Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/09/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]B. D. Colen wrote: > Emanuel says.. > "The old era of Zeiss - Leitz rivalry was a heady time > for 35mm design," and asks... > > "Now, in these days, how will Leica respond?" > > --- > As they, sadly, always have ... With too little, too late, and at too > high a price. > > These are not the heady days of the Zeiss/Leitz competition - which, if > we recall, were actually the days of the Zeiss/Leitz/Nikon competition. > ;-) > > These are the days of the Zeiss/Kyocera/Cosina/Hassie consortium moving > in to clean up the remaining scraps from the rangefinder table - scraps > that could have been Leicas had Leica moved 18 months ago, or even > further back, when the Cosina handwriting was writ large upon the wall. > I have a different take. For one, I am a whole lot more comfortable investing more $$$ in new glass knowing that there are now 3-4 companies in the M space. I think it will make the M stronger, and prevent it from being relegated to a legacy product -- recall that Ted Grant has been heard to muse about selling his Leicas for some new digital gear. Having these companies in this space means that there will be some competition. For me, this means we are a whole lot more likely to get a reasonable quality digital M as well as a bunch of new glass. The 15 Distagon really looks like an interesting digital lens ... yes assuming it can be had for a reasonable price, but why not? Jonathan