[Leica] Lower priced Leica (was M9)

[lrzeitlin at gmail.com (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

Geoff writes:
"Because, even if it could be designed and produced for less, a lower cost

body might cannabilise sales of the M9 which has sold at least twice as

well as expected"

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Hoppy,

I admire your Leica loyalty but I'm a little confused by your logic. If a
lower price Leica could cannibalize sales of the M9, i.e. do everything an
M9 could do, then it shows that the M9 was too pricy to begin with. It's
pretty much the same rationale that Leica used to abandon the CL, the most
popular Leica since the M3. I, for one would like to see Leica cram an M8
sized sensor into a CL sized body with its decent viewfinder and adequate
rangefinder and sell it for half the price. I, for one would but it in an
instant even if it was made by Panasonic, Fuji, or any one of those products
of Asian companies that Leica affixed its badges to in the past. Leica is a
production limited company but both Pansonic and Fuji have plenty of
manufacturing capacity. Think of all the additional glass that Leica could
sell. But not to me. I have plenty of Leica lenses that I could fit to a
reasonably priced Leica digital.

Larry Z