[Leica] decline in LUG membership

[Thinkofcole at aol.com (Thinkofcole@aol.com)]

After a week-long business trip to New Jersey, a visit to  several camera 
stores and camera repair shops plus a visit to the  Second Sunday Camera 
Show in 
Wayne, N.J., I am convinced that not only LUG  membership is affected but 
almost every aspect of the camera business except  digital. Kodak's 
forthcoming 
departure from several key film businesses should  make this assessment even 
more certain. 
  I found a Korean-owned camera store in Ft. Lee, NJ, and an  American-owned 
camera store in Palisades Park, NJ  both closed. A  big, long-established 
American-owned camera store in Hackensack, NJ, is  moving to Englewood, NJ. 
Two 
Korean-owned camera repair shops are no longer  buying cameras for parts 
because 
of big inventory and no demand. A big, long  established American-owned 
camera stores in my new home of Asheville, North  Carolina, is cutting the 
size of 
its store in half. All of this suggests to me a  big upheaval in sales. 
  A local Walmart in Asheville no longer even offers one-hour  developing, 
probably because demand is too low. The main one-hour places in  Asheville 
now 
-- which often takes two hours --are the drug-store chains  and K-Mart. {Of 
course, Walmart stores in other cities still offer one-hour  service.]
  Kodak's end of 120 format will affect Rolleiflex and other 2x2 TTL  reflex 
cameras,  although there should be enough other brands around for a  few 
years. Its end of 135 -- other than Kodachrome -- will affect all 35mm  
cameras, 
although here again there should be other brands around for a long  while, 
basically Fuji. Kodak's end of sheet film will affect Speed Graphic,  Crown 
Graffic, Linhof and other classic sheet-film cameras. 
  Like 8mm Bolex cameras, many classic cameras will no longer bring  premium 
prices anywhere because no film will soon be available without a lot of  
trouble looking for it. 
  As for Leica, Nikon and a few other special situations, the vast  majority 
of the users are only the ones already in the market -- the  professionals, 
the collectors, the wealthy and a few handfuls of guys and gals  that 
absolutely 
love to own and use the best there is.
  On one hand, many camera dealers in some cities appear to be  willing to 
accept far less for older Leica cameras and lenses because they  are dead 
[or 
almost dead] stock. On the other hand, many Leica dealers are  still very 
active, suggesting that the market is still there. At the Second  Sunday 
Camera 
Show, I saw a suit-case-full of used Leicas and Leica copies for  sale and 
when I 
tried to get a look, a major buyer said that he had already  bought them all 
for a big Manhattan store. 
   What does it all mean? To me it means that except for digital  and except 
for a handful of major cities --like New York -- the camera business  is 
slow, 
very slow and in lots of places, no longer what it used to be. 
   As for professional photographers, my daughter  in Minneapolis, who 
occasionally models for local photographer friends,  told me that one 
professional 
photographer friend there has  lost business with at least one customer 
because 
the customer has been  buying stock photographs from a local company for far 
less money rather  than pay heavily for a whole crew to provide special 
stuff. 
  Unfortunately for buyers, except in the bigger cities, where prices  are 
more reasonable, private sellers are looking for double or triple current  
values and it will take at least a year or two for the word to trickle down 
--  if 
then -- that the market has shrunk considerably.  For sellers, I believe  
they 
will have to study carefully whether to stock up on this or that model. I  
hope I haven't offended anyone in what I've said. --bob  cole