyone, my 120 suddenly won’t AF. It worked just fine the last time I used it. I did not change lenses and today when I turned on the camera it made a soft whirling sound for about 10 seconds, as if the camera was trying to connect or something, and then it stopped.
Tried turning the camera on/off, taking the battery out, took off the lens and connected it again several times to no avail. I tried the MF setting and the rear button, a soft sound and nothing happening. It was the only lens I had with me.
When I got back home, I tried the 70 mm and it worked fine, put on the 120 mm again, same thing. The sound for about 10 seconds, then nothing.
Does anyone recognise this behaviour? Thanks for any suggestions,
Peter
peterv;8446 wrote: Hi everyone, my 120 suddenly won’t AF. It worked just fine the last time I used it. I did not change lenses and today when I turned on the camera it made a soft whirling sound for about 10 seconds, as if the camera was trying to connect or something, and then it stopped.
Tried turning the camera on/off, taking the battery out, took off the lens and connected it again several times to no avail. I tried the MF setting and the rear button, a soft sound and nothing happening. It was the only lens I had with me.
When I got back home, I tried the 70 mm and it worked fine, put on the 120 mm again, same thing. The sound for about 10 seconds, then nothing.
Does anyone recognise this behaviour? Thanks for any suggestions,
Peter
Hi Peter,
I had a similar issue with a 35 two years ago and it had to go back for repairs to Germany. Your Leica dealer may be able to loan you a replacement lens on upcoming critical shoots. I understand how it can be frustrating.
ArifThanks Arif, today I sent the lens to the dealer and they will forward it to Leica. Fingers crossed it will be repaired quickly. Too bad this has happened, it is my most used lens at the moment.
I just had precisely the same thing happen to my 120 CS. Whirring sound for several seconds…and will not AF. My other lenses all work fine…even my Contax zoom with adapter is working. Nothing precipitated this failure. Worked fine last time…now it doesn’t.
The same happend to my 120 mm lens about three months ago. It had to go to Wetzlar and came back 6 weeks later, at no cost.
Rudolf
Thanks Rudolf, I just hope it won’t take too long the get the lens back. Six weeks sounds like a long repair time.
David, thanks for sharing. I hope you’ll soon get your lens back.
It happened to my 120mm non-CS lens as well!!
Sent it to Leica Solms for more than 2 months and I am still waiting 🙁It seems like the failure rate of AF is rather high. Hope Leica will provide long term fix for this problem. Or else it is going to be very costly to service this problem after the warranty is over.
Add my name to the list. My 120 is in Solms as well. Was at a shoot and suddenly
it would not autofocus. Solms claims there was impact damage, but I do not recall
such an event. They are charging me a lot for the repair and state it will take 6 weeks.
It appears that there is an innate problem with the 120 that Leica needs to address,
and they need to be more liberal in their repairs until the issue is resolved.noctilux and rudlinfineart, what can I say? When I started this thread I was hoping for maybe a tip from someone how to reset the lens or something. I certainly did not expect to hear from five different people who have encountered this same issue within just one week. Especially not on a forum like this, which is a nice place, but does not have that many active members. The failure rate of AF seems to be rather high indeed.
I’ve sent the lens in for repair and I hope it’s not going to take 6-8 weeks because I payed so much money for it less than three months ago. I really need it now as I do most of my shooting during the summer months.
I hope we’ll all get our lenses back soon and that the issue will be solved permanently. How can we know this will not happen again next year when the warranty has expired?
Leica should make repairing these faulty 120’s and getting them back to their owners a priority. In other words…move these lenses to the top of the cue, fix them and ship them back promptly. I’ve had my fair share of Leica gear needing to be repaired. I’m happy to say that in every case the repair was handled satisfactorily, albeit not always as quickly as I would have hoped. I suspect David and Josh have quite a bit to do with this. And while I’m not thrilled about having a nearly new lens fail there’s still no other camera system, irrespective of cost, that I’d rather have.
I digress but I was curious about how the S120mm compares to the HC120mm mk2 ,the parameters were tightly controlled and these are wide open shots..(this is @100%)
But the image speaks for itself..
Rob
David K;8488 wrote: And while I’m not thrilled about having a nearly new lens fail there’s still no other camera system, irrespective of cost, that I’d rather have.
The same goes for me, David. I just downloaded 125 new photos I took with the 70 mm (the only lens I have now that the 120 is back to Leica for repair) and the IQ is just so good. I saved up for this system and I’m very satisfied with the results I get.
I just hope that everything will keep working a few more years, once the warranty has expired.
Impressive test results, Rob! I would not have expected the difference between these two lenses to be that obvious.
peterv;8506 wrote: Impressive test results, Rob! I would not have expected the difference between these two lenses to be that obvious.
Peter I have a few HC lenses,I will probably sell them,the S lenses are a step up,no doubt about that.. The blad lenses work pretty well when stepped down to be fair,but DAC is more important for HC IQ than it is with S glass..
On the subject of S glass,If there is another accessory I would like to see its a 2nd S rolling case that could take the S24mm,the Zoom and the new 100mm and extra batteries and CF cards…
i have the current case and its great but only holds 5 lenses and even if you wanted to leave a couple behind you still couldnt fit the Zoom or 24mm in..
Curious to hear from those who have gotten back their repaired 120mm CS lenses. How’s the AF working? How long did the repair take/cost?
Hi David, thanks for asking. After it had been to Wetzlar for about 4 weeks I got my lens back, only to find that the AF was working all right, but now all my images with the 120 mm were underexposed by 1 to 1,5 stops. I made a comparison test with my 70 mm and with that lens the exposure was fine. Somehow the camera chose a shutter speed 1 to 1,5 stops faster with the 120 mm, so I had to send it back to the factory once again.
I mailed customer service and the S product manager and explained the problem, with sample images and all. After about 2 weeks I got a telephone call they could not find anything wrong with the lens … When I asked how they explained the under exposure they had no idea what I was talking about …
So I sent the comparison test again, with more examples. One week later I got another call that they found the under exposure problem and re-installed the lens firmware, which solved the problem. Or so they say.
I’m supposed to get my lens back – again – next week. Needless to say that I’m going to have to do another boring and time-consuming test when it finally arrives. Keeping my fingers crossed everything finally works as advertised.
I can’t say I’m happy about this lens going up and down through the mail now twice. And I certainly don’t like having payed € 6.400 ,- for a lens that has been away now for almost half the time since I bought it in late march this year. Especially during the summer months where I had planned to do most of my shooting with it.
peterv, talk about adding insult to injury!!! Leica service should be ashamed of themselves for sending that lens back to you without the latest firmware and having testing it to make sure it was functioning properly. My lens has been gone two months now. Leica told me yesterday that it was scheduled to be repaired by today. If they’re on schedule I should have it back in a week or so and will update this thread after I test it.
Please do the same when you get your lens returned…again 🙁
peterv;8609 wrote: Hi David, thanks for asking. After it had been to Wetzlar for about 4 weeks I got my lens back, only to find that the AF was working all right, but now all my images with the 120 mm were underexposed by 1 to 1,5 stops. I made a comparison test with my 70 mm and with that lens the exposure was fine. Somehow the camera chose a shutter speed 1 to 1,5 stops faster with the 120 mm, so I had to send it back to the factory once again.
This is the first I am hearing of this, wow….
My Story: I have been going nuts telling people at the highest level of Leica USA. I thought it was my S Body that was underexposing by the amounts you describe, but spending DAYS trying to diagnose the problem.
Finally someone said, “Is it maybe the lens (120) that is underexposing?” huh?? I always forget that the lens has a firmware.
My tirades have gotten as high as my dealer where I had to contemplate law suits etc. Not sure e
if our relationship will ever be the same.HERE’S THE PROBLEM:
LEICA GERMANY does not communicate with LEICA USA. End of Story.
As luck would have it I was having problems, this site was down for over a week. Had this site been up, I could have pointed Ben Ross, Tom Brichta, and other notables and said, ‘See, I’m not the only one”.
Have to cool down right now!Thanks David K, I got my lens back, did my tests and everything (AF and exposure) works fine now. Fingers crossed it will not show any more defects, ever. Especially not after the warranty will expire …
Hi William, this is ‘interesting’. I really couldn’t tell why my 120 mm underexposed so much when it came back the first time. I’m sure I would have noticed such behaviour before I sent it in. I’ve gone over my photos from this spring when I just got the lens and back then, exposure was fine.
Yesterday, I came across this post:http://www.getdpi.com/forum/599067-post11.html
These things really make you wonder …
Just a follow up post to let you know I finally (2 months+) got my 120 CS back and it is working perfectly. Updated firmware on my S2 and all lenses and have encountered no problems at all. Aside from the repair taking too long I’ve got no complaints.
David,
Glad to hear that the lens is back to 100%, and back in your hands.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store Miami
I’m now having the same problem. My 120 CS was working fine before the firmware update and now the autofocus doesn’t work and it makes a whining noise for about 10 sec.
UGH!!!
Now I have to deal with a 6-8 week rotation to get this fixed.
Sorry to hear this …
Couldn’t you try to install the firmware update once again?
I just received confirmation from Leica today that there is a bug in the firmware update that may have caused the issue. They have indicated a fix over the next week.
Fingers crossed!
Wow,
sorry to hear about any Issues Folks. I have the Newest Firmware and have to say my 120 Focuses even in Low Light like a Dream. I can confirm without even snapping because I have the Split View Screen Installed. Simply amazing. now there are two ways to Install ?Firmware for Lenses:
1) Through Latest lens Firmware update, then Install on your Body.
2) After installation of 2.4.0.0, simply put lens on the Body. Turn on Power with AE Button depressed.do you remember how you Installed the Lens Firmware? Is that where the Potential problem Lies?
Unfortunatelly I have the same problem with 35 and 120 (nonCS) as reported here on l-camera-forum and it looks I´ll have to send lenses to Solms for repair 🙁
Video of the issue with S-120/2.5:
My lenses failed with old S2 FW (1.3.0.0) and older lens FW, after updating to last versions problem remains the same 🙁
Mark
I reported on June 30, 2014 (post 4768) that the autofocus on my 120 mm lens failed. It has since been repaired in Wetzlar. Now the same thing happend with my 35 mm (all non-CS). This time the lens was returned within about three weeks.
I wonder when my other lenses (70 and 180 mm) will go off line. The failure rate is very disturbing. How can you go out to far away places with this gear when you never know if it will function or not? The defective lenses did not even work in Manual mode.
Hi guys,
New here. I just had the same thing happen to me with a BRAND NEW 70mm lens. This is a pretty big red flag for me and not a good start to owning a new system.
I love Leica, I just wish they’d get things right… Hopefully my replacement lens never has this problem.Unfortunately my CS120 just became victim to the same issue.
Whirling noise, no AF. Had to remove the battery to stop it. Cleaned contacts etc, etc. no go,
Stopped right in the midst of a fashion shoot with an expensive model. Other lenses are fine.
What a massive PITA!
Seems I can’t complete a shoot without some issue with the S system.
– Marc
Did Leica charge anyone for these repairs, out of warranty?
Sorry to report that I experienced the same with my 120CS today
Looks like Leica has recognized this and is taking action to replace the motors free of charge. I hope they have a better solution, motor/gear, than just replacing the existing motor.
Good to know that they stand behind their faults and make good on them.
BTW my 30mm is at Wetzlar now on a spa vacation for it’s motor replacement.
My 2yo 120mm had the issue, less than 3 weeks from dropping into dealer and back again, however I got a ‘new’ lens! Serial number is about 2000 higher, but it surprised me…
john
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