SHOW ME THE MONEY! aka $3,340

[Stephen <cameras@jetlink.net>]

Chuck Warman wrote:

> As I've followed this thread, I've found myself getting more and more
> irritated, and I just now figured out why.  It has nothing to do with
> you
> fine folks; I'm ticked off at Leitz.

snip

> WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THE OTHER $3,340???

Once Leica lost king of the professional hill in sales with the
introduction of the Nikon F in 1959, they never recovered.  Sales went
down, down, down, downnnnnn.

They also lost their competition in pro 35 RF as Canon, Zeiss and Nikon
all pulled out by 1967.

With no one to push them, and with only a fraction of the sales they
used to have, they made marginal improvements on old designs (M4 to M4-2
to M4P to M6 to M6J to the new M6 wide whatever the name is).

What I am talking about is management through several owners (I lost
count) which managed to keep the company alive, but that was about all.

While post 1959 Leitz management can be congratulated on keeping it
alive, their new product list since then suggest serious problems:

    1) RF designs based upon old news
    2) SLR designs based upon another manufacturer (Minolta from the R3
to the R7)
    3) poor designs in SLR meter couplings which continue to erode
photogs investments.  Their    latest fiasco, so I am told,  is that the
new R8 lenses can be damaged if used on the older bodies.
    4) no SLR or RF autofocus systems.

In the words of Nikon prototype tester, Leica has no technology and very
little money for RD.

I do have to admit that the one thing Leica management has continued to
do right is improve their optics in both the RF and the SLR line.  If
only their bodies were more up to date.  The R8 is an improvement
apparently, but until they come out with Nikon and Canon competitive AF,
they are doomed to being on the low rung of sales and therefor economic
success.

SHOW ME THE MONEY per Jerry Mcquire(what a great movie if you havn't
seen it).     It's in very high overhead and high optical standards
which is compounded with dangerously low sales volume.

Stephen Gandy