[Leica] Commutative M7

[corkflor at iol.ie (Alex Hurst)]

B.D wrote - and. BTW, Hi B..D.  - we so much enjoyed our stay in your 
lovely house aeons ago - I trust the poodle is in good shape......

>This is why Leica is will soon be nothing but a fond memory. Long gone
>is the company that produced the workhorse RFs the world's leading
>photographers took off to war with them, or traveled with to the far
>corners of the world. Instead we have the Hermes subsidiary that
>produces batches of 100 cameras for the Porche Club to sell to its
>members as commemorative baubles for 50th anniversary car parade's. Good
>HCB in heaven!
>
>And btw - why not have the Franklin Mint produce gold plated Porche
>scale models for the Porche club? It is, after all, a car club, not a
>camera club.
>

Apart from the fact that BD obviously doesn't own a Porsche, I 
wouldn't disagree with much of what he says.

I now have a wonderful coffee maker and juicer made by Siemens, 
Germany, but "designed by F.A. Porsche".

And very good they are too - well-designed, reliable, and do the job 
very efficiently. But I do wish my juicer's 0-60 performance were a 
bit better......

Moving on to Leica, they're between a rock and a hard place. They're 
far too small to make the necessary investment in R&D, unless Hermes 
let them. Hermes obviously view Leica cameras as yet another piece of 
(predominantly male) luxury jewellery, and the new pick'n' mix 
service does nothing to dispel that view.

It may pain BD, and it certainly pains me, but Leica is, as he says, 
going to be dead in the water fairly soon.

Unless......

Whatever us old Leica buffs may think,  the future is digital. 
Nostalgia ain't what it used to be. My main pro dealer here in Cork 
is no longer 'Denis McSweeney's', but 'Denis McSweeney's Digital 
Camera Shop'. He's right, and is investing huge amounts of money to 
ensure he survives into the new era. The downside of that is that his 
stock of s/h film-based equipment has gone from excellent to lousy in 
the space of a few months - apart from his Leica collection which 
you're all aware of.

Leica will not survive on nostalgia. Unless they emulate Nikon/Canon, 
and produce digital kit of unbeatable quality which appeals to 
specific markets (pro and non-pro), they will not survive - Hermes or 
no. There are many alternative options in terms of male jewellery, 
and most of them have nothing to do with cameras.

It's sad, I know, and I, for one, will be a film-based Leica nut for 
what remains of my life. After all, at least it gives you the 
satisfaction and the fun of enjoying a 50 year-old Leitz 
state-of-the-art fast telephoto lens. See:

http://www.iol.ie/~corkflor/

In summary, unless Leica can produce something as brilliant as the 
Canon Ixus II (and they have no shortage of brains to do so), I can 
see no reason why they deserve to survive. Very sad, but B.D. is 
absolutely right.

Best

Alexc.


.




-- 
Alex Hurst
Waterfall
Nr. Cork
Ireland

Tel: +353 214 543 328 (H)
        +353 214 270 907 (W)

Fax: +353 214 271 248
email: corkflor@iol.ie
Also: corkflor.2@virgin.net (when in the UK, which isn't often)
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