[Leica] New 35mm Summicron

[Jayanand Govindaraj]

Well, it has been obvious to me for 20-25 years now, just by the way the
company has been marketing itself - in GQ or Esquire rather than Pop Photo
or Amateur Photographer, and only celebrity endorsements with nary a real
pro photographer in sight, not even Elliot Erwitt. You really do not have
to look further than that. Say what you will, Canon/Nikon/Sony/Fuji still
use the best photographers they have in their camp for their advertising.
You can even get Leica today as a mail order in the Hodinkee shop - an
online luxury watch retailer.

>From a purely business viewpoint, I have a lot of sympathy for them,
though, after all, survival of a company of their small size is only
possible by concentrating on market niches, which they have done
successfully - it is just that their niche is not related to
hobbyist/professional photographers. Just think of the amount of money they
have been saving by just not having to service around 75-80% of camera
bodies sold - that is my general estimate of the number that are never
taken out of their boxes. I am surprised that they are not more generous
with the fraction of the 20-25% of equipment in use that need service, but
that could be due to the fact that they just do not need those buyers - the
hobbyist photographer - any more, because they do not buy new equipment,
only used stuff for the most part.

Once you have private equity as stakeholders the only thing that matters at
all is the bottom line and the consequent P/E ratio for their exit a few
years down the road. It is no secret that companies making luxury goods
quote at far higher multiples than those making photographic equipment, so
it all makes sound business sense in the end - after all they have survived
as an independent entity while the landscape is littered with those giants
of their era who are dead or comatose, limping along as a shadow of their
former selves - Zeiss, Hasselblad, Francke & Heidicke, Voigtlander, Pentax,
Minolta, etc.

Cheers
Jayanand

On Thu, Mar 4, 2021 at 9:38 PM Nathan <photo at frozenlight.eu> wrote:

> This is the definitive proof that photographers are no longer the primary
> market segment for Leica:
>
>
> https://store.leica-camera.com/es/es/detail/index/sArticle/8053?utm_source=CRM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Summicron-M-35_7011i0000005TFPAA2&utm_term=https%3a%2f%2fstore.leica-camera.com%2fes%2fes%2fdetail%2findex%2fsArticle%2f8053
> https://store.leica-camera.com/es/es/detail/index/sArticle/8053?utm_source=CRM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Summicron-M-35_7011i0000005TFPAA2&utm_term=https%3a%2f%2fstore.leica-camera.com%2fes%2fes%2fdetail%2findex%2fsArticle%2f8053
> .
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Nathan
>
>
> Nathan Wajsman
> Alicante, Spain
>
>
> http://www.frozenlight.eu
> http://http://www.greatpix.eu
>
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>
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>
> YNWA
>
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