Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/04/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Jim Brick wrote: >If Leica were to produce 100% perfect products, an ordinary M6 would cost $5000, as would a lens for it. To achieve 100% accuracy, each part would have to be engineered to far higher standards, and each and every piece of equipment would have to be individually exhaustively tested. It just cannot be done. There would be no Leica. Jim, I've just returned from the LHSA trip to Wetzlar and Solms. One of the things which Leica stressed during our factory tour was that every camera and every lens is individually tested before despatch. Our visit was on a Friday, and the production line was shut down, but the test department was hard at work on M6 bodies, and some lens testing was also going on. I don't know what US prices were like 40 years ago, but in Europe an M3 + 5cm Summicron cost as much as a small car, yet Leitz was almost overwhelmed with work - people were prepared to pay to get top quality even though the purchase of a second-hand M3 + Summicron could absorb half their annual earnings. Perhaps there is room for the price to rise if this will result in better quality and reliability - in the last eight months my M6 has spent more time at the Leica repair department than it has in my home! Today it's going back for its fourth repair in eight months. Regards, Doug Richardson than rather than the other way round. I'd rather have paid more for my M6 and had it