Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/10/04

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Subject: [Leica] Re: New Zeiss Ikon
From: bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)
Date: Mon Oct 4 07:38:20 2004

I'll definitely work on that, Karen. Although I realize that no one on
this list, in the back and forthing of email, ever makes mistakes in
what they write. God, how could I be so foolish. ;-)

As to the official history - I have enough corporate experience to know
that official histories often have little or nothing to do with reality.
A much more likely explanation for Nikon's dropping the RF line is that
they saw the writing on the wall that said 'rangefinders are the past,
SLRs are the future; don't waste your time on the past.' And what a wise
move it turned out to be.

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Karen Nakamura
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 10:29 AM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: RE: [Leica] Re: New Zeiss Ikon


>I was indeed thinking SP, Karen - and everyone else. The S3 was a 
>stripped down SP - the kind of entry level camera Leica should have 
>produced.....

BD : Err... OK then say what you mean and mean what you say. Sloppy 
thinking/writing doesn't behoove your argument.

BD said:
>  >Dream on, Mark. Feature for feature, capability for capability, M3 v

> >S3, the S3 - as a body - would win hands down. But this is one on 
> which
>

Even comparing the SP against the M3, the M3 has:

* Faster lens changing (the S/Contax bayonet is a pain)
* Availability of third party lenses
* Brighter finder / rangefinder
* Long optical  (69mm) and effective baselength (63.7mm)

The only advantage of the SP is the broader range of viewfinder 
frames possible.  Nothing that an accessory viewfinder couldn't fix.

There's a reason that Nikon dropped RF development after the SP (or 
SX) and went with SLRs. From the histories published in Japan, Nikon 
saw the writing on the wall: they could not compete with the M3.   So 
they went with the SLR which was a niche market, but had potential.

KN

-- 
Karen Nakamura
http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/
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Replies: Reply from red735i at earthlink.net (Frank Filippone) ([Leica] Re: New Zeiss Ikon)
In reply to: Message from mail at gpsy.com (Karen Nakamura) ([Leica] Re: New Zeiss Ikon)