Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/08/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hello Dominigue, May I comment you on your outstanding post on Leica investing. You have great insight and wisdom, and I appreciate you sharing it with the members of the LUG. I too feel that the R9 will be a co-op venture with Minolta, despite the problems between the two companies in the recent past. The potential is too great for either company to ignore. In addition, I feel that a very successful M7 can be products in a very short period of time by simply putting a M6J view finder in the current M6TTL. And maybe adding DX-codeing for the film. This product could be announced immediately and be in distributors hands in time for the Christmas season. My fear is that Herr Cohn will not act quickly enough. I am quite certain that Konica has the much anticipated AF rangefinder, that uses the Leica M mount, ready to go. Failure to meet this challange could be costly to Leica. The other opportunity I see for Leica is a Medium format camera. This is a rapidly growing market where Leica could capture a significant share of the market. It could sell the body and lenses and make an adapter for the R lenses to fit on the Medium format body...thus making it easier for current R owners to make the transition the Meduim format body. I agree that the R8 is dead. The problem seems to be that Leica has a substantial inventory (5,000 units the last time I heard) of unsold R8 bodies. The current selling price for R8s in the US is about $1,495 (USD). Leica has many problems, but I am confident that Herr Cohn has the ability to meet these challenges and turn the company around. Maybe I should go to work for Herr Cohn as a consultant and take my fee in Leica stock. Kind regards, Bill Erfurth m6rf@yahoo.com _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com