RE: [Leica] New Cosina Voigtlander lenses

[Jeremy Kime <jeremy.kime@bbc.co.uk>]

John,
I think the question of balancing expense with ability ("what they can
really achieve") is something that Leica have faced for many years, indeed
more or less since they made interchangeable lenses.
Since then (the mid thirties) Leica users have been able to choose between
saving for a Leitz lens or being able to afford maybe a couple of others
instead, or alternatively buying another lens without waiting for so long.

So this is not a new phenomenon, rather it is one that has been ressurected
through the resurgence of new designs and recent manufacture in Leica-fit
mounts. Up until recently (1996?) the last Leica-fit lenses (apart from the
Minolta CL/CLE venture) were made in 1968 by Canon. The further exception to
this being the Soviet lenses (manufactured after '68 and until recently)
which excluded themselves from most Leica users as being either a.)
politically incorrect, or b.) just too cheap to be considered, or c.) so
elderly in design as to be ignored.

So I think it exciting that there is new development in the lens industry
for Leica-fit lenses which must be a very small market to develop. It is
this inherent fact that is difficult to reconcile, why should companies
spend so much developing lenses for a photographer base which is unlikely to
want products less than the very best?! I find myself drawn to such
questions...
It is also well known that you cannot emulate a Rolls Royce, it stands
alone. However "there's nowt so queer as folk" and what they'll do to turn a
silk purse into a sow's ear. Each to their own I suppose.

Jem

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	John Hudson [SMTP:jahudson@direct.ca]
> Not being, and not likely to be, a user of these third party lenses am I
> right in suspecting that the real things are getting just too expensive
> for
> what they can really achieve and that there is now the start of a price
> versus the "prestige of having the real thing" trade off?
> 
> jh
> 
>