Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/07/01

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica-what do pros use?
From: "Bryan Willman" <bryanwi@seanet.com>
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 12:13:02 -0700

I bought a Leica in the early '90s 'cause
I was on a buying binge, and I thought it
would be cool.  (Too much time working
at a high $ job will cause you to do weird
things in the too little time not at the job.)

It made some wonderful pix but mostly
sat in a closet until my personal
Contax G2 disaster.  Then I got more lenses
and went to Jamaica with one.  Suddenly
M's became very important to me.  Instant
parity with the mighty (and heavily used)
EOS cameras.

The Point?

Canon, and Nikon, and their AF gear,
have a pretty well known body of knowlege
about them.  Why to buy them.  What they
are best at.  What lenses.  How to use them.

The *LUG* is full of this stuff for Leicas, but
there isn't a broad base of this knowlege out
in the world.

Some of this knowlege is created by
advertising.  (Canon makes it known far
and wide that they make really long and
really fast lenses.  Nikon buys whole sections
of magazines to talk about flash systems.)
Leica ads seem mostly to remind you that
they are famous and you should know who
they are. (Or were.  And they can't spell.)

Some of the knowlege comes from the
dealer network.  In Seattle, you can buy
a Canon in about 50 places.  Leica in
about 4.   2 of the 4 are staffed with people
who can explain it to you.

In short, it's all in *the presentation*.
Ads in LHSA and the Leica house magazine
are pointless.  It's a whole host of other
places they need to be.

And yes, the breath taking pricing is
part  of the presentation.

But jeez, they're really small, and
really fast, and the pictures are to die for.
What more could you want?

bmw