[Leica] country of origin

[Robert Appleby <robert.appleby@tin.it>]

Just a note to the country of origin discussion. I was quite surprised to
find that all my M gear - three lenses and two bodies, some new, some old -
are stamped "Made in Germany". It doesn't matter to me at all, but I
believed that a lot of the stuff was actually made in other countries.
However, if the final assembly is done in Germany, this is presumably in
order to be able to stamp just that legend on the equipment, since the
quality of assembly, as Erwin points out, wouldn't be any different in
Portugal or wherever. So Leica themselves, at least, must see some
advantage in having the Germany label. Which would be a matter of their
brand, rather than the actual engineering quality of the assemblies.
So the perception of a difference is real enough, at least in economic
terms. Emanuel's post goes to show just this. Given this reality, Leica are
right to make the most of the value inherent in the German engineering myth.
As Jung said (words to the effect that) if the majority of people believed
that the moon is made of cheese, that in itself would be a significant fact.
Rob.