[Leica] country of manufacture (sorry, long rant)

["Emanuel Lowi" <mano@proxyma.net>]

John S. & Erwin P.:

Sorry we'll disagree on this one.

I  think culture remains very important, even in this homogenized and globalized
world. Things haven't changed as much as our material world might suggest.

The Portuguese Leica worker may be very well-trained and supervised by Germans sent
from Solms. Once out the factory door he/she lives in an entirely different world,
with different values than those which shaped Leica in days of yore. As I mentioned,
the Portuguese are renowned for a number of world-class products which I buy and
enjoy with gusto. None of them are precision technological devices and I wouldn't
want the Portuguese to be wrenched out of being who they are in exchange for a
paycheque with a red dot on it. People are organic products of the place where
they're born and raised. We are not interchangeable parts in a global machine.

By the way, I'd rather tour Portugal than Germany any day, partly because of the
people who inhabit those lands. But buying a camera is no holiday trip.

Frankly, I would not buy a car with a Japanese manufacturer's name on it but made in
the USA by Bud-swilling Superbowl-hollering Yanks who've grown up in a society that
emphasizes get-away-with-whatever and punch-the-clock but no more, instead of car
made by real Japanese workers steeped in a culture of lifetime responsibility and a
work ethic that pervades their society.

If I wanted to buy a firearm, sure I'd buy American, as the product clearly speaks to
something deep within the worker's upbringing.

I know when I buy a Canadian-made hockey stick, the guy who made it grew up since
childhood with a clear sense of what a hockey stick is, used one since childhood, and
lives next door to people who use them every day. He may even still own a few too.
Not so the Portuguese Leica worker, I suspect (rangefinder cameras, not hockey
sticks, in this case). At one time, one could say that a German would have grown up
with a clear sense of his country's pride of place in the world of optics. Perhaps
this era is over and I think Leica's realities reflect this, and not for the better.

There are beers made in Canada using duplicates of the Belgian methods. Same yeast
and everything. We have nice clean water here too. Sorry, I'll have a Duvel please. 

Interesting that some of the parts that Bill R. reveals are subcontracted are exactly
the things that have given users and repair people problems. The circuitry and RF
hassles have been documented here before. I myself have noticed a decline in shutter
performance in extreme climates - I have found that new M6 bodies perform unreliably
in the cold temperatures where I often work, while older M cameras are very reliable.
I queried Erwin about this some time ago and he told me that the mechanisms are the
same but the curtain material was actually changed a few years ago. I wonder whether
this and the other changes were design improvements or changes made by or for the
convenience of the subcontractors.

My attachment to tradition is not zenophobia, Erwin, although it may be old-fashioned
- - a description I always take as a compliment. 

Emanuel Lowi
Montreal