[Leica] Leica R system

[john at mcmaster.co.nz (John McMaster)]

________________________________________

> Other camera companies come out with 2x crop and 1.5 crop DSLR's which
> purport to compete directly with 1x format. Leica just went the other
> direction.  Call it a  .6x crop. - just a guess though.

0.8x crop to get FF equivalent

> Compatibility with R glass just didn't make for a big enough reason to 
> stick
> with the 35mm format. A brilliant move on the part of Leica. And no you 
> cant
> have one for four grand.

Some lenses have come from R designs with further improvements, I think the 
35mm f2.5 has some basis in the 19mm v2 R and the 120mm f2.5 APO-Macro has 
heritage in the 100mm APO-Macro but further improved, it really is a 
knock-out lens.

john

On 4/8/14 8:25 AM, "Frank Filippone" <red735i at verizon.net> wrote:

> This discussion started off as a comment on discontinuing the R system in
> favor of the S.

My point was and remains that Leica made a decision that the
> R market was too big and competitive for them to play in, where Leica
> innovations and image quality at the projected selling price would make the
> market too small to them to presumably make a profit.   So they decided on 
> the
> D-MF market.

>From a May 2013 interview by Forbes Magazine of Leica's Stephan
> Schulz, the Head of Professional Photo at Leica Camera AG:
"There are no
> industry-wide figures, but we think the core medium format market is 
> roughly
> 6000 units per year ? worldwide, for all brands. We are not yet the market
> leader (I estimate Phase One to have 40-45% market share), but we already 
> have
> 20% share ? and this is only after 3 years after introduction."

Interpolating
> this data..... 6000 * 20% = 1200 cameras per year..... ( if you assume that
> Schulz is talking about Unit market share and not Dollar market share)

Have
> then had some degree of success?  The noted 20% market share says yes.  The
> fact that they remain in that business says the company is sufficiently 
> happy
> with the inroads that have been able to make and the profits or losses
> thereby.

Circling back to the original discussion, and based on data we now
> have on the S system, comparing it back to the R system, ....   Would Leica
> have sold 1200 R10's at prices that would have been 50-100% above the
> competition?  There are enough Leica nuts ( myself included) out there that
> the answer is most likely ....Yes...... After all, to own an M lens, we 
> spend
> 10-20 times the price of mainstream lenses to own the Leica brand....

And
> with that, a dead horse.

Frank
> Filippone
Red735i at verizon.net