[Leica] lower class pros using leicas?

[Paul Chefurka <Paul_Chefurka@pmc-sierra.com>]

> From: Tarek Charara [mailto:tarek.charara@wanadoo.fr]
> 
> le 04.09.2001 11:07, Mxsmanic à mxsmanic@hotmail.com a écrit :
> 
> > Tarek writes:
> > 
> >> You earn your living with photography and
> >> you can prove it.
> > 
> > That does not answer my question.  What constitutes earning 
> one's living with
> > photography, and what proof does Leica require?
> 
> Are you really stupid or are you just pretending?
> 
> Tarek

Actually, he's neither stupid nor pretending.  It's a legit question - what are Leica's criteria for "earning one's living with photography"?  51% of all taxable income pre year?  90%?  100%?  49%?  10%?  Some absolute dollar amount?  And how do they ask one to substantiate this?  Is there a sliding window of time over which the qualifications are applied?

I don't mean to restart the tired discussion about "what's a pro?", but it would be interesting to know how Leica qualifies those who take advantage of whatever pro services they offer.  The certainly don't want rabble like me clogging their channels, so how do they keep me out if I were to shoot a dozen very lucrative contracts in a year in addition to working as a contract software designer?  Say my income from photography exceeds the average income for a nominal "professional photographer" but I make three times that from my software business.  Do they exclude me, while including another photographer who makes less from their photography than I do, but has no additional source of income?

I think the answers to these questions would provide some very interesting insight into how Leica views professional photographers.  A comparison to Canon and Nikon's qualification procedures would be even more enlightening.  Anyone have any information on this?

Paul