Drowning men - was Re: [Leica] Surprises at Photokina

[dstella1 at ameritech.net (Dante Stella)]

Pushing it with $7,000-12,000 lenses?  Yes.  The number of people who  
actually operate in the "cost be damned" segment is very, very small.   
Even if you are writing things like this off your taxes, it's a lot.   
Ted is right.  No company and no client would ever pay for this stuff.

If someone really walked into a Leica board meeting and said with a  
straight face that there was a business case for making a bunch of  
super-fast wide lenses and a monstrously fast 50mm lens, I would give  
him big points for salesmanship and appeal to corporate ego.  Imagine  
what these projects will involve (or have already involved): big  
engineering costs, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on lens  
blanks and special glass up front, running thousands of diecast parts,  
and selling a few hundred (or maybe a couple thousand) of these over  
the next 20 years.  This is the story of the 75mm Summilux and the  
penultimate Noctilux, is it not?

It was a different story twenty some years ago when 35mm film was 35mm  
film.  Today, the market moves looks at camera body features, and once  
you've saturated the market of people (like me) who already have  
sizeable investments in M glass, you need something else to drive  
sales.  That means compelling upgrades (read: serious upgrades to  
sensor, in-body IS, ultrasonic dust removal) for existing users and  
conquest sales to get more people into the system.

Dante

On Sep 11, 2008, at 10:12 AM, Ted Grant wrote:

>>> Can you imagine walking talking snapshots of dogs and cats with a
> M8.2+Nocti for $18,000 or whatever?<<<<
>
>
>
> Not on your life, unless one has more money than brains!!!
>
> It's all well and good to pay a high price for the best of the best,  
> no
> question. That is of course you intend on shooting lots of f 0.95  
> light
> level scenes.
>
> But there comes a time when one has been a "professional  
> photographer" for a
> half century or more using Leica, when no matter how great the  
> lens / camera
> combination is that can capture a better image, the cost goes beyond  
> common
> sense in running a business.
>
> The amount paid by clients for your services these days is going  
> down the
> tube faster than a bucket of garbage. Cheaper is better every time  
> one turns
> around no matter whom you are.
>
> WHY? Well every idiot with a digital camera of any make, size, MP,  
> is a
> "PHOTOGRAPHER!!" No brains, nor ability required! Turn it on camera  
> takes
> great pictures!!!
>
> Simply because. "Charlie has a neat digital camera and takes great  
> snaps!"
> Charlie being the stock boy, "he takes great pictures at the bowling  
> club!
> So why would we pay this "professional" a couple thousand a day for  
> his
> services?"  Even if he's won a great number of awards for his  
> pictures and
> those supplied to clients?
>
> "Oh he has a new digital camera and lens that costs $18,000 dollars?  
> Well
> we're not paying for his new camera, use Charlie!" The game is over!
>
> Next day the pro has a sign on the door."CLOSED DUE TO BANKRUPTCY!"
>
> I'm afraid, not that it makes any difference, if the price levels  
> are true,
> I expect so, the Leica company maybe pushing their luck a tad  
> continuing
> with the level of prices. When the world is in the beginning of an  
> economic
> down turn in the economy. Certainly when they're up against the next  
> level
> of "everybody has a $200.00 or $39.95 digital auto everything that  
> makes
> "great exposures, not photographs."
>
> ted
>
>
>
>
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