Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/06/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 04:02 PM 6/23/98 +0800, you wrote: >trendy high-risk field of digital has been embarked upon by a company >that is poorly positioned to take a leading role in this >capital-intensive line. It seems to be an overly expensive and risky >diversion for Leica which is not so financially secure as you suggest: >their growth markets (principally Asia) have been pretty much wiped out >and they have been losing market share amongst professionals for decades >now - just check the annual report figures. For a company whose cachet Simply not true. They are gaining with pros. Things are down in Asia, no surprise there. But in the US, the R line increased 51 percent last year. Right now I wouldn't expect a lot of growth. People always seem to wait in a Photokina year to see what's coming. We shall see the end of this year and next year with new products if Leica is going to keep increasing. They are healthier than Nikon in terms of growth. Maybe even Canon. Both of those companies are scrambling to keep sales up at least as seriously as Leica, if not more. As for Leica dabbling in digital, they've been doing it for years. This is just their first product. Wait to see what else comes. As much as I don't like digital, they took a step into an area where it can be afforded a lot more than amongst amateurs, collectors or photojournalists, who tend to be their biggest customers to date. Catalog photographers should love the S1. It's size with tilts, shifts and multiple lens lines should make it a very popular camera for still lifes, commercial (where two or three days' work can pay for one) copy work, restoration of photos, etc. - -- Eric Welch St. Joseph, MO http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch The gene pool could use a little chlorine.