[Leica] Re: AF R Series?

[Bill Erfurth <m6rf@yahoo.com>]

Hello Shawn and others,

I eagerly anticipate the arrival of the new CEO at Leica Camera.  As I
understand it, he has a solid background in finance (bean counting).

As such, he will probably move Leica in the direction of the companies
basic strengths which are #1 it's lenses and #2 the rangefinder body.

So what's going to happen?  I would not be surprised to see Leica form
some type of an alliance with a third party lens manufacture (Sigma or
Tokina) and start producing Leica AF lenses for Nikon, Canon , and
Minolta cameras. This would be an extremely logical move since Leica
has the glass technology and the name recognition, and the third party
lens manufacture has the AF technology already in place.

Second, I would look for the new CEO to "Fast-track" the introduction
and production of a new M body which has auto-exposure, DX film
coding, a better frame line system, etc.  The problem here is that if
Leica doesn't do it, and do it fast, some other company will and Leica
will be in the position of playing catch-up again.

Third, I think Leica will continue to increase it's share of the
Point-and-Shoot market and pull back from the digital market.  Here
again, P&S is where the money is right now...and digital is still a toy.

As for an AF R System, I think that if Leica wants to compete in the
pro SLR market they have to come up with a product that will compete
with the Nikon F5 which is clearly the industries technology leader. 
And that will require a totally new body and lens system.  A project
like that is a few years away.

So, archive this, come back in a year and re-read it and see how well
my crystal ball is working.

Regards,

Bill
   
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