Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/10/08

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Subject: [Leica] Leica Niche Market share - was An American Yankee in Herr Leitz' Court
From: firkin at ncable.net.au (Alastair Firkin)
Date: Sun Oct 8 14:43:26 2006
References: <100820061513.1732.452915B700076A16000006C4219791336303010CD2079C080C03BF970A9D9F9A0B9D09@mchsi.com>

If you want R7 size, you buy 4/3 system I suspect.

On 09/10/2006, at 1:13, grduprey@mchsi.com wrote:

> Douglas,
>
> I would like to see a R4-7 size from anybody at this point.  If  
> Leica could do it, I think they would own the market.  All digital  
> SLRs are much larger than the R4 size.  I would not hold my breath  
> at this ppoint.  Personnaly I think the R8/9 size is far better  
> than the R4 series, my R 4 is small and hard to use comapred to the  
> R8.
>
> Gene
>
>
> -------------- Original message from Douglas Sharp  
> <douglas.sharp@gmx.de>: --------------
>
>
>> Let's just hope they return to R4-R7 styling and size if/when they
>> decide to release an R10D. The R8/9 are just too voluminous, even for
>> my big hands.
>> IMO, the only way they will get into the market for "real" DSLRs  
>> will be
>> with a full frame (12 or more mP) sensor enabling the use of existing
>> R-lenses as they were intended to be used. Focus confirmation for  
>> manual
>> lenses, and AF with a new series of lenses is perhaps a little too  
>> much
>> to hope for.
>> Knowing Leica's past record, they would probably put in a terribly
>> complicated hybrid system to switch a full size sensor to 4/3 and use
>> existing/planned 4/3 lenses too :-)
>> Douglas
>>
>> Howard Cummer wrote:
>>> I think Leica (Steven Lee) is very aware that the company needs to
>>> broaden its customer base. They have teamed up with Panasonic and
>>> indirectly with Olympus to design lenses for the 4/3rd system and to
>>> market a series of Luxes based on the cooperation between Leica and
>>> Panasonic. I learned at Photokina that the agreement between  
>>> Leica and
>>> Panasonic has been extended for another five years so that should
>>> continue to be a source of a greater variety of product and  
>>> hopefully
>>> a widening customer base. Leica hopes that M8's will start  
>>> showing up
>>> in the camera bags of the pros again as film M's used to in addition
>>> to the Cankon SLRs in the old days of film. If the pros have kept
>>> their old film M's and lenses I think there is a good possibility
>>> Leica may be right about sales to Pros. The hard nut to crack is new
>>> rangefinder users. Coming to an M8 plus new Leica lenses is just too
>>> expensive if you are not already addicted to the rangefinder  
>>> shooting
>>> experience. And, of course, there is the question of the R  
>>> series. The
>>> digital R back is just a stop gap, in my view, while Leica gains  
>>> time
>>> to develop an integrated digital R body. Hopefully the Sinar  
>>> purchase
>>> will provide a source of expertise in this regard. And regarding R
>>> lenses they can be used on the 4/3rd system with an adaptor and with
>>> good focusing results using the magnified LCD screen. Of course, the
>>> decisive moment becomes very theoretical due to the time it takes to
>>> fiddle with the focus. In sum, my impression is that Leica is moving
>>> forward on several fronts and hopefully enough cash flow / even  
>>> profit
>>> will be generated to get them to a more financially stable place  
>>> than
>>> they have been. Certainly the success of the M8 is crucial to  
>>> that but
>>> is not the only success required.
>>> Howard
>>> (Back in Hong Kong jet lag subsiding)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 8 Oct 2006, at 6:14 AM, lug-request@leica-users.org wrote:
>>>
>>>> Message: 25
>>>> Date: Sat, 07 Oct 2006 14:33:52 -0700
>>>> From: Richard
>>>> Subject: Re: [Leica] An American Yankee in Herr Leitz' Court
>>>> To: Leica Users Group , Leica Users Group
>>>>
>>>> Message-ID: <6.1.0.6.2.20061007143129.084eb9f8@192.168.100.42>
>>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>>>>
>>>> Nah, you don't need to attract 100% of the new customers to buy  
>>>> a M7
>>>> or M8,
>>>> you only need to attract large number of customers to buy the  
>>>> "cheaper"
>>>> d-luxes, c-luxes, etc. and if 10% and 20% of the new customers buy
>>>> the M7
>>>> or M8, then might be sufficient.
>>>>
>>>> At 02:21 PM 10/7/2006, Nathan Wajsman wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> John,
>>>>>
>>>>> I agree that the M8 is an excellent product, based on the  
>>>>> reports we
>>>>> have
>>>>> seen here on the list and on my own fondling of it at Photokina  
>>>>> last
>>>>> weekend. I am speaking purely from a marketing point of view: the
>>>>> LHSA/LUG
>>>>> crowd is simply not big enough to sustain the company. The  
>>>>> challenge
>>>>> is to
>>>>> get new customers, people who have not previously used Leica.
>>>>> Whether they
>>>>> will be able to do that at the price point they currently are  
>>>>> at is
>>>>> another matter.
>>>>>
>>>>> Nathan
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Leica Users Group.
>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information


In reply to: Message from grduprey at mchsi.com (grduprey@mchsi.com) ([Leica] Leica Niche Market share - was An American Yankee in Herr Leitz' Court)