Re: [Leica] word on the street - changes to MP already!

["Seth Rosner" <sethrosner@direcway.com>]

All of this stuff about M features and what should and shouldn't be on the
new M10 - oh no, that's a tank - prompts me to describe a letter I wrote to
Herr Cohn a few years ago, shortly after he became Leica CEO.

As I may have mentioned here, I've been a business lawyer for over 45 years
and in the process have worked with some very fine, imaginative and
enterprenurial corporate executives.

I suggested to Herr Cohn that Leica consider offering buyers the opportunity
to order M6 cameras with whatever features the customer wished, i.e.,
classic or TTL, 0.58, 0.72, or 0.85 viewfinders, black or silver finish,
meter or meterless and pay only for the features they order.

Inasmuch as a major cost of any manufactured item, especially one with a
relatively small production run, is tooling, all of which Leica already had,
and since we are not talking about an item of which millions are made each
year, I did not believe it would add enormously to cost to set up the
production line in such a way that Leica factory workers could build a
camera to order.

Apart from being hugely satisfying to the Leica user, this would have had
the additional benefit of reducing on-hand inventory in the hands of the
factory, the distributors and the dealers.

Helas! I never had a response from the gentleman.

Seth              LaK 9

- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Shulman" <garcia@chesco.com>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2003 11:55 PM
Subject: RE: [Leica] word on the street - changes to MP already!


> Usefulness really isn't the basis for the new MP: it's nostalgia for the
> first generation of M cameras.  The rewind knob, all-metal wind lever,
> and small shutter speed dial are all cute affectations designed for
> those of us who are still nuts about the 1954 M3 and its immediate
> successors.  After all, if Leica had just wanted to offer a manual M
> camera, it would have been much easier to have stuck with the M7 body
> and simply gone without AE, returning to the TTL-type manual shutter
> arrangement of the last M6 cameras (and likely at a lower price than the
> standard M7--though perhaps that niche has been satisfied with the Bessa
> R2?)The new MP shutter speed dial is just perfect as it is--consistent
> with the rest of the camera's 1950s appearance. My only quibble with the
> MP is that it should really have traditional vulcanite (as the limited
> edition Japanese version does!)
>
> If a photographer wants a Leica with useful modern features and great
> build quality, with the bigger shutter speed dial that matches the R's
> rotation, rewind crank, plastic-tipped wind lever, and option for AE or
> manual exposure, there's the M7.  With the MP, you pay a little more
> money for fewer useful features.  On the other hand, the MP is the
> closest thing we have to a classic all-mechanical Leica with a BTL meter
> and modern viewfinder.  They're both incredibly nice cameras, but from
> two distinctly different approaches.
>
> My question to Leica remains: now that you made a great retro camera
> just right, why screw it up?  If the MP doesn't sell, just get rid of it
> and introduce something else, perhaps an all-manual M7, or even a
> meterless M camera.
>
> Jim Shulman
> Bryn Mawr, PA
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Mark
> Rabiner
> Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2003 11:01 PM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] word on the street - changes to MP already!
>
> Jim Shulman wrote:
> >
> > Doesn't sound right to me--Leica obviously went to a great deal of
> > trouble creating an M2/3-manque camera with modern viewfinder and
> meter.
> > Why would they want to spoil the effect with the wrong shutter speed
> > dial--one of the very elements that gives the camera its charm?  If
> they
> > were to do that, I think they'd have a lot of unsold $2600 cameras in
> > the warehouse.
> >
> > J
> >
> Which are the elements which give the MP it's charm and which are the
> elements which take away from it's functionality.
> Some mileages differ. I happen to like the bigger knob turning the same
> direction as the R series and I have serious reservations about the
> rewind mechanism. The point though is which features get deemed good and
> bad, stays and goes, we hope by it's usefulness. Not cuteness
>
>
>
> Mark Rabiner
> Portland, Oregon USA
> http://www.rabinergroup.com
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