[Leica] RE: New AF Contax v. R

["Martin Mikolajek" <mgmikolajek@volny.cz>]

On Sat, 15 Jul 2000 14:30:28 +0200 Erwin Puts wrote:

The new Contax SLR with AF will generate zillions of emails on the Lug, that
the leica company is in serious danger, that the management has missed an
opportunity, that now the R8 is a dead duck,etc. The only reliable
information (sales figures) is not yet available, so this topic is dead
before it even has started.
We, the leica users, have made a conscious decision to buy into the various
Leica systems, after weighting the evidence and this decision has been made
while Nikon, Canon etc offer outstanding AF models and still we choose an M
or R. So what is the relevance of a new Contax AF for that decision to our
use of the camera? (Let the Leica managers study the strategic impact (if
any)). None at all...


Hi Erwin,
I agree that the new AF Contax would not make current Leica R users move to
Contax; the investment into Leica glass will prevent them from doing so.
However, for people who decide between going into Contax or Leica SLR, the
new Contax might be a strong temptation. Not only because even the current
Contax SLR line of camera bodies is superior to Leica in both its range and
IMHO the quality of bodies (lenses being equal in quality, the most popular
ones much cheaper, but their overall range smaller then Leica's), but also
because eight newly-designed/improved lenses are coming with the AF Contax
and I am quite certain more are to come in near future. Now, if you get a
new state-of-art camera body and eight lenses that are equal to the best of
Leica, with total manual control and seamlessly integrated autofocus as in
Contax 645, for the price of Leica R8 and 2-4 lenses, what would you choose?
Moreover, neither Contax nor Leica is in the same league as Canon, Nikon,
Pentax or Minolta, as they offer systems for a very specific type of
photographers - for very demanding amateurs and for art photographers, who
for one reason or another prefer to use 35mm to MF. Unless the new Contax
has the same electronic gimmicks as Canon Eos V or Nikon F5 (which I
strongly doubt), it obviously cannot compete for their market share, and
therefore the only real competitor will be Leica R. If Zeiss eventually
comes with longer telephotos and faster zooms for reasonable prize (I wonder
why they haven't done that already), then there won't be any more
competition, of course, as the majority of the undecided prospective buyers
within that narrow target group will go for Contax.
If Leica improves its M body (spot meter, aperture priority program, easier
loading of film), then it would not have competition in its class either.
(Well, they should, the new Konica Hexar RF is a temptation for all but
die-hard Leica fans.)