[Leica] 35-70/2.8 out of production ??? commercial point of view !!!

[Hans-Peter.Lammerich@t-online.de]

Price, weight and bulk in relation to its not so exciting zoom range 
and speed show that Leica’s design department could not do miracles. The 
market is limited and a limited production run to eliminate the risk of 
an unsold stock of lenses was a wise decision. 

However, I am curious how that project looks like from the commercial 
point of view. 300 lenses at a retail price of DM 4,750 (excl. VAT) give 
DM 1,450,000. Deduct the dealers’ margin, marketing, overheads etc. and 
you arrive at DM 1,000,000 (maximum). How that relates to the cost of 
engineering-months and computer time (DM 300,000?), special tools (DM 
100,000?) e.g. for the asphercial lens elements) and the unit manufacturing 
cost (DM 2,000/piece = DM 600,000)? When Leica designed the current 
4/35-70 they must have looked at alternative designs (e.g. a f=1:3.5), but a 
f=1:2.8 would have been quite far from that, certainly more than just 
an academic exercise, spending a couple of extra weeks at the computer. 

I remember an article about the Apo 2/180, saying that Leica marketed 
the lens without prototyping. They went from optical and mechanical 
design straight into production. Possibly I therefore grossly overestimate 
the cost of r&d and production start-up for a lens. 

Did Leica use idle capacity in its design and production departments at 
zero opportunity costs?
Was the 2.8/35-70 intended as a prestige project, irrespective of cost 
and market potential?
Will Leica keep tools, surplus materials and CAM data files for a 
second run to justify start-up costs? 
What would have been the retail price, if 3000 instead of only 300 had 
been made?
What is then the profit margin for the 4/35-70 or 3.5-4.5/28-70 which 
are made in thousands and are selling for DM 1,800 (excl. VAT)?

Hans-Peter