RE: [Leica] Cosina still at it

[Guy Bennett <gbennett@lainet.com>]

>How many total LTM cameras were made?  about a Million.  Hom many M Mount?
>about 2 million.  The older cameras have been used(up) and are not all
>available for shooting, making their 1 Mil a lot smaller.  So why make
>lenses for cameras that don;t work and offer a smaller market?
>Simple... the Asian market ADORES the LTM.  and the adapter does allow use
>on a M mount.
>What I don;t understand is why they don;t offer the lens in M mount as
>well...
>[snip]
>If I were King, I would fire the guy who suggested the idea of LTM lenses.
>If I were King of Leica, I would have the guy flailed before drawing and
>quartering.  Then fire him.  ( of course, simple desire to keep afloat and
>get any cash flow moving is what drives stuff like null series, LTM ASPH
>lenses, etc.  This stuff makes no forward sense, it is only used to keep the
>mark (pun intended) afloat.)
>OK enough, gotta take some PIX with my LTM 15 on my M6. Hope the adapter
>doesn;t stick to the body.....
>
>Frank Filippone


Frank,

Those lenses sell like hotcakes (maybe that's why they call one of them a
"pancake" lens - :) ), and their immense popularity is obviously not
limited to Asian countries. To my perhaps naive mind, that is justification
enough for their production.

As potential King of Leica, you should thank rather than flail the
initiator of newfangled LTM lenses. Thanks to him, fine lenses in focal
lengths previously unavailable for Leica cameras *are* available and are
relatively inexpensive. In addition to making many an M user happy (how
many of you out there currently use the Cosina 15 or 25 on an M?), he has
injected new life into screwmount bodies, as it were.

Whetting the obvious appetite of SM users while catering to M users was
apparently a successful business strategy, as sales of Cosina lenses
undoubtedly attest. Those sales, to my mind, constitute the "forward sense"
of such stuff.

Guy

P.S. An interesting question would be: why are the Konica lenses - which
for all intents and purposes use the M mount - not attracting the same
attention? Because they merely duplicate focal lengths currently made by
Leica? Because they are considered to be too expensive? I'm not sure.

If Konica were to offer a 15 lens in M mount for $1000, I wonder how many
of us would buy one (would you?).