Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/12/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Finally, I would like to conclude my message with an additional idea for an "economy Leica M". There are many M users who own only one lens, usually a 35mm or a 50mm. There are many M users who use two, three or more bodies with a particular lens being permanently attached to each body. So there should be a market for a Leica M with a fixed lens and a potential for substantial savings in production cost: no frame selector, simplified finder and frames, preferably with magnification being optimised for the fixed lens installed, no cost for lens and body bayonet rangefinder, center and focus adjustment could be done in one step and with higher tolerances, instead of two steps for body and lens separately and with tighter tolerances, focal plane shutter could be replaced by an aperture plane shutter (from the shelf, mass produced, cheap, low noise, 1/500" flash synch, plenty of space in the body for electronics, integrated winder etc., if you really want that) In principle Leica should be able to produce the "fixed lens M" at the cost of the respective interchangeable lens (or slightly above that). What do you think about this? Hans-Peter