Re: Japanese "M" mount

[Edward Meyers <aghalide@panix.com>]

On Sun, 7 Sep 1997, Edward Meyers wrote:

> The interesting part of all these made-in-Japan lenses for the
> Leica camera is that many years ago I was told the following, by
> an E. Leitz, Wetzlar employee. "The big profits are made on the
> lenses, not the cameras." It's something like Gillette selling the
> razors at a very low profit so that they can make the profits
> selling razor blades that fit the razor. I'll bet that many
> people in Solmes are very nervous about this. Afterall, they
> know just how many special edition cameras and lenses to make
> to sell out to the collectors, and make profits doing it. With
> competition, it's a whole new ballgame. Ed Meyers
> 
> 
Sorry, I failed to include the following statement also told
to me. Some time ago a significant turning point occured in lens
manufacture. It is that the lens mount became more expensive to
make than the optical elements. This might not be the case with
the new lenses having one or more aspherical elements, however.
But the fact is that high prices on lenses are very often due
to the mounts. Ed