Re: Leica Cost Cutting

[bholmes@frii.com (Ben Holmes)]

>Engraving costs a lot of money, stamping doesn't, so I'm in favour of
>keeping costs down so long as mechanical and optical quality stay high.

On the contrary, modern engraving is done by CRC - Cartesian machines where
the cut is plotted on a computer. This enables one machine to be used for
all patterns. The wearable tool is simply a cutting bit. In stamping, a die
has to be made for each pattern. These are quite expensive but give more
consistant results. Stampings yield a cleaner edge and hold a finish far
longer than the sharp edges of cut patterns. I don't think cost was the
impetus for stamping cameras at Leica.