Re: [Leica] State of the art Canadians

["adrian bradshaw" <abpeking@public.bta.net.cn>]

Ted wrote

>Sorry good buddy, but they don't have anything in Canada any longer as in
>the "olden days!" :) I'm not sure what your comment means in the context of
>my country and possibly  "cheap" labour or whatever!

Oh dear Ted - that was pretty much the opposite of what I was implying! My
comment/question was in response to Alan Hull's denigration of the Japanese
camera industry as having no further mileage in copying the Germans and that
Nikon's move to set up some manufacturing in China was somehow an indication
of this. I felt this was a bogus argument and could be equally applied (as a
bogus argument) to Leica which has manufactured in a number of places such
as Canada and Portugal. That Leica has entire lenses and cameras for that
matter made in Japan would seem to indicate they have a whole lot more
respect for the Japanese camera industry than Mr Hull. It is unfortunate but
true that there is considerable marketing advantage to having 'Made in
Germany' stamped on a Leica product: I have sufficient faith in leica's
products not to worry where they are made so long as they back them up with
a quality after-sales service and strive to maintain their reputation
amongst real photographers. I believe that there are still a few items
coming out of Canada in the Leica line - Noctilux at least (I used a new one
with the builtin hood the other day and it was made there I recall).

FWIW, I generally feel satisfied with the direction the new management seems
to be adopting (i.e. update and upgrade both R and M lens lines, improve
repair facilities) but certain things worry me - the dropping of enlarger
production, the continued pandering to the carriage trade ('collector
editions' and jewelry etc) and the evident lack of funds to compete
technologically in the electronics department: I just read a report that
Leica wanted to outsource production of some or all of an AF SLR in 1995 but
that the potential partner (perhaps Kyocera) was not interested due to the
low volume involved. I believe this means that Leica is now doomed to
make-do with an increasing number of components that are bought in - such as
the Japanese shutters, semi-finished optics (I heard from Sigma!) and
previous generation electronics whilst the increasingly exotic lenses that
pros are using these days - be they AF, long and high speed, zoom or all
three - are beyond the means of Solms to produce. On the other hand the new
APO zoom shows promise: previously most exotic R lenses were made by third
parties (e.g. zooms, shift lenses, ultra wides, fisheyes, mirror lenses)
maybe there are moves afoot to create more in-house optical wonders - hope
so!

Now of course most photographers most of the time don't need (and a very few
are wise enough to know they don't need) all this sophistication but
sometimes many do and then they don't want to be without it so they end up
not buying Leicas: too bad you might say and how misguided they are but it's
their problem. HOWEVER if it means that Leica loses market share, production
quality is lowered whilst prices get even higher and even the carriage trade
lose interest (perhaps they will prefer diamond encrusted guns or Faberge
toothbrushes in a few years).

By the way I was privileged to do a job for the Canadian Steamship Line
yesterday at a naming ceremony for a new ship of theirs here in Shanghai:
what a nice bunch of people they were. The whole board, Mrs Paul Martin and
a crowd of engineers and their families all came out and all went very well:
for one moment I thought the Chinese shipyard brass band was about to play
the theme from 'Titanic' (all the rage here now) but that was just my
cynical ears playing a practical joke! I seem to spend a lot of time working
with Canadians and haven't met a bad one yet. I shot it all with my
Rapidwindered M6 35/1.4 ASPH and 50/2.0 (with a ton of EOS as backup): good
fun and I am happy with the pictures - gotta love those heavy industries, as
a photographer I mean.

Bests

Adrian