Re: Emotive lenses

[dmorton@cix.compulink.co.uk (David Morton)]

In-Reply-To: <32561915.7057@pi.net>
Bert wrote:

> > This just isn't true, you can count the number of manufacturers of 
> > high
> > refractive index and other specialist glasses on the fingers of one
> > mitten, and the German lens manufacturers use the same sources as
> > everyone else. Nikon in particular have been innovative in their use 
> > of
> > such materials in their 'serious' lens designs (though I accept that
> > these days they make a lot of price-driven crap).
> 
> Sorry David, but I've got to disagree with you. Japanese companies 
> design
> and manufacture lenses for specific parts (amateur/pro) of the market. 
> They decide what kind of lens to make and then set a price for that 
> lens. Leica reverses this, they make a lens and after that they 
> calculate the price. Japanese companies work this way because they have 
> compete with each other. Erwin Puts, a Dutch Leica specialist put it 
> this way:
> 
> Nikon competes with Canon, Minolta competes with Pentax, but Leica 
> competes with Leica.

I've been lens shopping recently, and while my list isn't comprehensive 
because it includes only those lenses I'm interested in at present (for 
various reasons), if we compare Leica R lenses with their closest Nikon 
MF equivalents we get an interesting picture:

(all prices in UK pounds)
             Leica R         Nikon MF      Difference
35mm f1.4    2116            990           214%
85mm f1.4    2100            1090          93%

and this would tend to support your thesis, although I would suggest that 
economies of scale are quite large enough to explain the difference. 

However if we look further down the list:

             Leica R         Nikon MF      Difference
400mm f2.8   9980            8760          14%
80-200mm f4  1400            1200          17%

which hardly lends credence to your 'designed without a thought for the 
price' argument, does it?

Indeed I would suggest that the price points show that Leica are 
*directly* competing with Nikon in this area. And once they've chosen to 
compete, they will be blown by the same economic winds which affect every 
other manufacturing company.