[Leica] un-believable

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

Phil I've not known you very long but here's my Leica going out of business
story. I tell it on the LUG about every 4 or 5 years. What year is this?

When I was 13 I got my first darkroom and my first real camera.
A Voigtl?nder Vito BL with a 50mm 2.8 Color Skopar lens.
1964
A Durst 606 enlarger.

I wanted to be zoomed in - to get less.
I asked people about that and they told me there's a company which makes
cameras like I have only you can put different lenses on it one some of the
lenes are zoomed in. They are called tele lenes. Tele for Telescope.
But I should not buy Leicas as it was well known the Leitz company is going
to go out of business this year. Probably by the end of the month as a
matter of fact.
This was 1964.
Mary Poppins. Doctor Zhivago.
The first Leicaflex that year came out finally that year.
With no through the lens meter like the Nikon had.
People were ignoring it in droves.
It was not going to save Leica.
Leica was history.

In the 70's I heard the same thing whenever I asked anybody in a camera
store what was going on or photo bugs I'd run into various places.
Leica was going out of business any week now.
There used to be a company called Leica.
Oh was it still in business? Then not for long.

The 80's ditto.
The 90's people were a tad more Apo Asph optimistic.

I remembered this two years ago when I was about the only one on the LUG not
talking about the Leica company in the past tense.

Leica now is part of a very good optical poker hand of a very smart and
imaginative and wealthy guy whole been in the optical business for quite
some time.
It's not going nowhere fast.

But it may be on the 5 year plan.



They are gathering seeds.




mark@rabinergroup.com
Mark William Rabiner



> From: Philip Forrest <photo.forrest@earthlink.net>
> Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
> Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:55:36 -0500
> To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] un-believable
> 
> This argument is like comparing framing hammers. Only that nobody would
> collect framing hammers, nor would anyone buy a framing hammer for
> $1000.
> 
> I believe that Leica will go out of business in my lifetime. If
> they don't change their business model, possibly sooner, hopefully
> later. Either way, I will probably wind up saying "I told you so."
> I do that right now with the place that I work at.
> And I keep telling them so, but it's too late for them to listen as
> another failure has already occurred.
> Too bad.
> Phil Forrest
> 
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