Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/06/28

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica and 15 year old technology
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net>
Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1998 07:54:36 -0500

At 06:51 PM 6/28/98 +0800, you wrote:

>Eric let me elaborate - the main 'innovations' of the R8 are (and please 
>correct me if I am wrong)

I would contend that nothing you mention is essential to good photography,
and according to Leica's philosophy, that's not a bad thing. Who cares, as
long as it does the job. The camera is wonderful, it works, very
accurately, I might add, and so far for me reliably. Maybe they've got most
of the bugs worked out of it.

>being respectively bought in (from Japan), copied/reverse engineered, and 
>botched. All this in a package which has grown about 20% in size and 

What botched? As far as copying, they either license something or they
don't use it. In this litigious world, they just don't reverse engineer and
take something. 

>increasingly high-tech driven field? Perhaps digital is the way out - I 
>hope so but still believe it would be better for Leica to team up with a 
>major digital player whilst they still have a good reputation (and are 
>solvent) than to go it alone. By the way the word I have from dealers is 
>that the R8 is a very slow seller these days and even the initial 
>interest dropped pretty quickly after it came to market...

>Adrian Bradshaw
>Photojournalist
>Shanghai, China

Where you live has a lot to do with your impression of sales. Asia is a
bust for Leica this year, and for reasons not theirs.
- -- 

Eric Welch
St. Joseph, MO
http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch

Is reading in the bathroom considered Multi-Tasking?