Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/08/14

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Subject: [Leica] Mail
From: Bill Erfurth <m6rf@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Aug 1999 18:18:04 -0700 (PDT)

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




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