[Leica] Country of Origin

[LEICAMAN56@aol.com]

In the past few years, more production has been shifted back to Portugal from 
Solms.  R8 production has been shifted there entirely.  Of course many parts 
of the M & R cameras are manufactured by subcontractors.  For instance, the 
die-cast chassis of the M is made by a subcontractor in Switzerland.  The 
circuit board is subbed out.  The screws and shutter curtains are subbed out. 
 The top plates for the black paint cameras were all individually milled out 
on a CNC machine!  The normal top plates out of cast zinc are subbed out.  
The rangefinder is assembled in Portugal.  The chassis with shutter curtains, 
rangefinder, bare body shell and shutter mechanicals are shipped from 
Portugal to Solms.  At Solms, in the "Montage," the IC is installed, lens 
flange installed, hot shoe installed in the top plate along with the 
"windows," body covering, all the exterior controls, wind lever, rewind 
lever, etc., and numerous checks, adjustments and re-checks are performed.  
The cameras are even baked in an oven for six hours and then re-checked.  
This work is painstaking and very precise.  The pre-assembly work done in 
Portugal is a crucial ingredient in the work flow.  Approximately 50 cameras 
a day are produced.
I was the guest of Leica AG at Solms in September before Photokina and given 
free rein in the factory.  I was invited into the "Montage" (assembly) for 
the M6 to document the assembly of the LHSA black paint cameras.  I took 
copious photos of the assembly and I am preparing a future article for the 
LHSA Viewfinder on this.  I had to wear a special anti-static Leica smock 
(no, I couldn't keep it) while in the Montage.  Each step and procedure was 
explained to me in rapid fire German.  The camera being worked on is signed 
off on a card by that worker at each step of the assembly.  Very thorough and 
impressive.  After an hour and a half, my left? (language center) brain was 
about fried.
I am indebted to Stefan Daniel for a truly memorable day, as visitors are 
generally confined to observation from behind a glass wall in the hallway.
Given the amount of testing, checking and re-checking done to each camera, I 
cannot explain the amount of problems attested to by LUGgers and others about 
Leica QC.  If you could see it in practice, you would understand how very 
hard it would be for problems to escape the factory.  Leica workers are only 
human and humans do make mistakes.  I would venture to say that most of the 
problems can be attributed to mishandling during shipping once the camera 
leaves the factory.  Or to certain cost cutting measures (plastic frame 
counter discs) designed to cut a few pfennigs from the cost of the camera.

Bill Rosauer