Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/02/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Stephen Gandy wrote: <<<<I doubt if you demand less than the best in your pictures, you are making a mistake by demanding less than the best from Leica. Raise your standards Ted.>>>> Sorry Stephen, I thought I had put enough smileys in place that you understood it was a fun tongue in cheek thing about how wired you were. And not that I condoned the lack of good marketing on the part of Leica. Quite frankly I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU!!!____________ There was extremely bad judgment in Solms to release the R8 in a half assed manner with only part of the required equipment ready. It was like GM releasing a new car without the motor! What they illustrated was the total ineptness of their marketing office in understanding the demands of their died in the wool customers. And that of the many thousands they could have converted! If I was the CEO I'd have kicked ass very hard and out the door for doing what they did. It cost them dearly in both sales and image! Example, look at this! Here we are nearly two yaers into it and we are still giving them hell for their poor development/marketing skills! I strongly believe they released the camera a year before they were ready merely to have it on the PHOTOKINA shelf!!!! And all they did was make themselves look like a third world camera maker instead of the Leader we expect of them. Sorry, that it came out the way you read it, but I don't expect any less from Leica than I expect of myself when I'm headlong into an a assignment. I strongly believe whether its a new camera, putting on the Olympics, Commonwealth Games or cleaning the back yard! If you are going to do it, "DO IT RIGHT OR DON'T DO IT ALL!" There is nothing more annoying to me than trying to work with some half assed person (who thinks they know it all) or silmilar like organization. Particularly when there isn't/wasn't any reason for it. When it occurs, it illustrates the organizers really don't know what the hell they are doing! There is nothing I hate worse than working with people who do things in a half assed manner. If any thing in life is worth doing, one should always put the effort into it to make it the best that it can be or not do it at all. In my work, if I'm asked to shoot a little old ladies tea party for charity, I work just as hard to come out with the best possible images, as if I were asked to photograph the Queen! After all the final image is an "Image of me as a person and my work" Not just a photograph of a tea party!! If we consider the many derisive comments made about Leica and the lack of their organization skills in the R8 winder/motor fiasco over the past two years, it has illustrated that they didn't "do their best for the company, or most ceratinly their devoted followers" as is expected from them. Whether R 8 or M devotees. Again, an unfortunate posting on my part as my writing skills didn't impart the "humour I was trying to make of how peed off" you sounded. I trust this clears the situation and that you and I are truly on the same wave length once again. :) ted