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They call them "laptops", right?


Andrea B.

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So I finally get around to firing up the new Macbook which is probably already obsolete but I haven't wanted to look. I have it on my LAP because it is a LAPTOP.

Wrong move, lady.

 

The laptop begins to slide off said lap. I grab for it and think "Wow, caught that little sucker just in time!"

But, nooooo.

 

Before or during the grab, the screen hit the corner of an Ipad on the table next to me and bumped the Ipad and the table corner three times. This created three lovely gouges in the screen. The gouges aren't so bad that I couldn't use the screen if it came to that. But there are also some bizarre line bands along the bottom which have a bit of jitter. And a vertical dotted line in the right half of the screen. (Why dotted ??? What kind of weird screen damage creates a vertical dotted line?)

 

The nearest Apple store is 53 miles away. I suppose that is not all that bad. But there is scarcely an appointment to be had at a decent hour, and besides which, the laptop will most likely have to be "sent in" for repair. So I might as well send in the laptop me own self and save two 106 mile round-trips. I got online with Apple Chat to arrange the repair and have them send me a repair/shipping box and label. Nice service for those of us who live in big empty states.

 

Interestingly, for this laptop I bought Apple Care as though I somehow knew something would happen. So Apple Care has already paid for itself even though Apple is making me pay a $99 charge for the boxery and shipping because I caused the damage. Fair enough I suppose.

 

Is the appropriate conclusion that one should never use a laptop on ones lap?

 

The SigOth is always sayin', "It coulda been worse".

And Birna is always sayin', "And so it goes."

Me, I'm sayin', "Oh well.......".

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Bill De Jager
Last week I fumbled and dropped a Leica 100mm f/2 macro R, an expensive lens with outstanding performance and beautiful IQ. It fell about 0.8 meters, hitting a metal edge with its rear end hard enough to put a dent in the edge of the rear cap. I haven't had the heart yet to test the lens to see if it's decentered or worse. At least no elements are visibly cracked. The lens is worth enough in good shape that it might even be worth it to pay for expensive optical realignment if that's needed.
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Andy Perrin

Last week I fumbled and dropped a Leica 100mm f/2 macro R, an expensive lens with outstanding performance and beautiful IQ. It fell about 0.8 meters, hitting a metal edge with its rear end hard enough to put a dent in the edge of the rear cap. I haven't had the heart yet to test the lens to see if it's decentered or worse. At least no elements are visibly cracked. The lens is worth enough in good shape that it might even be worth it to pay for expensive optical realignment if that's needed.

Like that famous one-line Walter Kerr review of the play "I am the Camera":

 

"Me no Leica."

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Leica R mount are the one set of lenses I almost regret not buying. When Leica killed the R mount officially, I saw a bunch of excellent ones on the bay for under $500. They could easily be mounted on my four thirds camera at the time. But wasn't interested. Now those same lenses I saw sell for 10x more. Oh well.

People were even permanently modifying their Sigma SA mount cameras to use them.

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Bill, talk to KEH.com about that Leica lens. They have a good rep for repair work and would definitely provide a faster turn-around than Leica who takes eons to fix anything. And KEH would be much less expensive than Leica.
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Andrea, your laptop user style has always been a little off the usual. See below.

 

U1405270686.jpg

 

Thus I'm not the least surprised to learn about your small mishap.

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Bill De Jager

Bill, talk to KEH.com about that Leica lens. They have a good rep for repair work and would definitely provide a faster turn-around than Leica who takes eons to fix anything. And KEH would be much less expensive than Leica.

 

Thanks for the idea, Andrea. I just don't know if they would be any good at realigning elements if that's needed. As far as I can tell the lens itself seems to have suffered no cosmetic or mechanical damage. After I examine test images I'll decide how to proceed. I wish I could have Roger Cicala put it on OLAF.

 

I took some nice shots of plum blossoms last year with this lens and I never got around to posting them on nikongear.com. Hmmm...

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Roger Cicala could probably quadruple his business overnight if he would offer a lens cleaning & adjustment service. That OLAF is a thing of beauty.

************

 

The Digital Yoga position illustrated above is called the Reverse Lap Pose. Assume this position to prevent sliding laptops. Note that there is a small chance of getting whonked on the nose if you doze off.

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The problem with Apple's walled-garden paradigm is that they make it difficult to impossible for ordinary mortal service shops to repair their products, thus shunting all said business to the Certified Apple Priesthood. This is one reason I have avoided their products over the years, though I understand that many like them very much, including members of my own family. Let me guess-the nearest repair station is probably in Albuquerque?
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Things have loosened up over time with Apple repairs. I had a fan replaced by a local guy back in NJ. My only other repair in 10 years or so was a touch pad under warranty so that was easiest done at the Apple store.

 

Here in Santa Fe, the local Best Buy could have handled the screen replacement. But they didn't have a free appointment time until 9 days(!) from now and were also thinking that the laptop might have to be "sent in". Supply chain disruption, etc.

 

We mix it up around here. We've got Apple, Windows, Android, Linux in a mix of older and newer gear and operating systems.

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Andrea,

With your laptop off at Apple maybe you want to see the trade in value and upgrade to a new M1 chip model.

 

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  • 7 months later...
Bill De Jager

I finally worked up the courage to test the Leica R 100mm f/2.8 macro that I'd dropped.  It looks good!  I'll have to test more and there is a possibility that it might be slightly out of alignment (my computer screen makes it hard to see pixel-level detail), but it's certainly still very sharp for ordinary use.  I think the dent in the rear cap was fortuitous and I just hope that it took up enough of the impact shock to avoid all damage to the optics.

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