RE: [Leica] What is "Innovation"

["Jonathan Borden" <jborden@mediaone.net>]

Erwin Puts wrote:
>
>
> According to many contributors, Leica has no innovative products, nor
> the capacity to be innovative.
> But do we really know what "innovation" stands for? My handbook
> defines innovation as:
> Quote:
> The process of crating new products, or new ways of making old
> products, so that the creator has an effective monopoly in the market
> for as long as it takes others to copy.
> In the West innovation is seen mostly as the Big Bang type of
> breakthrough. In Japan it is seen much more as an incremental thing
> that can turn the smallest change into a dramatic innovation. There
> is even an appropriate Oriental saying: " A little thing will will
> always be a little thing, but contemplation of a little thing can be
> a very big thing indeed."
> End Quote.

To me there are two types of qualities of cameras and lenses 1) Qualities
which 'improve' the image as rendered on film 2) Qualities which 'assist'
the photographer. It is much more difficult to innovate a Type I Quality
than a Type II Quality. Leica has been mostly concerned with changes which
improve images e.g. the ASPH lenses. Even a meter is Type II, a matter of
convenience. So is autofocus etc. These features don't improve the final
picture in the hands of a qualified photographer.

Jonathan Borden