[Leica] My personal Photokina evaluation

[Pascal <cyberdog@ibm.net>]

Folks:

First, I have not been to Photokina in person. I should have also 
participated in the special LUG seminar, but an unexpected professional 
duty came up at the last moment. This is really a pity because the 
seminar was intended to give people an insight into future Leica 
developments.
So what I am saying further on is completely based on what I have read in 
magazines and have found on the Leica website.

Second, I feel a bit "left hungry", or underwhelmed, when I see the stuff 
Leica has brought at Photokina. It could be summarized as "too little, 
too late" in many ways.

OK, I have to be honest: the new Apo-Summicron-M 90/2.0 ASPH and the 
Apo-Telyt-M 135/3.4 are excellent news and prove the M series are still a 
very viable way to go, at least as far as optics are concerned. But the 
TTL feature of the "new" M6 seems like more of a gimmick to me - just 
referring to the different postings over the last days on this list - 
when taking into account its limited usefulness at a speed of 1/50 
maximum. And it seems the titanium version will be completely abandoned, 
as no TTL version has been announced.
Have you seen the first Leica flash unit SF20? It looks really 
underpowered. Was it really necessary for Leica to bring out a 
flashlight, something they are not specialized in and where they do not 
have any competitive advantage (better look at Metz and others for 
price/performance features).

Especially the developments for the R series worry me. It's nice to 
finally have a remote control and rechargeable battery for the winder, 
only why did they have to come out 2 years after the R8 was brought to 
market? Where is that motordrive everybody has been waiting for? It is 
not much use to bring out such an essential tool only in the mid of a 
camera's commercial life span. I guess the R8 will have a commercial life 
of about 5 years, no more given the technological evolution, that is, of 
course, if Leica decides to keep up with the competition.
This is one of those typical "too little, too late" situations, where you 
can seriously debate on the question whether you can speak of a "system" 
with everything that such thing implies. 
The new Apo-Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70/2.8 ASPH is a major high-quality asset 
for the R series, especially when combined with the excellent 
Apo-Vario-Elmarit-R 70-180/2.8 - the King of Lenses IMHO -, but why did 
it have to weigh over 1 kg and have a length of 11 cm compared to the 
less than 700 gr and 4 cm less for the Nikkor 35-70 AF D? I am sure 
mechanical and optical quality will be top, but did it really have to be 
that "monstruous" for such a "banal" focal length?

One area which shines, are the new Pradovit projectors. They seem to be 
an excellent thing, especially for people who give demonstrations and so 
on.

In the viewing department, I do not really see where the competitive 
advantage of Leica is in the field of slide loupes/magnifying glass. The 
new 5x Leica loupe will be great, but there are already the excellent 
loupes of Schneider, Rodenstock,... on the market.

Another great area is the digital S1 series for studio use. But as far as 
the Leica Digilux is concerned, although it will have a great quality, it 
is basically only a rebadged Fuji MX-700 consumer digital camera (with 
the exception of the slightly different finish). Once again, the 
question: where is the added value?
One of the major mottos of the company is "concentration on essentials". 
Was it necessary to sell a rebadged Fuji camera under the Leica name, for 
other reasons that to be able to say that there is a consumer level 
digital camera in the catalogue?

Do not misunderstand me: it is not my wish to bash Leica! I have invested 
heavily in R and M equipment over the last year or so, and I certainly 
love my R8. I know that many of their recent optics are among the world's 
best that money can buy for the 35mm film format. It gives a real 
comfortable feeling to own such "pieces of jewellery".

But somehow, I feel a bit disappointed...
Where is the roadmap for future R developments? The three things I would 
personally like to see within the first coming year are:
- - the R8 motordrive;
- - a high-speed wideangle zoom lens like an 19-35/2.8 ASPH (with an 
optical quality equal to the Leica fixed lenses of that range);
- - an upgrade to the R8 (that can be performed by an adjustment on 
existing bodies) so that the camera is capable of electronically-aided 
manual focusing. That should not be a major problem, given the fact that 
all current R lenses have a ROM contact strip. This would, at least for 
me, be enough not to make me envious of autofocus capability.

And as I am hearing from an undisclosed source about serious internal 
problems at Leica Solms, coupled with substantial operating losses, we 
might expect something to happen in the not too-far-off future. I guess 
we might see Kyocera stepping in, and a scenario =E0 la Contax. It's not 
something I would hope for, as I rather like the fact that Leica is still 
European-owned, and would hate to pay those steep prices for something 
that is Japanese. But on the other hand, it might bring us closer to the 
day when the R will have some form of electronically-aided manual 
focusing or even full autofocus (although this will be difficult without 
rendering our investments in R lenses obsolete, so Leica would have to go 
the Contax AX way).

And now, I put on my "flame-proof" vest and hide for a while...
;-)

Pascal
Belgium

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Who else than Leica could make a camera like the R8 ?
With that unique design and above all: that ergonomics.
Nikon ? Canon ? Nobody but Leica !
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