Re: [Leica] Noctilux production and ramifications

["Dr. Joseph Yao" <joseph@yao.com>]

Adrian,

Thank you so much for your posting.  It is one of the most enjoyable
postings I have read in recent weeks, and I agree with just about everything
you have stated.

Yes, the supply of the Noctilux is still spotty.  It has been out of stock
for three weeks now and my waiting list has become desperately long with at
least a hundred lenses on back order.  Ditto the APO 90/2.0 ASPH.

The VE 35-70/2.8 ASPH has become the laughing stock in the photo trade here.
Even the might of Leica cannot provide their customers a fast standard zoom.
When the lens was discontinued they made a lot of noise that it was
superlative thus was very difficult to make;  and because of the huge amount
of money they had lost they had no choice but to stop making it.  This was a
fair remark and was probably true.  As I and many others became desperate in
securing a lens we would like to use with our R cameras, I increased my
offer to triple its original price hoping the factory would run another
batch to keep a few users happy.  Nope, no lens.  I then offered them my
open cheque book policy and I still have not heard.  I now believe it is not
the money issue Leica is so worried about.  There is probably something more
profound than costs.  Money issues are always simple to overcome - just
increase one's offer and the goods will usually materialise.  This is how I
got my first M6 0.58, my first Summicron-M 28/2.0 ASPH....  Perhaps Leica
just cannot be bothered to make a few more lenses.  Or worse still, they
probably are not confident in making this lens properly in any significant
number.  In the end, I had to buy back the dozen or so lenses I had
previously sold, averaging close to a five figure sum for each lens.  This
is a pity - Leica could have made this kind of money from those who are
willing to pay, and use the extra cash to fund their R & D so more Leica
users can benefit.

With no new useful R lenses in sight, perhaps it is time to speak to Cosina
and see if they will design a fast standard zoom for R cameras.  The money I
have set aside for the Vario Elmarits can be used for designing this lens.
I would love to see a 28-70/2.8 for my R8.  I have had one for my EOS 1 for
years, and acquired a similar Nikkor for my F100 last week.  My R8 still
feels naked without a fast zoom.  How do R users on this list feel if Cosina
is to introduce a series of R lenses under the Voigtlander (no 'h'!) name?

Bests,

Joseph

on 28/2/01 8:39 PM, apbbeijing at apbbeijing@yahoo.com wrote:

> Erwin,
> 
> First, thanks for your detailed information. Surely it is fair to
> extrapolate from your above comment and the unfortunate withdrawal of the
> 35-70/2.8 that Solms is not economically capable of producing the lenses
> (and motors and numerous other items) that they have said they would in the
> manner they announced they would. In which case it would be preferable to
> outsource as much as possible. No-one doubts that Solms is technically
> capable of making the 35-70/2.8 and the Noctilux and much more besides but
> the (unprecedented?) withdrawal of the former and the spotty availability of
> the latter (and a number of other items) and failure to shift production to
> Solms shows if nothing else that they have failed to do what they said they
> would. 
> 
> Of course in legal terms they are under no obligation to produce the goods
> they announce nor continue to produce the goods they don't want to but it is
> surely reasonable to be disappointed and even sceptical about the failure to
> keep up with even their own declared intentions.
> 
> How to keep up? It would appear that the relationship with Minolta is long
> over and that the few items made in cooperation with them (16, 24, parts for
> R4-7?) are being sold as new old stock: some very old - even the latest 16s
> are marked 'Wetzlar' which dates them back to late 1980s at best. The one
> item made by Zeiss is now out of the catalogue before a replacement is
> available or even formally announced. Even Sigma has been cut out (or cut
> themselves out) and Sal tells us the very success of the Kyocera produced
> items may spell their doom. So what are Solms able to do to counter our
> concerns? Can they even supply what is in the current catalogue let alone
> come up with new items? This remains to be seen.
> 
> 
> By my assessment the line is losing more items than it is gaining and this
> is a worry: what is next for the chop? Someone mentioned a day or two ago
> the 180/2 is off the list. Whilst this is indeed a fine lens it is hardly
> the kind of product that was ever likely to sell much nor make much profit
> which makes me wonder what kind of people decide what goes in the product
> line. How about a more popular lens like a wide zoom or a fast wide lens
> (wider than 35mm that is) or a 1.4 converter that works with the shorter
> lenses (or the 180, 70-180 2.8s at least)? This is surely more the sort of
> thing Leica needs to get to market than a set of manual Apo modular lenses
> that in some cases are 50% heavier than the lenses they replaced (about
> which no-one ever complained to my knowledge) and which in any case are
> addressing a market Leica lost almost completely with the advent of AF.
> 
> We are of course a forgiving lot we Leica fans but it would be nice to see
> that the company has a clear strategy and sense of direction: the
> advertising I see seems to be all over the place with references to past
> glory one day and technical wow the next, fashion icon here and serious tool
> there. Even when strong products are down to annual sales in the triple or
> even double digits Leica does not read the market to see why people are not
> buying: sometimes just a small adjustment might make it viable. In the case
> of the 35-70/2.8 the necessary adjustment seems from your and others'
> accounts to have been simply to raise the price. The revival of screw mount
> lenses, a pretty basic manufacturing proposition but a profitable one from a
> marketing point of view, seems to have been entirely due to the initiative
> of a Japanese business.
> 
> We all of us have a wish list of things Leica could make but don't and there
> are even a few of us who can afford to pay for them!
> 
> The single policy I would pursue if I were in charge of Leica would be to
> show as many great photos as possible taken with the products: even most
> pros have never seen how good Leica R lenses are so they would never get
> serious consideration. For myself it was only through a series of chance
> encounters that I ever got to see what the magic of Leica's best lenses
> meant in photographs and I only knew they were Leica lenses because of the
> extraordinary passion for the stuff exhibited by the photographers. Leica
> themselves did not seem to do anything to promote thisrr...When it was Leitz
> there seemed to be more of this kind of promotion and overt love of
> photography but that may be just my jaded view of things.
> 
> Bests
> 
> Adrian
>